The BEST Day Yet!

Today’s physical settings trip was incredible. I don’t think I have had a more fun day in Jerusalem yet. We were gone all day; we left at 7 a.m. and got back at 6 p.m. This was the first of our tour bus classes. We would take the bus from site to site, and then do our hiking and walking at the area we had stopped, then move on to the next. This week’s class was pertaining to the approaches of Jerusalem. We went and saw Jerusalem and some of the immediate sights around from the North, South, East, and little from the West.

Some of the sights we went to today were the Mt. of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations, Herod’s Palace in the Hills South of Jerusalem (Herodium), Bethlehem, The Church of the Nativity, The Tear-Drop Church were Jesus cried over Jerusalem, an ancient 1st century threshing floor, Absalom’s (sp) Pillar, and King Hezekiah’s tomb. Among all of these sights, we saw many views of the country-side, and the surround hills of Jerusalem. Many times we would stop and see what we could identify from the city. The Dome of the Rock was always and easy identification to find our bearings.

My favorite place that I visited today was definitely the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of all Nations. This was by far my favorite church that I have seen yet. The inside was vey dark, for the windows were made of dark blue and purple alabaster glass. Also, the entire ceilings were mosaic, and each of the pillars was highly decorated. This church was more beautiful than any I had seen prior to today, but there was an unusual simplicity about it. I got to pause, and read each of the gospels’ account of Jesus in the garden before his arrest in the church. It was definitely a great time and a special site.

The place that stood out to me the most was Heord’s Palace in the hills just south of Jerusalem. This place was called the Herodium, and is located right on the edge of the hill country and the wilderness. From the top, I could see Bethlehem, Tekoa, Jerusalem, and a bit of the Dead Sea. Essentially, the Herodium is a natural hill that was built up even higher by King Herod so that his palace could be higher than anything else around. The hill was absolutely amazing. I could not imagine seeing the Palace on top of the hill when it was built. The views from the Herodium were incredible. We had a complete 360 degree view of the entire land. I took so many pictures from the top of that thing. Also, we went down and explored inside the old palace remains a bit. We had a bunch of fun around the site climb and crawling on the walls, pillars, and old caves.

Today was a day of exploration. We got to many sites and our teacher told us we had 15 minutes to go explore. Knowing a group of 15 college guys, we had a lot of fun. Every little nook and cave we found. Many times we climbed over gates, up walls, and through crawl spaces to see everything. It was a lot of fun. We do just enough exploring were it is really fun, yet still completely safe and within the “rules.”

I really liked today because everything that we talked about and saw was completely new for me. Also, being able to get tired, and then sit on a bus, regain our energy, and do it all again at another place was nice. Tomorrow, again, we have a big day. We are going on a 12 hour hike deep in the hill country. We are going up this large mountain, through waterfalls, and swimming through rivers to get to the top. It should be a lot of fun. It is crazy here. This place doesn’t even feel like school. Well, ok it does; Greek is owning me, but it’s a lot more adventurous than school. Once again, I’ll confirm it; I’m glad that I am here, and it is definitely a once in a life-time opportunity.