The City of David

Today was a great day. The morning was the City of David while the afternoon was the Via Delarosa or the Walk of Christ to the Cross.
The picture to the left is of Stephen standing in front of the entrance to the city where David once ruled. (The unsightly bare legs are in preparation for walking through Hezekiah's water tunnel.) Sharon is standing in front of the harp, symbol of this city. One thing I had never seen before was a 30 foot deep shaft down to a water cistern. This would have been just like the one the Prophet Jeremiah was placed at various times in his ministry. We saw a 3D movie about Jerusalem, toured the sight, descended down through the water shaft and then the group divided into two. Sharon and most went through the dry Canaanite tunnel while Stephen and 8 others braved Hezekiah's water tunnel for 30 minutes.
After lunch at a kibbutz, we spent the afternoon in the northern part of the old city, walking the Via Delarosa, the way of suffering. We had been this way before but what was different was the presence of the Jewish police throughout the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem. I took some pictures from the bus window to show you their presence. No one seemed too tense and nothing happened that I know of today. The dedication service of the rebuilt synogoge in the Jewish Quarter is tomorrow. We will be out of the city and down around the Dead Sea area. The weather has been unusually warm for this time of the year but that is about to come to an end! The temperature is dropping and while is was over 100 today at the Dead Sea we are hoping for 75F tomorrow. The time for our tour ending is appearing on the horizon. But we still have 3 great days left.