With my sunburned body, and nasty lips we left the hotel before the crack of dawn (3:15 am), hopped on a bus and made our way to the airport.
After an hour plane ride we landed in Israel about 11:00 am. We met up with our tour guide and hit the ground running. We only had 8 hours to see Israel!
We first stopped at a place where the landscape is very unique. Because of the geography one side of the hill is tropical and plush and the other side is pure desert. The far mountains in this picture are African mountains.
Our next stop was to drop by the Israel BYU center. It was Sunday so nothing was open, but it was fun just to drop by and see it.
We then made our way to Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was supposedly crucified. The building was beautiful and everything was done with such detail. A couple different Christian religions own each part of the building. They all had a little shrine where people were praying and chanting. I was a little taken back by the atmosphere. If this was really where Jesus was crucified I was shocked at the lack of reverence. But, the Latter Day Saints believe that Jesus was actually crucified and buried in a completely different place. Trevor and I want to go back some day with an LDS tour guide. It would be so incredible to see Israel from that point of view.
After the Holy Sepulcher we went to the Mount of Olives. The trees were incredible! Our tour guide said that the outside bark very well could have witnessed the days of Jesus. What happens is even though the bark might die the roots are eternal and new branches grow through the old tree.
After those sights we took a tour of what they call “The Old City’. The city is divided up into 4 quarters. A section owned by the Jews, a section owned by the Christians, a section owned by the Muslims, and a small section owned by the Armenians.
Each section had its own look and feel and it was fun to just walk around the city and see the ruins. The city is actually built on top of the city from ancient times. So in some places archeologist have dug into the ground, not to find dirt, but to find ruins of a city.
In the Jewish quarter we saw the Wailing Wall, which is where the Jews believe that directly underneath it is the wall of Solomon’s temple. It is a place of worship for them. They write notes and stick them in the wall so that their prayers will reach heaven.
After seeing Jerusalem we took a bus ride to the Dead Sea. Trevor and I were debating if we were going to get in the water or not because we didn’t want to ride back on the airplane all stinky and wet, but we did and I am SO glad! The water was so dense that we didn’t have to swim or tread water. All we did was sit down and we floated. It was so cool! We took the mud and rubbed it all over our bodies. The water and mud has a lot of minerals in it so it is supposed to be great for your skin and health. I believe it. My skin was so silky smooth afterwards. Trevor bought some Dead Sea skin care product for me. It has magically made all my acne scars, wrinkles, and sunspots disappear!!!! Ha, kidding…I only wish it made your skin flawless.
(not the greatest picture, but that is us out there floating away)
(not us, but you get the idea of the mud bath)
Our last adventure was eating dinner at where the Dead Sea scrolls where found.
After a full day we made our way back to the airport. We arrived back at our hotel room at 2 am.
