Leaving Palestine

Today we left Bethlehem for Jerusalem. We had to go through the check point to get out. The wall on the "other" side has no graffiti like the Bethlehem side. We started out by visiting The Mount of Olives. The view of jerusalem from there is incredible. Dwn the hill was The Garden of Gethsemane after over viewing the city looking across the Kidron Valley. the olive trees are so very old and gnarly. Seeing them and knowing how old they have to be before they produce olives, gives greater understanding of the frustration of the people of bethelehem for losing their trees because of the wall. There is evere so much more green here and it is only 6 miles away. We entered Jerusalem through the lion's gate..one of 7 gates. We walked along the via Delarosa as it began to rain and get bone chilling cold. Along the way we stopped at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After winding our way though some of the markets, we came to the western wall also known as the wailing wall. The wall separates into a men and women's side and we all went to the wall to pray. Our hotel is the Gloria----much to Gloria's delight!--- and is at the Jaffa Gate. It is a gate I remember from the last time we were here and one which I really liked both then and now. Tomorrow we leave early to head toward the Dead Sea and then up to the Sea of galilee. It is hard to imagine that we are coming to the end of or trip.