Welcome Katie! Old City, City of David, Mt. of Olives

Katie landed Thursday midday. We had a quick lunch and headed out to scope out the city, ending up at the top of the Mt. of Olives for sunset:

The next morning, we took a tour of the Old City, hiked through Hezekiah's Tunnel (a secret water tunnel built in 700 BCE while the city was under siege, virtual tour here), and toured a few sites on the Mt. of Olives on our own.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher (containing the site of the crucifixion and a/the tomb of Jesus):

The tomb:

These people are making holy water by pouring water on a slab where, legend has it, Jesus was laid out after the crucifixion. Then they mop up the water with a sponge and squeeze it into a bottle.

 Crusader crosses, carved into the stone by real, live crusaders:

View of the Silwan village from the City of David:

 Entering Hezekiah's tunnel:

This picture is taken about midway through the 500 meter tunnel. You can't tell because of the flash photography, but there is no lighting in the tunnel and we are standing in about 8 inches of water. What you also can't see is that for most of its length it is not so tall, and we were hunched quite a bit on the way through (this happens to be a tall portion). You can see how deep it was at its deepest by the water line on my shorts.

Checking out one of the tombs of the prophets (carved out of solid stone into the hillside):

View of the various churches on the Mt. of Olives:

This is one of eight olive trees in the Garden of Gesthemane, where Jesus prayed on the night he was arrested. Tradition has it these eight olive trees witnessed his prayers. This one is feeling its age; it's propped up by some stones.

Lamps in the Gesthemane Grotto which boasts the tomb of the Virgin Mary:

View of the Western Wall:

This is not something you see every day at the Wailing Wall:

Yum! Katie's first falafel in Israel:

Gan HaPa'amon, one of Jerusalem's largest public parks, is in purple bloom:

 Katie eating a giant chocolate 5 shekel coin:

A Jerusalem cat making himself useful:

 Baby goat at the small school-run farm down the street from our apartment: