New Jerusalem

Kristi and I are sitting in a Café in the new section of downtown Jerusalem. We just got our bags packed and are on the cusp of checking out of the Anglican Guest House in the Old City. The fact that we only have three days left is close in our minds. Today we will hop a bus to Elat and then see about transport to Cairo. The bus times from the border are unpredictable but it’s about a seven hour ride.

It’s beautiful here. The air is crisp and cool, the surroundings green with floral touches everywhere. Last night we did the walk from the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. The hill was covered with knarled olive trees and a few landscaped gardens with histories we couldn’t ascertain. On the way down we passed a group of Arab boys playing on an old stone wall. They stopped long enough to give us some fresh picked fuzzy olives. By the time we actually arrived at Gethsemane the sun had set, the city transformed from day to night lights and the garden was closed. With a little disappointment we wandered up a walled road between two church compounds that bled into a huge Jewish cemetery. We stood there on the side of the hill, looking across the small valley to the Dome of the Rock, Al Aqsa mosque, the Golden Gate, and the Temple Mount. As I said: beautiful.