after getting back from galilee, we came to the BRUtal realization that the summer was almost over.
we don't like to talk about it much.
so it's crunch time!
in other terms, we are all suffering from a serious case of jclds... jerusalem center last-days-syndrome. and i don't think there is a cure.
our first free day back, we decided to go to ein karem. we had tried to plan this like three other times, and it never worked out. but we were determined to make it happen. unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of information on how to get there. so, i knew what we were doing when we got there... but i'm not sure how happy dan was with my answer to his question of "so, you know how to get there?" ummm yeah! vaguely.
but get us there i did.
and i made friends on the bus.
we got super lost, ended up in some russian church area (which we did actually want to see, we just didn't know that at the beginning), and then finally made it to the city of ein karem. we just managed to take a little detour in getting there first.
look at the little green picture.
it tells you how to get a concussion.
that's ein karem.
we wanted to get over there...
but we were stuck over here.
hmmmm...
problem!
so we finally figured out the name of the russian-golden-dome-complex that we got completely lost in.
we came all the way to ein karem... the birthplace of john the baptist... to see
wooley mammoths?
the church of the visitation
we barely made it on time to get into the church of st. john... but the nice old monk finally took pity on us and let us run inside and see it... hallelujah!
this was a stone cave... which, like the church of the nativity in bethlehem, is the traditional site of the birth of john the baptist.
a painting of the baptism of jesus christ
look familiar?
after ein karem, we went to the israel museum... we had four pages of items that we had to find. i usually hit my museum limit after about 2 hours... so by the end of 3 hours, i was loopy... by the end of 4 - i just wanted to sit down on the ground and go to sleep. just carry me home mommy.
i still don't know the purpose of this giant apple core.
but it's cool anyway.
and you gotta have pics with cool things.
the next day was a field trip day! woohoo! (but man oh man... it is getting hot outside!) we have this new plan: huddle in the shade, walk out into the blazing hot sun to take pictures, go back into the shade and listen to the amazing brother mulestein enlighten our understandings.
we went to the burnt house (a house that belonged to a sadduceean priestly family right before the destruction of the 2nd temple in 70 ad)
herodian ashlars. just so you can get a sense of the size of these babies.
the double gate of the temple. according to jewish law, you would go in the triple gate and out the double gate, except in times of mourning, when you would go the opposite direction.
a miqva.
(a ritual cleansing pool)
the unclean people would go down on the right hand side, and wash themselves, and then come up the left hand side. notice which side i'm on?
;)
this is rubble from when the roman soldiers destroyed the temple walls.
most of it was removed, but the excavators left some of it so that we could see what it looked like before.
this was the stone where the trumpeter would have stood.
it is also possibly the "pinnacle of the temple" to which jesus was taken and told to throw himself down onto the street below.
we all fall down!
i think i'm doing some kind of thriller or lady gaga impersonation.
ariel and i casting the sellers out of the temple.
they look pretty terrified huh?
we are pretty scary.
today, it got to 39 degrees. that's in celcius. basically, anything around 40 is do-not-leave-the-house-because-you-will-melt-like-a-wax-candle-weather... you wanna know what that is in fahrenheit? that's 102 DEGREES! and guess what's even more exciting - we get go to MASADA tomorrow.
talk about wrath of hades.
it's gonna be hottt.
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