Today was another amazing day - beginning cooler than the previous three, ending hotter! In between we were blessed to visit the Mount of Olives, the Chapel on that hill called Dominus Flevit (literally "The Lord Wept"), the Cave and Garden of Gethsemane, and, in the afternoon, the Western (Wailing) Wall, and St. Peter Gallicantu (St. Peter and the Rooster).

The view from the Mount of Olives is always impressive - its where all the traditional pictures of the Old City are taken from - and it marked the beginning of our journey along the first part of the Palm Sunday route. Jesus had left his friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, in Bethany, on the eastern slopes of the Mount, and journeyed down the hill, across the Kidron Valley, and through the Golden Gate - to be used only by the coming King - into Jerusalem.

We did a part of that journey. And on the way we stopped Dominus Flevit - where Jesus wept over Jerusalem,

and then at the Cave of Gethsemane - the place Jesus actually spent his last night of freedom - and then went the fifty yards ("a stone's throw" the gospels say) to the Garden where he was most likely arrested.














It was a profound experience. We read passages from the gospels and prayed as we journeyed, getting closer and closer to a sense of Jesus' presence with us as we did so.









In the afternoon we visited the Western (wailing) Wall. Since today is Shabbat (Sabbath) there was almost no one there. It was an opportunity to pray, and to leave prayers in the cracks between the enormous blocks that made up the wall.














Finally we went to St. Peter Gallicantu, so called because it commemorates Peter's triple denial of Jesus "Before the Cock crows".
This site is claimed to be the site of the High Priest Caiaphas' house, and there is much archaeological evidence to this claim, including holding cells, and a punishment station beneath what was a large residence.

We have been learning that "religious sites move" to accommodate a large number of pilgrims, so its always a wonderful moment when we realize we are really standing on a genuine place identified in the gospels!

Tomorrow we head for Nazareth. At last report there is no Internet access, so this will be the last post for a couple of days.