Our last day in Israel

Our friend who sells ancient coins by the door to our hotel was back this morning, and several from our group made purchases from him.  Carol  traded a bottle of Tylenol to him for a widow's mite.  She was proud of her barter/purchase until we pointed out to her that the transaction qualified her as a drug dealer.

Later we stopped at an area called the Garden Tomb.  There was a man hawking his wares at the entrance and Joyce (R) decided she wanted to make a purchase, but had left her money on the bus.  Helpful Carol offered to lend Joyce the $4 she needed.  We informed her that at that point she had become a money-changer in addition to her drug-dealer status!

Barry told us we has a busy day...or two days...ahead of us.  It is difficult to determine when one day ends and another one starts when you go through a major time-change like we will.  He finally said, "It will be a long time until you see a bed again."  Rather depressing.

Nevertheless we stopped first at the Garden Tomb, which is a lovely garden with a view of a hillside that might have been "the place is the skull", and an example of a tomb, but probably not the area where Jesus was crucified and buried.

We visited the site of the Church of Peter Gallicantu, which had a scenic lookout nearby that gave us another birds-eye view over Jerusalem.  

The site itself is supposed to be the area where Peter denied Jesus, and the house of Caiphas.  

An ancient church was built on the site, and we were able to walk far down in the cave area where there was a small prison room.  It is possible Jesus was taken there as a holding place while at the house of Caiphas.  Once we were in the dungeon area, Adam (KB) read to us from Psalm 88.  

We viewed the steps from Bible times that led from this site down into the city, which were possibly taken by Jesus on the night He was betrayed.

At the Israel Museum we had time to view the Model of the city of Jerusalem and locate all of the places we had visited.

We viewed a replica of the Isaiah scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and two of the jars the scrolls were found in.  (Remember, we had already seen one of the jars when we were In Bethlehem.)

While at the museum we took a lunch break and then toured the museum itself.  The museum is very spacious and the items have good explantations.  This is the altar from Beersheba.  We had seen a replica of it when we visited Beersheba yesterday...but this was the real one.

From the area of these museums we had a good view of the Israel Kenesset building where the Isaeli elected representatives work.  Gus said he didn't think the did much work.  Similar to the work being done in the US Capitol, I guess. 

We left Jerusalem about 3:30 to head to Joppa and eventually Tel Aviv.  We stopped at Joppa, of Jonah fame, and also the site of Peter's vision.  From Joppa there was a nice late-afternoon view of modern Tel Aviv.

We are headed to our final meal together...at a restaurant on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  We have made a full circle.  Back to Tel Aviv and headed home.  What a wonderful trip we have had,  so many new friends...so many memories. 

If I find a Wi-fi connection before we board the plane, I plan to post this.  If you are seeing it as a belated post, you can know I was unable to find a connection.  Regardless, I plan to make one final trip post once I get home, so there will be one more final post.  Give me a day or two to get adjusted to the time on the other side of the world, though.