Maiersdorf Faculty Club Hotel Jerusalem

... few pictures and ask the questions I need for my fact sheet. The reason why I support them is that they help people irrespective of confession. Every year they provide shelter for unmarried pregnant muslim women, whose life is of course severely dangered because of the barbaric aspects of that religion I found myself not writing about sufficiently.
Then I head back for Jerusalem and meet Ella again. I tell her some of my stories and she agrees with me. Her government is terrible.

... are common. However when I rocked up at the Taba land border crossing I was one of five people making their way over. It was kind of strange that they were so few people, but I was thankful. I was already forewarned that I could be grilled at passport control and the slightest mistake in saying the wrong thing could result in a two to five hour questioning, many a traveller told me their Israel border ...

... a nice collection of red trees and blue rocks…! I did try to remind him to take a rest sometime, until he told me that I sounded like his mother…

There has been the usual coming and going of people – giving my stay here a nice flow, always changing. This place has some kind of magic about it which makes it feel as though whoever is currently staying here has been here forever. Through all of these greeting and farewells, I am extremely glad that Megumi has ...

... short visit.
We head off and my cousin notices her brother (my other cousin) driving in front of us....haven't seen him in 8 years either. "Hey hey, how's it goin? pop by for a visit" "O.k ok will do" Never happened but it was nice to see him.
The next day I meet up with another cousin of mine, Taly. She picks me up and takes me to her apartment. We catch up, I make her laugh with funny India stories. She has two cute daughters.
We all decide to go to the mall and we go to some ...

... advertise (very lightly) their pay tours. The tour was very very informative and lasted about 3 hours. Our tour guide was Yael, and she has her masters in Middle Eastern history so she knew her stuff, but also was very....bubbly...so she made it fun too. The tours start from Jaffa Gate at 11:00am and 2:30pm pretty much every day. They are run by New Europe Tours and I highly suggest trying to find them. Oh, and apparently they do this in cities ...

... of the sanctity of the place. Tour groups aside, we were engulfed in emotion. And of course, we left our little slips of paper in a crack in the wall, expressing our own unspoken messages to God. The Kotel remains as the prime focus of our trip to Israel and to Jerusalem, in particular. Memories of our time here need no pictures to remind us of what we had experienced here, for these are memories etched into our brains.

With these impressions fresh in our minds, we ...

... and singers descended the stairs and treated us to a great concert, a mix of 17th century songs, Latin, Jewish, traditional and modern Israeli, and Western songs (from Zorba the Greek to the Beatles) in lovely arrangements. (As it turns out, Israeli audiences applaud in unison after a short while.)

We climbed the steep hill to the very top for our second concert, again passing time with refreshments and a beautiful ...

... least I believe it was vespers) in Sts. James Cathedral. There were a lot of clergy and acolytes moving in and out. The liturgy was beautiful, all chanted by the monks and seminarians in armenian. There was lots of incense and beautiful vestments. It was reverent, prayerful, and offered me a moment of sweet prayer in the day. Not long afterwars, I joined him in his apartment for coffee and cake. We ...

... went AWOL when it came to visiting the church (and giving tips). Many of the sites we visited she'd never seen, let alone heard of, and I'm sure many other Aussie religious people, despite their annual pilgrimage to Israel, also aren't aware of all that Jerusalem has to show. As for what we saw:

* Jaffa Gate - Britain's General Allenby, after capturing Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917, entered the Old City through this gate on ...

... Of course I followed it until it took me to his last 4 stations where I was in front of the amazing beautiful church called Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Ahuvah later told me that the church is being fought over by different Catholic/Christian denominations because inside has are you ready... Jesus' Tomb. I know I know. But hey, whatever floats your boat. It was interesting. So many people worshiping statues and what not. I mean the art work is amazing. Oh, also ...