Flourishing Life

Bob Walking the Ramparts

The Rev. Dr. Bob Kaylor and I spent a leisurely morning at the hotel before walking to the Old City where we exchanged dollars for shekels and walked the ramparts surrounding the Old City. This offered a unique view of life there as we could view homes, backyards, churches, and mosques from above. We also enjoyed views of the Mount of Olives, the Temple Mount and some of the other sites we’ve visited earlier in our journey. It was quite a long walk and it’s broken up into two parts because you can’t walk the ramparts adjacent to the Temple Mount.

Homes and Businesses from the Ramparts

After the ramparts walk we went to the Jewish Quarter to grab some lunch, pizza, and sit in the square in front of the Hurva Synagogue and enjoyed people watching. Today, being a Thursday, is a day for Bar Mitzvahs. We must have seen six or seven large crowds of family and friends accompanying the thirteen-year-old Jewish boy on the way to the Western Wall with a band and singing and dancing. It was quite a sight! We reflected that in Western culture we don’t have these types of rites of passage that help young people move from childhood to adulthood. We invented “adolescence” and seem to be extending this in-between period longer and longer. We walked back to our hotel, gathered our luggage and made our way to the train which took us to the bus station.

The Front Door of Fauzi Azar Inn

Public bus from Jerusalem to Nazareth. Let’s see, how to say this… it was different! First of all, there was very little English signage in the bus station. I definitely don’t expect non-English speaking countries to cater to English speakers, it’s just that we’ve vistied so few places in Israel that lacked English signs. So, it was a little challenging finding the ticket office, and after we bought our tickets (again, no English on the tickets), finding our way to the correct bus bay. We eventually figured it out. When loading the bus, the idea of some kind of orderliness in lining up and boarding was out the window. It was every man, woman, and child for themselves! Traffic on the way to Nazareth was very heavy and the trip took longer than expected, but we made it, checked into our inn, the Fauzi Azar Inn, in the Old City of Nazareth. It was a little weird walking through the Old City because all the shops lining the narrow streets were closed. It was like a ghost town. The inn is pretty neat. It’s a large old house that’s been converted and is quite comfortable.

Tomorrow we have a pretty light day. We will attend a Jesus Trail information session and visit the Nazareth Village, a re-creation of ancient Nazareth. It’s been a good day.

Bob is blogging this part of our journey and you can check his out for a different perspective here: www.bobkaylor.com.