It is Saturday morning - time to say Bye to Carpe Diem V, our home for the last three weeks
Our boat is now heading home - by mid next week it is picking up new clients in Bodrum
We checked in at the Sarai Hotel, Jaffa's old Police Station and Prison with a view on Tel Aviv's long beaches full of people
Old Jaffa is just around the corner. For the longest time only Arabs lived there - now young Jewish families move in which creates considerable conflict
Next day we went to Jerusalem which was never a trading hub but we had to see it anyway. View on the town from the olive mountain
The Jerusalem Cross - the big one for Christ and the four small ones for the four gospels
One thousand year old olive tree in the Garden of Gezemane
King David's Tower at the Jaffa Gate in now an Ottoman fortress
Walking through the Armenian Quarter towards the West Wall
Roman map of Jerusalem found on a mosaic in the Jordan valley - note the Roman mainstream with columns like we seen in Perge two weeks ago
The same columns again - three meters below the surface and finally excavated
Thanks to our guide Daniel we found Hezekiel's wall in the maze of little alley ways. It helped to defend Jerusalem in 772 BC against the Assyrians
We also found this rebuilt Jewish Synagogue next to a ruined mosque - the minaret is still there - everybody builds on top of each other - no wonders tempers flare
The Westwall of King Herod's Temple - Israel's holiest site
The streets in the Arab quarter are an endless suk :-)
Never say no to Pomegranate juice - albeit twice as expensive as in Akko three days ago
We then followed the Via Dolorosa with the stations of the cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church was built by Constantine the Great in 330 AD on the site where Jesus was crucified. The church is shared by all Christians - there is always a long queue of believers who come to pray here
We then took a half an hour car ride to visit the Church of Nativity in Betlehem which I believe was also commissioned by Constantine the Great after his mother Helena visited it in 325 or 326 AD
Tradition says that this is the place where Jesus was born and where his cradle stood - difficult to say almost 300 years after the event
The giant silver chandelier in the Nativity Church is a present from the Russian Czar
After a long day it was time to return to Jaffa. Walking back to our hotel, we found this Swing Brass Band playing in the Jaffa flea market - what a way to end a day!
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