Jerusalem, Israel...

Happy by Choice is the theme of this entry.

Having such an opportunity to go to Jerusalem, Israel...this trip was not planned and on the cruise ship world cruise itinerary. As some of you know there was some danger on the waters off of Egypt...I don't know full details, I just know it was too dangerous for the ship to pull into a few different ports in Egypt. So instead of going to all of the places in Egypt...we went into Israel and one of my personal training guests didn't want to go on the trip to Jerusalem, perhaps because of the possible danger that was occurring there. From what we learned prior to all of the commotion of what was happening in Egypt...I guess there were bombings that were happening in Israel as well...but I thought, this is such an amazing opportunity and I am going to take this free ticket to explore Jerusalem!
 ...And so I did. ;)

SO happy I did, because Jerusalem was stunning. I not only had a delightful time by myself...but I connected with my dear friend Julia, who was a guest on the Grand World Voyage...a very marvelous guest she was. We had a couple hour bus ride into Jerusalem from Ashdod, Israel....and Julia and I were having such a lovely time getting to know each other and goofing around and just exchanging travel stories.

While we were in Jerusalem...the air was crisp and there was so much around us...so many things I witnessed while I was raised in the catholic religion...I had never imagined I would actually see Jerusalem for myself in person! Wow.

This here is the Mount of Olives...stunning scenery.

 We also viewed the Hortvs Gethsemani...which I learned is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion.

Once we viewed those places...we were off to many more sights...and I must say I'm not very educated on where we went but I will do my best to describe and explain all we saw. We next went to the Wailing wall...It is 57 meters tall, or 187 feet, built of thick, corroded limestone, and is close to 500 meters in length, though most of it is engulfed in other structures. It is described as a "Place of Weeping" This is probably one of the most powerful of places we visited....walking on the right side, the women's side, just observing all of the different cultures and different people who were participating in the occurrences with the wall...I just watched. I stood and watched some people praying, some people weeping, some people would put a note or a prayer piece of paper into the wall holes and some would kiss the wall. I observed one woman in particular..she was praying or wailing in a different language I didn't know what she was saying...she had a book which I presume was her bible...she, too, kissed the wall and slipped a note into one of the many corroded holes and then she walked backwards praying here way out of the space.


The energy was so high there was so many feelings I felt...it was very overwhelming but very interesting to be an outside observer.

The little town of Bethlehem is behind these kids and Julia:)