Day 11

Looking towards Jerusalem.

SUNDAY 20th DECEMBER


Synopsis of day: Free time! & more churches!
Spiritual Sites visited: The Church of the Redeemer and one of the more likely spots for Emmaus.

Biblical Connections: Emmaus at first glance is more famous for the road that leads to it, but this was also the location of the Ark of the Covenant after the Philistines had passed it around their province and developed sores in each one (I did enjoy studying that back when we were covering 1 Samuel during the Moutzouris' bible study).

Highlight of the day: The Bach prelude the pianist played at the start of the service.

Lowlight of the day: After looking forward to another lunch at Rossini's (where I had an amazing aubergine cheese stuffed roll), when we got there it was closed. So we ended back at “our” coffee place and had an enormous spread of salad and omelette. The Israelis really know how to do salad. Amazing.

Favourite photo:

In the garden at the Church of the Redeemer.

 Cultural shock moment: The church had hand sanitiser for when you went up to take communion.
New food consumed: Some white cheese that was very spreadable with the salad.
Favourite purchase: Turkish delight. It is cheap and the softest stuff ever. Also not as chewy as what you can buy in Australia.

The thing I lost today: Score. I think I finally went a day without losing something. Kerri lost some of her laundry (though she could correctly blame Notre Dame). 

Random act of crazy: The angels on the roof of the church, which was connected to a Carmelite monastery.

 Something I want to remember: My final walks through the alleyways of the old city of Jerusalem. As foreign as they have been, there is something enjoyable about them when you don't have to traverse them permanently.




The night before when talking with people about what they were planning to do on their morning off, we encountered a few more Protestants in the group. We arranged to all go to the Lutheran church of the Redeemer because we knew where it was, and that it had a convenient English service. The church was newer than many of the other places of worship in the old city and we ended up in a chapel upstairs which was quaint and fitted the probably forty people there. At the end of the service there was an introduction time and there were visitors from America, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and somewhere else I think. Possibly one of the Scandinavian countries.


The service was very high church but because everything was printed out and the instructions about processes (such as how they took communion) were explained before they commenced, it felt very comfortable. In true Middle Eastern style the communion bread was pita bread, and they had a common cup as well as little disposables. We had a nice chat afterwards with some Floridians and then headed off down the Via Dolorosa before ending up eventually with our fabulous lunch. I had a soy chai latte which was great because I'd been wanting one for a while, and we don't normally have time for coffee breaks on our tour (it is frenetic!).

Oh and the orange juice was fresh and my first since arrival and it was to die for too!

We'd had the morning free but the afternoon was scheduled for a visit to Emmaus. It was the most tranquil visit to anywhere we'd had in ages, and the view over to Jerusalem was really nice. It was a REALLY long walk for those disciples to make right back to Jerusalem though. I haven't ever appreciated how fit the ancients must have been to cope with this environment but it would require a high degree of fitness I think. So many steps and hills.
We came back to Notre Dame and had coffee and journalled for a while and prepared for our last full day in Jerusalem.