Day 12 Friday

Today started off with a brisk walk before breakfast where I was able to catch a shot of the Via Dolorosa and the Ecce Homo arch in the  early morning light.

Then we had more inspiring words from Pino about Matthew. We spent the first hour talking about the "virgin" birth of Jesus - I asked a question something like What does the word "through " mean in the verse : " the child was conceived in her ( Mary ) through the Holy Spirit. Pino must have spoken for half an hour about the Temple of The Lord and quoted extensively from The Son of Songs, then asked me if that was clear and to which I replied "yes". ... Which it was actually. A humourous principal of  Primary School in Moonee Ponds ... for those who know where that is in Melbourne ... came up to me later and said it's been agreed by the group that I would be given the microphone on the bus to Galilee next week so that I can explain it to them. I'm not sure I understood it that well.

After lunch I promised myself an afternoon exploring by myself so I set off in search of Oscar Schindler's grave ( remember the movie Schindler's List? ) I found a lot of interesting sights from outside the city walls  ... Like this exhibition of world globes aimed at looking at solutions to global warming

... but took a wrong turn down the south west corner and ended up at the bottom of the Hinnon Valley.

... It nearly killed me walking back up that hill and returning to the convent in the early afternoon heat. I turned up with red face, hot and bothered with nothing left in my water bottle.

The day concluded with another walk to the Jewish synagogue in the new city with a fantastic view of Jerusalem in the background behind the altar. No photos allowed unfortunately but we were privileged to experience 2 and a half hours of a Yom Kippur evening service , with inspired singing and beautiful prayers, that kept us spellbound for the whole time. Tha walk home was interesting too as it's traditional that Jewish people walk on Yom Kippur rather than drive or do any work actually ... As well as fasting ... For 24 hours so the roads in the city were almost completely free of traffic except for kids playing on the city streets or riding their bikes at top speed. It was a weird experience.

Exhausting day.