Day 20 Saturday

 I did nip down to the western wall last night and it was quiet after the evenings Shabbat service. The full ism moon looked beautiful over the wall and i experimented with a few different types of photos filters. It did get me over the 10000 as well ... Double bonus

The Western Wall and moon on Sparkle setting

Saturday started early, and after connecting with Jane and the family for wedding anniversary greetings, we headed off for Hebron without really knowing what to expect. We were told along the way that the city is made up of 80 % Palestinians and the rest Israeli (Jewish ). It was a town that survives greatly on the vineyards we saw growing amongst the rocks and hills surrounding the town. With rock terraces and donkeys carrying the harvest, I felt we were getting a view of farming that had stayed much the same for at least a couple of thousands of years.

As we arrived in Hebron, we encountered something new for an inexperienced traveller like myself ... Beggars.

 The poverty around the old city of Hebron comes as a result of years of occupation by the Israelis who have taken a city with a vibrant market and economy and have left it with only a few shops open down the souk and many sellers desperate for a sale. Kids ran around the street either trying sell trivial little trinkets and with well practiced stories to tell as part of the sale. One young man tried three times with me to sell Palestinian wrist bands .. The last time he put his arm around me and pleaded with me to help his family. He showed me a scar on his stomach he said was from a bullet and he spoke for quite some time not taking no for an answer. When I gave him some money, without buying a bracelet and surprisingly as soon as I gave him some money, he immediately left me without another word and moved on to someone else. When trying to get on the bus three boys were begging at the door trying to take money from our hands. One grabbed the sunglasses I was carrying and desperately tried to pull them away. I was quite shocked by the desperation, horrified that people could be forced to live like this.

 Here is Father Frank from South Carolina trying to deal with the reality of the souk.

Apart from our walk down the souk , we visited the mosque that's had been built by Herod the great over the top of the tombs of Abraham and His wife Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. The tombs had been sealed up, for what reason I wasn't able to establish, but being in the mosque was interesting.

In the mosque the woman were required to cover their heads and shoulders... ( knees and toes... No not really these last two ... I was just reminded of a song.)

The was a section that they shared with the Jewish people, sealed off but you could see them praying there through a mutual viewing area of Abraham's pretend tomb. We needed to go through a checkpoint and metal detectors which was a little confronting and when we asked if we could enter the synagogue next door, one soldier said yes but our guide was not allowed ... The second soldier said no.

 This is Sarah's pretend tomb and to the left was our guide Elias.

The second place we went to was a glassblowing and pottery painting shop which was remarkable and a great place to buy a few more presents. I said they were anniversary presents. I've probably gone over my baggage limit now... Oh well . There is always the post.

 One of the workers painting the distinctive Pottery of the area.

After a few hours off in the afternoon , we had a guest speaker talking about the many Eastern Orthodox churches that exist in the world but also here in Jerusalem. I found out that in the old city itself we have 13 patriarchs or bishops each representing their own form of Christianity, their own church and services in this very small area ( one square kilometre, remember ) so there are plenty of different places to choose for mass tomorrow.

Here is a picture from Sunday's collection of the Greek Catholic Church where I eventually went to mass.

After tea I went to the Austrian Hospice for coffee and to book our lunch for 5 pilgrims tomorrow. I also watched a movie called "The Syrian Bride" on you tube. It was set in the northern part of Israel in locations we travelled in a few days ago when in Galilee. The subtitles and the sounds were about 15 seconds out of sync with the action but strangely it was still okay to watch.

 A photo from "the Syrian Bride "

7635 but I don't care because walking in Hebron drained the steps out of me.