It was our gloomiest day, raining all morning and then cold in the afternoon. After walking down the Road of the Righteous that has 20,000 trees commemorating 20,000 people who risked their lives saving Jewish people we spent two hours walking through the museum. It was like a trip into evil. After some quick shopping we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Constantine's mother built the original church based on local tradition and its location fits the descriptions in the gospels where Jesus died.

The church houses both the the place of the cross and the tomb. They aren't more than 100 feet apart which fits the description in the gospels. Through a glass you can see a piece of the rock that is where the tomb was supposed to be.

Next we walked back to the Western Wall for our first daylight visit. For the first time i noticed the faucets for ritual washing that the Orthodox use. Jesus had shocked the Pharisees when he was unwilling to do this ritual washing. He said basically that you guys are washing the wrong thing. Your heart needs washing, not your hands. Then we went through a new tunnel that has been dug along side of the western wall of the Temple mount. It took us down to the foundation level where we could see some of the massive stones of the foundation.

One stone is about 160 tons.  It is unbelievably big. We saw multiple structures underground including the exact place when the stone masons heard that Herod died....the work gets real sloppy! While underground a bomb went off about a mile west of us at a bus terminal, the first bomb in four years. One person died and thirty seven were injured.

Then we walked down the supposed path that Jesus took called the Via Dolorosa. It makes sense because it is the most direct route from the Antonio fortress to the most likely spot for his crucifixion.

We stopped at the first station of the cross for lunch.  We ate outside, and noticed more police stops, and even mentioned that something seemed different from yesterday. An Armenian Orthodox procession went by carrying a cross.Then we went to another site that is not likely the Garden Tomb but it gives you the feel for what the original one was like since it is not built up. There we heard about the bombing. We went to a quiet corner of the Anglican Abby where this alternative Garden Tomb is and had communion together. It was not a pleasant day, but then Jesus' death for us was far from pleasant, it was enduring through suffering. Thank you Jesus for enduring through unbelievable suffering for us!

Yad Veshem road of the righteous

Stone near garden tomb at Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Ritual cleansing near the temple

160 ton stone @ Herod's temple

Procession down Via Dolorosa

More police at Station 1 of via Dolorosa