Our First Official Day of Pilgrimage

Today was our first day of pilgrimage - we started with morning eucharist at the cathedral at 7:30, followed by breakfast and the morning lecture.  Our speaker borrowed designations/titles for Jerusalem from Karen Armstrong's work to structure his overview lecture - Jerusalem as: Salem, City of David, Zion, Antioch in Judea,  Aelia Capitolina, "Anastasis," Al Quds, and  Capital.  This was helpful in placing the time and people influencing this Holy City.

After the morning lecture, we boarded the bus for our driving tour of he city.  We stopped at the House of Abraham, run by French Catholic nuns, for a tasty lunch (they're French, afterall!) and a view of the city from their rooftop.  This oriented us well to the walled city and surrounding areas, like the Kidron Valley, the Garden of Gethsemane, various churches and mosques that mark significant locations.

The House of Abraham

View from the rooftop

We then drove to the Mount of Olives,  where we could feel  and see the dramatic change in climate and landscape - definitely desert on the other side!  Out to the far right on this hazy day,  we could see the Dead Sea.  To the left, note the winding line - that's the dividing wall called the "separation barrier" that the Israeli's are building through the West Bank.

And this was our first day - starting off light, which is good, because there are many long, fun-filled days ahead...