Xian: Ancient Capital meets Capitalism

This city is a feast for history buffs. This city is also the place where buff models on plasma screens blink at every major intersection. This city is the start of the ancient Silk Road, the capital of the Han Dynasty, and seems to be holding it's own with the modern pulse of Shanghai and Hong Kong. Although there is a town ordinance to not build any sky scrapers within the walls of the old city, the buildings are tall and impressive with a hint of traditional architecture. There are shopping streets and malls at each turn. The youth and adults wear Nike and Jeep t-shirts and seem to have a better sense of style than we do. Even the English quotes on some of the shirts represent the cultural shift that Xian is experiencing. One shirt said "I can do anything I want" and others said "Lebron James" "Just doing it" and "I'm a barbie girl"!

We stayed in a super hotel right in the center of the old city called the Bell Tower Hotel. Our room had an impressive view of the Bell Tower! The ancient cities in China used the drum towers to mark the morning and the bell towers to mark the evening. We could see two Starbucks from our hotel window and there was a Pizza Hut on the right and a McDonalds on the left as well as the ubiquitous KFC.

The night train was clean and modern with paisley white seat covers our cabin bunks. There are four beds per cabin, with a sliding glass door and reading lights. There was even a western style toilet at the end of the hall! Our only issues were the lack of toilet paper, and the confusing coffee service in the morning where we tried to get some sugar and milk. Oh and the agent who helped us buy tickets booked us in two separate cabins with 3 strangers in each. A young man volunteered to switch cabins but the British/Indian family next door was quite distraught that they had to share a cabin with a stranger... they didn't realize that you have to buy all four beds if you want privacy. Abe made small talk and made her realize that it could be worse... we tried to not bring up the trains in India! It was a lovely train ride. China knows how to do it right. Even the taxis run on natural gas, they have a clear system to pick up travelers. The motor bikes are all electric, and no motorcycles allowed in town. The streets are quiet. The buses are quiet. There isn't much of a metro yet because there are so many ruins underground building is slow. There is a quote from the 90's from Xian, that if you want to be rich, dig up your backyard.


The first day we rested and then rented bikes on the South Gate of the city wall. The wall is about 40 feet wide so there was plenty of room to ride. We went about halfway around the city till it started to rain.







We had two tours set up and our guide was superb. She called herself Jenny and we had a great tour of the tomb of the Terracotta Warriors. That night we went to the dumpling dinner and Tang Dynasty show. Many local men were talking loudly throughout the performance. One American tourist complained to them to be quiet and he vigorously wrapped his knuckles on their table. Finally one man in another loud group of men got a phone call and loudly answered it and they left. The costumes and set were wonderful. We decided to walk home instead of taking a taxi and we had a lovely walk home in the evening past markets and vendors. Xian is set up like a grid and our hotel is next to the largest landmark in town so it is hard to get lost.
The next day we had a city tour and it was a private tour.
Jenny took us to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda which was built originally to house the scrolls brought by Tripitaka from India. The were translated and housed there. We went to the Shanxi Museum and we saw items from Zhou and Han tombs! We saw many items that were traded on the silk road, many models of camels and caravans, and many Buddhist statues that were evidence of cultural integration between China and the west. We visited the Forest of Stone Steles Museum which is a collection of Confucius writings used to catalog his greatest words. And they have been used to teach Confucian students for generations. Some of the stone slabs describe the greatness of Buddhism. We ate at a Tang Dynasty Buffet at the new tang theater. This buffet was the best food we have had in China! And we managed to find the Western end of town where the western market was originally held. Here a string of camel statues have been erected to mark the starting point of the Silk Road.


On the way to the airport we paid our driver extra to take us to the tomb of the fourth Han Emperor. This exhibition was completely underground with glass floors so we could walk over the tops of the pits and look at the miniature soldiers and horses and chariots. Whereas emperor Qin had book 8000 life-sized warriors in his tomb, the Han emperors settled with thousands of smaller models of soldiers servants pigs horses and chickens.

We are off to Vietnam. Only three countries left to go!!

Kabe

Censorship in China

Hi everyone. We apologize for not posting sooner. The Chinese government doesn’t seem to like blogspot or any blog for that matter, and our blog has been blocked. We can't see it or post anything. We thought it might be an anti google product thing (blogspot is a google function) but google works fine here and many other blog sites were down as well. I think they are afraid we might start a revolution. We are going to post this through a proxy server or through a friend in the states.

On Tuesday we arrived in Beijing. Our flight left 3am from Delhi and picked up… We checked into the Grand Hotel Beijing. We were upgraded to a room with a view of the forbidden city! We danced for joy at the clean linens and modern streets and the possibility of eating some great meals here in this seemingly hip city!

The first day we rested and headed out to Tiananmen Square. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen, the square was mobbed with local tourists and there were police stationed all around. There was even a line of trash picker uppers standing in a neat row ready to move in once the “ceremony” was over. It turned out that at 8 o’clock they take down the flag, and then they clear the square quickly. Within 15 minutes the thousands of spectators were ushered to the sidewalks. There are huge jumbo TV screens in the square showing great video footage of China playing to triumphal music.

China is amazing. It’s clean, mostly, and there are public bathrooms every 200 yards. Perhaps because they don’t have them in their homes. A few major sights are closed like the national museum, but we had a great exploration of the forbidden city. There were thousands of people energetically pushing through every doorway, flashing photos, and chattering. It was quite hard to hear the audio guide over this din but that is all part of the experience.

We wandered south of Tienaman Square looking for this old shopping district. We ate at KFC and got lost in the back streets twice. We finally tried again and found the street we were looking for. The shops were cool and had some great stuff so we bought mao books and buttons, and a chop to stamp kaitlin’s name, and I bought some coins. Bargaining is fun and we took some pictures with the shop keepers. It was a good day of pinching pennies and exploring.. But THEN the laundry fiasco hit when we got back to the hotel.

5 star laundry
The grand hotel Beijing was indeed grand. It has great atmosphere and common spaces and a superb location. We are the closest hotel to the center of the city and we have a mall nearby and a night market where they sell scorpions on a stick. No I haven’t tried one yet. This great hotel comes at a price. The meals aren’t free and they are a bit overpriced. Our first day in town we put in our laundry to be done. (we were in a rush to hit the town so we didn’t really check the prices, and we hadn’t perfected our conversions skills yet so we put in 25 t shirts and 4 shorts, some pants and undies. The bill came back with the laundry at over 3000 Rmb that is a lot of us dollars. Let’s just say it starts with a five and ends with two zeros. I marched down to the front desk to ask them if they were crazy. I told them that they could keep my laundry because the clothes didn’t even cost that much. I told them I could buy five iphones or a plasma tv or 2 laptops!! Or 5 nights in another hotel! They wouldn’t listen to me even though I tossed my laundry out the hotel room door to make a point. So they brought up a security guard/cop with them the next time and a stern little woman and said they would take 15% off the bill. Kaitlin reminded me to not make a scene in a communist country where I have no rights, and the guard kept stepping closer every complaint we made. I really did not want to end up on the street or in a Chinese jail. She’s always level headed. So I decided to let it go for now. We’ll see how they appreciate my trip advisor reviews.

Sleeping on the Great Wall:
We spent a few days on the great wall. Our guide Tony picked us up in a Mercedes white van at 9am. We had run down the block to McDonalds for breakfast as we refuse to patronize our hotel any further. We went to the ming tombs on the wall. They are in excellent shape. Tourists throw money on the ancient thrones (with ming vases in front) as offerings to the ancestors. As we left the tombs it started to rain and we were hoping this would help clear away the fog. It was probably the cloudiest foggiest day ever recorded in great wall history. We could barely see the next tower in front of us but it was like we were floating on a castle… a castle that was falling apart and really hard to climb. Our camping company has a special deal with a farmer at Jinshanling section of the wall. He has the rights to rent two towers. These watch towers have a 2nd floor and a roof in case of rain.

After dinner of local food, Kaitlin wasn’t sure about sleeping on the wall due to possible rain, lighting, bugs, cold and lack of bathroom facilities. So we were given a room in the hotel down the path from the great wall. The hotel didn’t seem to have running water in the morning, but it was nice to not have to worry about bugs. The local food is now catching up with our bellies, and Abe who takes more risks and eats more food is fighting the Chinese version of Delhi Belly or Beijing Belly?

At 530 am we met the farmer mr. wong outside the hotel. He walked us up to the tower where the our travel companions the Australian couple were sleeping. After some musili and a few bananas and some chewy bread we hit the trail.

So we didn’t really sleep ON the great wall as planned, but we did get up there just after sunrise to see the views. It was also nice to hike without anyone else on the wall. We had the place to ourselves.
Tony was a great guide and knew a lot about all of Chinese history. I had lots of questions. Most of the wall we see today was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. It seems that they also built the forbidden city so their legacy is what we see a lot of today. The Ming were in the 1500’s.

After hiking up and down the undulating wall, my knee started acting up and Kaitlin said her legs felt like jello and she was using a lot of energy to overcome her fear of heights so we are lucky that the hike was cut short. Half of this section of wall was closed to tourists for renovations. Some tourist company bought the rights to run the Simatai section of the wall. It will be done in three years. The national museum will also be done in three years. It seems like 3 years is a common date for things to get shut down and fixed up. I think the water cube is being turned into a water park and that will take three years.

Things we’ve noticed. People spit a lot here… big lungies… is that how you spell it? Men and a few women too. People pee in public a lot here… usually kids, and certainly not as much public urination as India. We did see one girl pee on the fence of Mao’s tomb. Which is quite a feat considering there are hundreds of police and security cameras all around. There is also this sweet and very social side to people here. Dozens of people have tried to start up conversations with us, by saying hello, or getting pictures taken with us, or asking us about our lives. We have figured out that a couple of them were from tour companies, and a few were students from “art galleries” trying to sell work nearby. The rest seem to be normal young people trying to practice English or something. That must be how a celebrity must feel, being asked questions from random people on the street with smiles on their faces.

Today is our last day in Beijing. We plan on going to Mao’s tomb and the military museum and the summer palace or the zoo. Tonight we have a night train to Xian. There we plan to do things like bike on top of the city walls, and see the tomb of the terracotta warriors. I don’t think we’ll have access to our blog in Xian so we’ll have to write again from Hanoi. Hopefully Vietnam will have less stringent censorship policies. Imagine that.

We miss you all. Our prayers are with Grampy Mills in hopes that he gets better soon. Love Kaitlin and Abe

The most holy city...Varanasi

Welcome to Varanasi, otherwise known as Banaras and the city of light. Varanasi refers to the two rivers that used to converge on the Ganges. Varuna (Yarmuna) and the Assi River that used to be right by our hotel near the Assi ghat, but it dried up a long time ago. Thus the name Varan-asi.

This is the city people go to to be reach moksha, and be released from an endless cycle of reincarnation. If you are burned on the Ganges river you have a much better chance of escaping rebirth and moving onto to nirvana or becoming one with Brahman(as i teach my 7th graders) or Brahm (as I heard in a cab driver in town). The river is so holy you don’t have to have amazing karma to be rewarded. An electric cremation costs only 500 rupees, this is to end the practice of poor folks being tossed in the river by their families without cremation. The best way to be cremated is with sandalwood because it is so precious. It is expensive but worth it. At night we could see fires burning and families mourning the loss of their loved ones. In the streets we could see funeral processions as they carried their loved ones on stretchers on their shoulders covered in flowers to the river within 24 hrs of their passing. There are also many ghats or sloping steps here that lead into the river. Only two of the ghats are for cremation. The rest of the ghats are for ceremonies or simply gaining access to the river for ritual bathing, cleaning, brushing teeth, doing laundry. In the morning hundreds of people bathe in the river as the sun rises. Varanasi is not one of those places people forget. It is very memorable.

It is so hot here!!! It is one of those places that you start sweating before you even make it out the door of the hotel. Our hotel has no AC, and it is under renovations. There are flies everywhere and it smells like paint and stain. The first night Abe felt like he was working stage crew and spray painting set until his head hurt. Probably not the safest. This might explain his memory loss! :-)

Our first room had three “windows” and a “balcony”, yet the windows were just screens, and the balcony was locked and no one could open it. So all the AC went out the windows as quickly as it came out of the unit. When the power went off every hour or two the AC would stop and we would sit in darkness sweating wondering when the Hindu gods might grant us with the modern marvel of electricity. I mean, we aren’t wimps really, it is just the air in this town is like soup so you can only take it in doses.

Our Palace on the Ganges is indeed almost on the ganges... a block from the river. However, it isn’t a palace at this moment in time due it its current status as a construction zone under renovations. As you might have noticed for the past few days we have been “off the grid” and not able to post. That also means off face book oh no! and the internet room in the basement has one PC that needs some love and a mantra or puja or offering to ganesha for good luck to function. The roof top restaurant has an awesome view but the three tables they have seem to be popular with the flies, and the kitchen is very very dark and sketchy so with the monsoon and the heat we are not taking any chances! The one time we tried to have breakfast the flies kept bouncing off our face while we ate toast. One big challenge here is that we can’t walk anywhere because the streets are a muddy mess of animal and human byproduct, and the traffic is deadly. Our cab driver alone hit three people or cars in two days. Because we can’t walk anywhere and there isn’t an actual “restaurant” in our hotel we have had a lot of trouble eating. We are losing weight because it is a harrowing 30 minute rickshaw ride to a restaurant that has the cleanliness we need for our bellies to survive the next month of travel. If we were coming home tomorrow we could have taken more risks eating in India. Well… Kaitlin wouldn't take any risks. She has bacterial wipes stashed in every pocket!


Despite the extreme poverty and seemingly sketchy actions of the street sellers, touts, and wallahs we feel pretty safe here. There are probably 90% to 10% male to female ratio on the streets. The streets are a maze of bicycles, cows, pigs, dogs, pushcarts, bicycle rickshaws, motorcycles, mopeds, pedestrians, small cards and ominous SUV’s with tinted windows. And some land rovers with sirens on top. The motorized rickshaws are the most deadly and aggressive. I really thought we would kill someone. Our drivers always seem to want to impress us by driving as if it was our last day on this planet. They swerve all over merge everywhere cut people off and run bikes and children off the road. Indian traffic is like a giant organism, with no rules, and no lines in the road, and no traffic lights. Some intersections act like roundabouts and some are just giant merges where everyone fends for themselves. It seems to be that cars and rickshaws assume bicycles will swerve out of the way. That might be one unwritten rule. It is okay to pull out in front of ten bicycles without looking. This is the opposite in the USA.

So tonight was a comedy of errors. Abe finally convinced Kaitlin to go on a sunset boat ride. In this picture Abe is getting help putting a candle in the water to make a wish. He wished kaitlin would join him on a sunset boat ride later. Kaitlin bailed out on the sunrise ride because all the boats looked tiny (they are actually rotting boats! And the thought of going out on a small, rotting boat, on a VERY polluted river, does not sound appealing!). Even the 30 ft motor boat looked unsafe. I do admit they looked old… and rotting, but sturdy. Some of these boats hold over 50 people.. locals of course. Anyway tonight she decided to overcome her fears and brave the sewer infested waters in a “motor” boat. We walked down the muddy bank and stepped into this long open boat which looked like it had been painted blue and white years ago. The floor boards kept our feet dry but we could see a comforting layer of bilge water resting below. This extra water was for ballast of course. Immediately things went awry. A swarm of interestingly shaped flies and several tiny mosquitoes buzzed around our eyes and Kait brought out an extra pack of bug spray wipes. Then it started pouring rain. So I put up an umbrella. Then lightning started but no sound… so maybe it was heat lighting. Anyway, Kait hates lighting so she begged me to take down the umbrella so we wouldn’t get struck while boating on WATER she said. So even though the boatmen were laughing in the joyous monsoon rain, I put down the umbrella, and ironically the rain stopped and Kait begged to be dropped off on shore. We got off about five ghats away from the main ghat where the ceremony was going on. So we just walked there to see the ceremony. As we walked the rain seemed to heighten the strong smell of urine as people used the corners of walls and the shoreline as a natural out house. We saw the ceremony and made it back to the boat just as the lightning increased. We had two choices. Walk through the winding urine filled streets at night to find our way home or take the boat that was waiting for us. So Kait had all of her greatest fears in one night… bugs, sewage, leaking boats, lightning and lightning! It was quite the adventure.

We flew to Delhi this afternoon from Varanasi and got a transit room at the Radisson Hotel. The room is gorgeous and the mini fridge is stocked with drinks and lots of snacks! We are psyched!! (Starving after 4 days in Varanasi.....)

Our flight for Beijing leaves early in the morning at 3:15. We can't wait to see China!
We are thinking of everyone back home -- and we can't wait to see you all when we return!

Peace,
Kabe

Agra

The Red Fort and the Taj Mahal!



Today we woke up eventually and took a self guided tour of Agra's Red Fort!
It was as hot as it was cool. I mean the fort was cool, but Agra was wicked hot. At the fort we saw tombs of Mughal rulers, and we found a hallway infested with bats. BIG ones!!!




Then we went over the river to the baby Taj.
It was so hot out that we melted, and went home to change into a dry shirt.
Then we went to the BIG Taj Mahal. It cost 1500 rupees to get in.
They searched our bag at security, and confiscated ELMO!! This is a true story, we think they thought he was an idol. (or a terrorist?) anyway they kept him safe under a metal can and returned him when we left the Taj.


We fought our way past the professional "photographers" and got some great shots!






Some Indian tourists wanted to take pictures with Kaitlin at the Taj. She must have looked famous!





We then took a cab home

We were hungry so we ordered room service.

Incredible India

Namaste!
I can't believe how we are only a few short flights away from Israel. India feels like a world away. We took a 45 min flight to Amman Jordan, and Kaitlin was frightened because the plane kept slowing down and it felt like we were standing still in the sky. We saw our first Starbucks in the airport in Jordan! I had my first frappachino in awhile. It was great. I went to a money changer and bought 15 dollars worth of Jordanian Dinars just to add to my money collection. They look cool. They had the king on them. There were some fellows in the airport with the ray bans and full robes and headdresses who looked like oil sheiks from a 1980's sitcom. They seemed nice enough. The people in the airport were friendly. The flight to India was good except we couldn't put our chairs back so we only slept about 25 minutes out of the 5 hour overnight flight. They were playing episodes of friends on the plane so that was fun. I had forgotten that Rachel almost dated Joey! Oh, and there were thunder showers on the last leg of the flight. We saw the lighting exploding far below us in the darkness of the Indian countryside.

We made it to India early yesterday morning. We got a prepaid taxi from the airport desk, which helped us not have to haggle with cab drivers outside. We had to still figure out which black and yellow cab to take. It was 6am and they were all full...so we wandered around until we found a decent boarding spot. A guy helped put out bags in the passenger side of the cab *the left side, as they drive on the right, because the trunk was stuck closed and he wanted a tip. I told him we could have loaded the bags ourselves, I didn't want to mention that I only had 500 rupee notes on me... and no small bills.

When we got to the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi, three security guards jumped out to let us in the gate and check the car for bombs? Then another three security guards checked our bags and a series of doormen and desk clerks tended to our every need. The lobby was immaculate marble with beautifully carved desks and soft chairs and two fountains. They wanted to charge us for another day because we were checking in so early. However, we talked them out of it.

We set up a guided tour for 2pm. There was a protest in Delhi yesterday so we were unable to go on a tour of the old city as we had planned. Also, all of the sites including Gandhi's house were closed on Monday. So we hired a tour guide to take us to a few historical sites in the new city. We saw the government buildings, the presidents house and the senate building, and many Mugal tombs. The guide was so friendly and knowledgeable. It was a great way to see Delhi.

We had a superbly well crafted and craftily priced meal. Our first meal in India was delicious, and we took all the appropriate cautions. I feel like we might be overly so... but we have to stay healthy for the next month on the road.







The train ride to Agra this morning was a tad bit more on the "realistic" side of India. The Delhi train station was a muddy mess. The morning rain had unearthed the usually subtle aroma of India. It is a good thing we had purchased our tickets ahead of time because the ticket lines were very long at 6am. There were people sleeping and sitting all over the station, on every spare square tile. Out Shabati express train number 2002 was not on the flashing board, so we were afraid we had missed it or had the wrong station. We found no one in the station managers office, and then I found our names on a typed up list of passengers tacked to the wall. The print out was made on a dot matrix printer. It had the letters E1 on the top. I figured that was our train car. We wove our rolling suitcases in and out of the crowds and families until we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. We saw a few westerners/tourists waiting on the E1 platform so we figured we had found the right spot.

We saw a lot of rural India in the short 3 hour ride. I had forgotten that the train tacks serve as the public facilities for many rural folks so we saw a lot of people doing their morning business. Agra station was a bit less muddy. I just remembered why people don't bring rolling suitcases to India. Our Agra cab driver had a "guide" with and they were nice today and they offered us tours of Agra. They drove really slowly so they could get to know us on the ride to the hotel. We graciously declined but tipped them for helping us take video of a passing camel and cart. All of the cabs have been "Ambassadors" Indian made cars with designs from the 1940's? Classic. You'd recognize them.

We didn't explore Agra today, we just relaxed and took it easy. We have been watching World Cup re-runs all day, we played chess in the lobby, and we have a view of the TAJ MAHAL from our room. The Gateway Hotel is a five star, and it is very nice. We had our 2nd meal in India and our tummies are ok so far! so far so good!



We have seen cows donkeys and camels in the streets, and pigs goats and monkeys beside the train tracks. We are seeing the red fort and the Taj tomorrow!

This is quite a place! We'll keep you posted. Love Kabe

Kabelin's road trip adventure!

Abe standing on the tip of Herod's northern palace on Masada.

I'd like to give the world a coke in perfect harmony...

The Dead Sea is a well known vacation spot for small fuzzy fictional puppets.


Floating in the Dead Sea is like swimming with a life jacket on.


Some giant planter on the sidewalk jumped out and hit my rental car, don't worry the damage looks worse in person.

Renting a camel to take us to China...

Masada fortress with the

Dead Sea in the background

Jerusalem and Bethlehem!

Shalom!
We have been traveling around the old city of Jerusalem the past few days and also went on a tour to Bethlehem which was a unique experience. We have seen SO much -- we'll try to keep it brief!

The first day we wandered around the Jewish quarter and ended up stumbling across a great view of the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock from the rooftop of a building. We took some great pictures! Later that night we met up with Abe's friend Talia's sister Amalia and her boyfriend Sam. They currently are students here in Jerusalem and were kind enough to meet up with us at Jaffa Gate and take us around the old city. We had dinner in the Christian quarter on the rooftop of a restaurant. In the middle of dinner the call to prayer began. Here we were in the Christian quarter overlooking the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounded by 3 mosques! It was such a cool experience!! The three quarters are incredibly close to each other.

The next morning we woke up early for our tour to Bethlehem. Abe had booked the tour through City Discovery and we were specifically told we'd be picked up at a hotel in the new city. So we walked out of the old city and into to the new to the hotel. We arrived on time and waited and waited to be picked up. Finally, an older gentleman picked us up and we drove off with him in his taxi. He also picked up a Swedish mother and daughter (who lived in Newton for a year. Small world!). He then asked us where we were going.......We all looked at each other in disbelief and said..."Bethlehem? On a tour? Where's the tour bus?!?" We were all very worried!! To make a long story short, we were brought to the border of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and had to be escorted by Palestinians through a check point and through the wall that Israel has built between Israel and Palestinian territories. It was a a little bit of a nerve-racking experience. Bethlehem was such a special place to visit but we were very happy to return to Jerusalem after the tour!!!

We saw all of the holy sites in Bethlehem such as the Church of the Nativity. Under the Greek Orthodox side of the church we saw where Jesus was born (picture to the left) and underneath the Catholic side of the church we saw the inn where Mary and Joseph stayed. We also saw the fields where the Shepherds saw the star as well as the caves they lived in! When we returned from the tour of Bethlehem we went on a 4 hour tour of the City of David...we saw so many archaeological ruins including David's palace, the ancient Canaanite City (1000 BC -- before David conquered it), and Hezekial's Tunnel (picture below) -- which was built to bring water from a spring into the city walls for sustenance during a siege. We also saw a recently excavated Roman road leading to the pool of Siloam. When the Romans burned the city they found the Jews hiding in the sewers. And the marble road is broken open just as the bible is written!!

Today we explored the Muslim and Christian quarters because that is where the stations of the cross took place. So we took out our maps and guides and walked from station to station taking pictures along the way. The last 4 stations are located inside the Holy Sepulchre Church. In the church we saw the tomb of Jesus (picture on the left), the rock he ascended from , the stone of unction (where they commemorate the wrapping of his body), and the location of the crucifixion called the rock of Golgotha (picture on the right)!!

After doing the stations we walked to Mt. Zion (which is next to the Armenian quarter) and saw the location of the Last Supper and where Mary lived and died after Jesus' death. It was all so amazing to see!!

Tomorrow we are renting a car and driving to Masada and stopping at Ein Gedi and Qumran on the way home. We will be seeing the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and swimming in the Dead Sea! Our stay in Israel has been an amazing experience and we wish we could stay longer. But it is almost time to pack up and head to country #3, India. We fly on Sunday!!!

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

Kol Tuv!
Kabe