Safely arrived in Israel this morning! We had a group of 12 traveling together from JFK and we met the rest of our group of 22 at our Hotel in Jerusalem, the Olive Tree.

Our Biblical Study leader took us on a preview walk to orient us to our location in relation to the Old city of Jerusalem. We are just north of the Damascus Gate, a northern gate in the Old City wall. This is a muslim area of the modern city and was busy with car and foot traffic and shoppers; where as in the Jewish area of the city today most everything including public transportation is closed for Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) and the start of the Feast of the Tabernacles (Sukkot). This is one of the 3 pilgrimage festivals in the Jewish year to celebrate the autumn harvest and the Exodus from Egypt. We will get to see some of the celebrations tomorrow.

The old city wall has examples of masonry from every era: OT era stone, Herodian (2nd temple) ashlars stones, layers from the Crusader and Ottoman times.

Tomorrow we officially start our Biblical Studies program with a visit to the Western Wall. Tonight we enjoyed getting to know our travel mates over drinks at the American Hotel outdoor bar and grill - beautiful setting!. Looking forward to all that we will see and learn over the next 14 days.

Good night and God Bless, PB and Marge

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