July 1.2010
I am tired writing this, and 3 days behind so i may edit it later. We got up fairly early, had a leisurely breakfast and headed to the old city on bus 18. Met a nice girl who told us where to get off. We wandered aimlessly for awhile, then found the Jaffa gate. We went down David Street looking at the shops, people and architecture, then down the Cardo (pictured). We wandered our way over the the west wall of the temple mount (which is not actually the wall of the old temple like I thought). I had to wear a goofy skirt and shawl so I looked like an old, poorly dressed Bubba. Then we went up to the Christian quarter and climbed 180 spiral stairs up a church tower to look at the spectacular view below. The climb was a killer but it was totally worth it.
Finally we stumbled upon the church of the Holy Sepulcher where the Catholics believe Jesus was crucified, laid out in funeral wrappings, and put in the tomb too. The church was very big and impressive. There was lots of incense and bell ringing going on because 4 different catholic sects all work in there.
We then rushed off to find our bus home because Sabbath was starting 20 minutes before sunset and we had heard everything shuts down then, including the buses.
Later that evening, after a little siesta and some delicious tomato, cucumber and cheese sandwiches, we went out for a stroll. we discovered that everything does close down. The square that was bustling the night before was totally dead. End of day 2