Greetings from St. Andrew's Scottish Guesthouse

Can you believe it?

I'm  in Jerulasem, on the outskirts of the old city, staying in an establishment called, St. Andrew's Scottish Guesthouse.

We feel right at home!   And the weather is mimicking Scotland's to a tee.  Cold and rainy!
I realize that many of my blogger friends are dealing with temps that are much colder, but this is Israel, and the temperatures are generally in the low 70's at this time of year.  I just checked, and the outside temperature is 46 degrees at 5:00 p.m.!

Will that dampen our spirits?  Heck no!  You know us…..we never let the weather keep us from getting out and gallivanting.  Plus, I brought my raincoat with the removable wool lining.  You better believe that it's being buttoned back in before we set out for dinner.

We have room number 1, which requires hiking up 4 sets of stairs, but it is worth every one of them to enjoy the beautiful view from our bedroom window.

Despite the blustery weather with off and on rain showers, we decided to head into the Old City of Jerusalem and set off to find the Holy Sepulcher Church.

We ended up in a maze of turkish bazaar shops, one after another, selling their wares.  I will admit that I did NOT enjoy being accosted, over and over again, in an attempt to lure me into the store.

I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with this, though, if I want to be able to absorb the history that the Old City  has to offer.  

The church was loaded with tours,  so we briefly walked through and looked at the highlights.

My plan is to go back tomorrow and walk the Via Dolorosa, which ends up in this same church.  That will mean passing by these same shops along the way.  

I've watched the Pope walk the Via Dolorosa on television in years past, and I do not recall seeing one Arab coming up to him and asking him what he is looking for.  (Hey…there's an idea….do you suppose that I could get away with impersonating the Pope on the way?  Is that thought sacrilegious?)

Seriously, I'm  just going to have to learn to deal with it, because the reality is that this is the way it works in Jerusalem.  In the meantime, I'm practicing my "leave me alone"look.  

We're going to try to get out early in the hopes that the tour groups will be at a minimum.  But, even if they are in full force, I hope to be able to walk the path of Jesus on his way to Cavalry. 

We decided to stop for a bite to eat and it turned out that the restaurant had a roof top terrace where we could step out and admire the view.   On a nice day, the rooftop is opened for meals, but with the rain, and the cold, NO one was interested in dining outside.

The views were amazing.

You can see the Mount of Olives in the distance on the right of this picture.
The gold dome is a mosque.

We had to walk back to the Guest House because Marty had a scheduled conference call.

When that was finally finished…well after 8:00, we headed back out the door, in the drizzling, cold weather to climb back up the hill into the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

We headed right to the Armenian Tavern, which we had spotted earlier in the day.

The interior was fascinating, and you certainly knew that you were sitting in a very old building that's for sure.

From the lighting

to the vases, plus a whole lot more….so many things appeared to be hundreds of years old.

And some artifacts were just entertaining.

But the best part of the Tavern was that the food was different AND delicious.

Shalom!