Today we left the North and headed south to the city of gold. En-route we made two stops. The first was at a nature preserve to see a TON of flowers. It's prime flower season in Israel and the fields were full of them. Then we headed to Neot Kedumim which is a living museum of biblical times. Students practice shepherding sheep (it was much harder than it looks). They also drew water from a well, used an ancient olive press and learned about how people irrigated 3000 years ago.
After lunch we headed into the old city. We only hit a few sites because we will be returning on Shabbat. We went to the southern wall excavation, learned about this history of the old city and who controlled it over time, and saw Robinson's arch (an ancient ruin from 2000 years ago).
Then it was time to head to the western wall (called in Hebrew: the Kotel).
There are actually two sites for the wall. One is a smaller egalitarian section. We started there and talked about it's history. Then we headed over to the main plaza which has a split section (men's and women's sides). In both sections students had the ability to put notes in the wall and say personal prayers. We then compared the two. It was interesting to see student comments since some disliked the separation but others disliked how secluded the egalitarian section was.
After heading back to the bus we dropped our things off at the hotel and headed off to Ben Yehudah street. Students got an hour to eat and shop and many are bringing home really nice things for you.
Tomorrow we start the day at Yad Vashem and Har Hetzel.
Some pictures from today:
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