June 20 - Starting off this morning we headed off to Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha & Lazarus.  This took us about 45 minutes to drive to although it is only about a mile away from Jerusalem.  Since the Israelis erected the wall to stop uncontrolled access to the city it takes awhile to drive around it. We visited the church where Doron found a Mustard Tree and showed us the size of the seeds.

We had a demonstration of how to shoot a slingshot like the one David used to kill Goliath.  Of course, I had to buy one for each of my younger grandsons - won't their parents be happy???

Our last visit was to the tomb of Lazarus - which may or may not be the actual tomb. 

We then went to the Israel Museum and saw the Model City that shows us what Jerusalem was like at the time of Jesus.  It gives us an overall picture of what we have been seeing.

This is also the location of the Shrine of the Book where they have the Dead Sea Scrolls.  In the middle is a replica of the book of Isaiah which is complete and shows that the only changes in the past 2000 years is 9 letters in the whole 60+ chapters.

We also had the opportunity to visit some of the exhibits in the museum, which we had never had the chance to do before.  They have just opened a great Herod Exhibit of findings from the excavation of Herodium.

Our last stop for the day was the Holocaust Museum which is always draining.  However, I think it is a necessary part of the tour.  We can't very well concentrate on the history of Israel and ignore the most resent part of their history.  The 2 most devastating part of their history is when the temple was destroyed and when the Holocaust occurred.

They don't let kids in under the age of 10 and they suggest 14 so Josiah and Autum went with Doron for ice cream and found a "cave" to play in.

In the evening 14 of us headed to Ben Yehuda St for ice cream..