Olives, Olives, Olives and Star what’s?

Olive trees were the unifying theme of the first day in Jerusalem.

Our first stop was the Mount of Olives where we overlooked olive orchards in the Kidron Valley. 




Our next stop was Gethsemane which 

means olive press! Who knew? A garden grove of olive trees stands adjacent to the Church of Gethsemane.  The olive oil pressed from this holy place is sent exclusively to the Vatican.  Olive trees featured prominently in iconography is inside the church.



Olive trees reproduce by root sprouting.  In the grove at Gethsemane there are eight trees that date back to the betrayal of Jesus. This was one of the Silent Witness trees.



Later in the day we crossed from Israel into Palestine and visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  Our last stop was at an olive wood factory.  There were some amazing hand carvings, but my practical side settled on some spoons.



Bonus Hmmmmm.  There were two Starbucks wannabes on the street between the bus parking and the church. A+ For creativity.





I will write more about the sights that inspired us today when I have a bit more time.




Comments

  1. M2inFLANovember 13, 2022 at 6:04 AM

    Great job on using Google's Blogger to document your travels. Deb and I have done that for some of our longer trips.

    We will be following!

    ReplyDelete

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