Rare visual evidence that we do in fact have a Carmelite with us on this trip
The group had our last day Jordan today. We drove a few hours up into the Gilead mountains to the city of Ajlun. A monastery once stood on the city's highest peak, but it was taken over and fortified into a castle to defend against the Christian crusaders. And as we marched up the steep slope it was easy to see why Richard the Lionheart failed to retake the city. At first I think we all felt a little out of place in anti-crusader fortress but before long we were having a great time exploring forbidden passages, playing hacky-sack, and trying to find the highest point to reclaim the castle ourselves! We also had some incredible Arabic Coffee (not the same as Turkish coffee, we were instructed) at the end of our visit.
We left Ajlun and drove to Jerash, which was built on the ruins of the biblical town Geresa. These were by far the most impressive Roman ruins we've seen as the city still had two massive gates, two ancient temples, a piazza the size of the Vatican's and the most intact theater we've seen (and we've seen an awful lot of Roman theaters).
The maker of the amazing coffee
Then it was back across the boarder to Israel, and as I type these words our feet are standing within the gates of the Holy city of Jerusalem! Tomorrow morning we have mass at Jesus' tomb in the Holy Sepulchre. You'll all be in our prayers.
God bless!
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