This was our first trip to Israel, not because we didn’t want to go but because when we lived nearby in the Middle East we were in countries that were not friendly with Israel. Traveling there could have put our stay, and my job, in jeopardy. We had been all around Israel, to Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, but never visited there until now.
We spent Thanksgiving day in Athens and had a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings at our neighbor’s house. Friday we rose early for our El Al flight to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. Security was tight, as expected, and from the airport we took a service taxi to our hotel, the Eldan hotel, in Jerusalem. The location was good – across the street of the famous King David hotel, next door to the historic YMCA, which is also a good hotel, and walking distance to the Old City.
Jerusalem is one of the most holy cities to the three main religions of the West – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. November was a great time to visit as there were very few tourists, the weather was great, and there were no major holidays on any of the three religion’s calendars. We had sunny days in the 70s with evenings cool enough for a windbreaker. We were lucky, too, in that there were no major outbreaks of hostilities while we were there but this was the first time in all our traveling that we purchased travel insurance that covered canceled flights and emergency evacuations. Thankfully we didn’t need it.
We unpacked our bags and headed out for an orientation walk. First we walked through the lobbies of the King David and YMCA hotels. You may scoff at the thought of a nice YMCA but it was built in 1926-33 by Arthur Loomis Harmon, who also created New York’s Empire State Building and is one of the city’s best-known landmarks. The only other YMCA worldwide that I know of which is recommended as a hotel is the one in Hong Kong on the Kowloon side. Anyway the Y has an elaborate interior, beautiful bell tower and a really good restaurant that we frequented.
We walked through the park area by the recently discovered tombs for King Herod’s family and into the Old City by the New Gate. Jerusalem’s Old City is surrounded by high ramparts that date back to the first half of the 16th century, built by Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Of course there were earlier city walls that have been torn down and rebuilt several times. Jerusalem has been fought over by Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks (Alexander the Great), Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Ottomans, British, and today Israel. How ironic that such a holy city would see so many wars. The last major battle was in the 1967 war when Israel drove out the Jordanians and took control of the West Bank and Jerusalem.
An acquaintance here in Athens who is head of security for the Israeli Embassy warned me to not go into the Old City alone or after dark. Guess what? We did both. We just didn’t feel in danger and maybe we were just lucky but we had no bad experiences except pushy merchants, which I’ll get to later. As the sun set we walked through the Christian Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Old City Jerusalem is divided (unofficially today) into a Christian Quarter, Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter, and Armenian Quarter.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built over the hill of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and his tomb. At least that’s the theory. The first church on the spot was built by Constantine between 326 and 335 AD. Churches have been built, town down, destroyed by earthquakes and fires, and rebuilt on the spot for centuries. Six different Christian denominations (no protestant) oversee the church and have had frequent fights and battles in the past. In 1852 the Ottoman’s issued a decree known as the “Status Quo” in which custody is divided among Armenians, Greeks, Copts, Roman Catholics, Ethiopians and Syrians. Every day the church is unlocked by a Muslim keyholder acting as a “neutral” intermediary.
We saw the main rotunda, Christ’s tomb, the stone of unction, the remains of Golgotha hill, the Seven Arches of the Virgin, the Chapel of St. Helena with crosses carved out by pilgrims, and the area known as the Center of the World whereby maps were drawn oriented towards Jerusalem. While we were there we saw a group of about 50 monks in their habits. It really seemed we had entered the twilight zone as they began chants and hymns in various areas. We left the church and walked through the nearby Muristan, an area built by Charlemagne in the early 9th century with hospices for pilgrims from Latin-speaking countries. We returned to our hotel and walked next door for a good meal at the Three Arches restaurant in the YMCA. We retired fairly early after a long first day.
The Jewish Shabbat, or Sabbath, starts an hour before sundown Friday night and lasts until an hour after sundown Saturday night. Since Jerusalem is predominately Jewish most shops, restaurants, buses, airlines, trains, etc, are closed on Saturdays. Because of this we arranged a tour online with a company that did not shut down Saturdays. So Saturday we had breakfast in our hotel restaurant (dairy – no meat) and met up with our group at 8:30 am. Our guide, Jacob, was 71 years old and conducted the tour in English. We had one other American beside us, Chinese, Indians, Koreans, one African, one Brazilian, and one from Reunion. We were quite the international group and our small bus headed into the West Bank Occupied Territory on highway 1. We paused to see the Inn of the Good Samaritan while Jacob told the parable from the Bible. We saw the town of Ma’Aleh Adumin where Mary and Lazarus were believed to have come from. We could see Jericho from a distance but could not go there as it is under Palestinian control. We dropped down into the Judean desert and drove along side the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth at 1,348 feet below sea level. We stopped at a kibbutz that produces cosmetics from the minerals in the Dead Sea.
Our main destination was the fortress of Masada high up on an outcrop of land. The fort was built by King Herod but became famous when the Romans laid siege for over two years before the walls were breached in 73 AD. The occupiers were a small group of Jews of the Zealot sect that rose up against the Roman occupation. The Romans built a huge earth ramp to reach the walls and crush it in with battering rams. When they took over they found that the Zealots had all committed suicide rather than become slaves or worse. We took the cable car up and walked around with Jacob as our guide. We saw ruins of palaces, baths, storerooms, and more.
After Masada (and lunch) the group went to the Mineral Spa on the edge of the Dead Sea and while most of the group went in to float in the Dead Sea or smear themselves with mud, which is supposed to have all kinds of healing properties, Rita and I contented ourselves sitting in a beach chair under an umbrella and relaxing. It didn’t appeal to us.
Our tour returned to Jerusalem via the same route we left and we spent the evening walking around the new city which was just finishing Shabbat. At dinner we sampled a couple of Israeli beers, Maccabees and Gold Star, both very good.
Sunday was a busy, long day spent entirely in the Old City and Mount of Olives. We arranged to have a private tour by Johnny Asmar who works at the US Consulate in Jerusalem. Johnny was recommended to us by Consulate employees as he was a tour guide by profession until tourism dropped off dramatically and he started working as a cashier at the Consulate. He still has his tour guide license and knows every nook and cranny of Jerusalem. We met him in our hotel lobby after breakfast and started our tour at 8:00 am. We entered Old City Jerusalem via the Jaffa Gate where Johnny started his tour. We saw the Citadel and walked through the Armenian Quarter to the Zion Gate, bullet ridden from heavy fighting in the 1967 war. At every major point of interest we would pause while Johnny gave us the history of the site.
We walked along the city ramparts and into the Muslim Quarter and the Temple Mount where the El-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock sit. It is disputed territory since it was where Solomon built the first Jewish temple, too. The Dome of the Rock is where Mohammed is thought to have ascended into heaven astride his horse and is also supposed to be the place where Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the Dome of the Rock ever since Arial Sharon forced his way in back in 2000 which started the current infitada. But we could see it up close on the outside. We saw the Dome of the Chain and the Golden Gate which Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
We walked into the Jewish Quarter and to the Western or Wailing Wall area which is holy to Jews as it was one wall of Solomon’s temple. Rita could visit the women’s side while I could go to the men’s side as long as we covered our heads. We walked right up to the wall and could watch and photograph the mainly Orthodox Jews who pray while rocking their whole bodies.
We left the Old City via the Dung Gate and walked down into the Kidron Valley where we saw Zechariah’s, Absalom’s, and Jehoshaphat’s tombs. We walked up the Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane. We entered the Church of All Nations which is built over the rock where Jesus spent his last night in anguish. We walked higher up the Mount to the Dominus Flevit Chapel for great overviews of Jerusalem.
We re-entered Jerusalem Old City via the Lion Gate, which is also known as St. Stephen’s Gate since he was martyred here. We walked the Via Dolorosa, also known as the Street of Sorrows, which has the Stations of the Cross indicating some aspect of Jesus’ walk while carrying his cross. We entered the Monastery of Flagellation and the Chapel of the Condemnation.
We walked the winding labyrinth of narrow streets to the old Roman road known as the Cardo which means heart. The street ran straight through the heart of the city. We exited the city once more at the Zion Gate and saw the house where the Last Supper supposedly took place, conveniently located over the supposed tomb of King David. We walked back to the Jaffa Gate where we told Johnny good-bye after a great tour. It was late in the afternoon and we sat down for a falafel lunch with Gold Star draft beer. We did some more walking on our own to the Cotton Merchants Suq, and Hurva Square in the Jewish Quarter before limping back to our hotel after a long day.
We did our little bit of shopping that afternoon but it wasn’t enjoyable because of all the hassle by the shop owners. They spot an English speaker right away and come out asking you to “just come in and look, sir, no obligation to buy”. They really put on the hard sell if you do walk into their shop. A new trick (to us) is to ask you if you are from America. When you confirm that they say “Can you help me with the spelling of a sign I want to put up mentioning my grand opening sale?” He hands you a paper and pencil, you walk into his shop to write it out and before you know it a little boy has brought you sweet mint tea. Now you feel obligated to him. We saw this trick more than once.
Monday we slept in a little later, had breakfast at our hotel, and asked for a late checkout. We walked back into Old City through the Jaffa Gate and to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Muristan area. This church is modern – built by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1898. Since Rita was still fresh I convinced her to walk up the 177 steps of the bell tower for great views over the Old City. After that we walked to the Damascus Gate, one of the more ornate city gates, and saw a street market where locals shop in the Muslim Quarter. We walked into the Armenian Quarter and looked at ceramics and then the Jewish Quarter where we saw some ruins of the oldest city walls. We returned to the Western or Wailing Wall where about 20 bar mitzvahs were under way. We had an early lunch in the Jewish Quarter of potato latkes, cheese blintz, and falafels. We had heard a rumor that the Dome of the Rock would be open to non-Muslims because of the renewed truce between Palestine and Israel so we rushed there but it wasn’t true. So we walked through the Chain Gate and crossed the Old City to the Jaffa Gate and returned to our hotel to check out.
We took a service taxi back to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and our El Al flight back to Athens to end another nice trip. We had apprehensions before the trip but we were happy that we did it and can highly recommend it, especially in times of peace. Shalom.
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