Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel November 4, 2011

Today was a long, exhausting but exciting day. Our tour left port at 7:50 a.m. for Jerusalem. Lynda was not happy. It was a bit more than a two hour drive to Jerusalem with Lynda enjoying the scenery and Tim napping. About 15 miles outside of Jerusalem we stopped for a potty and coffee break. Of interest at this break was the fact that the café was across the street from the Monastery of Amasses, the first of three places that Jesus was seen after his resurrection. We than drove on into Jerusalem. There were several things that surprised us about Jerusalem. First, Jerusalem is a major city, around 800,000 inhabitants. We had always thought of it as small. Second, the terrain that the city is built on is quite severe, with major hills and valleys. Third, we did not know that Jerusalem was the capitol of Israel. We assumed Tel Aviv was the capitol. On our way to our first stop we drove by the Knesset, the parliament of Israel. We also drove by the Foreign Office where our guide pointed out that Condolesa Rice had spent much time in negotiations in this building. No mention of Hillary. We also passed the Prime Minister’s home Our first stop was Mount Scopus where we looked out towards the Judean Desert and the start of the West Bank. The West Bank that you all have heard about on the news is the area west of the River Jordan that separates Jordan and Israel, actually on the east side of Israel. From Mount Scopus we drove to the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives gave us a panoramic view of the Old City of Jerusalem and also the Garden of Gethsemane located just outside the Old City walls. Next we visited the Upper Room, the site of the last supper. Over the years the room has been expanded but we were shown the approximate size of the original room. The Upper Room is very near the Tomb of King David that we next saw. Of interest here was the fact that women and men entered from different sides of the tomb and both men and women must have their heads covered. Lynda has a picture of Tim in a paper yarmulke that he had to wear. After lunch we walked into the Old City, our first stop being the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This church contains the sites where Jesus was nailed to the cross, where the cross stood when Jesus was crucified and the location of the tomb where he was buried. At the site of the crucifixion there is an altar underneath which is a golden plate marking the location where the cross stood. We watched many people crawl under the altar to kiss the golden marker. On each side of the altar there was glass through which you could see the actual stone from Calvary. It was very chaotic and crowded around this spot where a Greek Orthodox priest struggled to keep some semblance of order. Don’t ask why a Greek Orthodox priest. It would take too long to explain and we still probably would not be able to make it clear. The church itself that was built around and over these sites is quite beautiful. We left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and walked down the Via Dolorosa where the original stations of the cross are located. The Via Dolorosa is filled with little shops much like the bazaars in Turkey and Rhodes. We left the Via Dolorosa and followed a rather serpentine route to the Western Wall, better know as the Wailing Wall. To Jews this is the most holy of all sites. The Western Wall is actually about an 84 yard section of the original wall from the 2nd Jewish temple, over 2000 years old and the temple that Jesus visited. Given the conflicts between Jews and Muslims it won’t surprise you to learn that this wall continues on underneath a Mosque. Today people go to the wall to pray. Many write their prayer requests on a small piece of paper and than fit it into a crack or crevice in the wall. Once a month these requests are removed and buried on the Mount of Olives. Like the Tomb of David, there is a separate section for men and women and all must have their heads covered. After spending time at the Western Wall we rode in our bus to a hill overlooking Bethlehem, located just outside of Jerusalem, what we would consider a suburb. We didn’t go into Bethlehem but it is now part of the West Bank controlled by the Muslims. The Israeli’s have built a security wall around Bethlehem and it is very difficult for tour buses to go there. Again, we think of Bethlehem as a little town but it actually is a town of 85,000 people. Our guide spent a lot of time during the day lamenting the constant fighting between the Jews and the Muslims. The problem is that both religions can show proof that they should be the ones controlling the area. Sadly this has been going on for hundreds of years and will probably continue for hundreds more. We returned to our ship about 7:30 exhausted but moved by what we had seen. Fortunately, our thoughtful ship’s crew greeted us with glasses of champagne and a Welcome Back Home receiving line. Have we mentioned how much we are enjoying Silversea Cruise Line?


Tomorrow we travel to the north of Israel, visiting Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. It will be another very early start and a long day. Hopefully it will be as rewarding as today.