Jerusalem

Friday, January 20, 2012

We arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, 18 km outside Tel Aviv, at 5am and went to find our Hertz rental car.  A sign on the Hertz counter directed us to the parking garage where we found some empty spaces under the Hertz sign.  There wasn't a person in sight and no signs to explain what to do next.  While we were pondering what to do next a group of young airport employees showed up to hang out, smoke, and play on the luggage carts.  They informed us that we should just wait and eventually a rental car van would arrive to take us to the cars.  About 5 minutes later the van showed up.  Not a big deal but very disconcerting.
Once in our car we set out for Tel Aviv.  Driving in Israel is not as bad as tourist sites would lead you to believe.  They drive on the right, like we do in America, and the highways are generally well marked.  City streets are also marked but the smaller ones are often in Hebrew.  Navigating them with just a map proved frustrating so we made use of a wonderful invention -- the iphone gps navigation app-- which worked beautifully.  (Note to Apple App Creators: The app shouldn't just tell you the entire distance and how long that will take; it should also let you know how much further to go and the ETA.)
We arrived at the Mt. Zion Hotel in Jerusalem by 8am - about an hour after leaving Ben Gurion.

The lobby of the Mt. Zion Hotel overlooking the Kidron Valley and the old city of Jerusalem - King David's City.  The Mount of Olives and Gethsemane are on the distant hill.

Then we set out to explore Jerusalem.
A word of advice: Jerusalem is very, very hilly and the streets are primarily cobbled, so be sure to wear comfortable, broken in walking shoes!  Seriously!  This is not a time to worry about fashionable feet!  Also, if you intend to go into any of the religious sites (and what else would you do in Jerusalem?) make sure to dress conservatively (both men and women) and bring a scarf to cover your head and shoulders (women).  Men need a head covering in the Jewish sites and need to remember to remove it in the Christian ones.
We walked down the Mt. Zion hill where the hotel is located and climbed up to the Zion Gate in the city walls. At the gate was a sign proclaiming King David's Tomb, (which I thought was located in the valley below our hotel), but inside we found lavatories and an L-shaped entrance to the Armenian and Jewish Quarters.  I am still not exactly certain where the great king's tomb is.

Zion Gate - Old Jerusalem

  After entering the gate we wound our way down through a maze of lanes between largely modern buildings designed to fit in with the look of the old city.  The disconcerting part of this was the uncertainty about whether we were actually inside the Old City or not.

A Jerusalem street flanked by modern buildings designed to blend with the ancient.

 Meandering through the maze I attempted to follow the signs toward the Western Wall.  

We passed the Cardo - the great Roman Way - a wide passageway carved out by the Romans to make going through the city easier for chariots and soldiers.

A mural depicting the Cardo in Roman times

A section of the Roman Cardo which originally stretched across the city.

 All the lanes in the quarter begin to look the same--Except for wonderful little tongue-in-cheek shops like the Holy Bagel.

Then we were suddenly standing above the plaza before the Western Wall!  The Dome of the Rock pointing heavenward above it and the ruins of Herod's palace, the marketplace and stairs leading to Solomon's great temple to the right, trailing down into the valley below.

The Dome of the Rock sits above the Western Wall.

To the right is the Davidson Museum and the Jerusalem Archaeological Park.

The golden dome over the Rock of Moriah on which Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, if God had not stopped him; where Solomon built his temple to house the Ark of the Covenant; where Mohammed journeyed to on his Night Journey with Gabriel to pray with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; from which Mohammad ascended to Heaven; where Jesus was brought to be circumcised and where he later made his Bar Mitzvah.

We descended down to the Western Wall.  To the left was the men's area where rabbis waited in prayer near cloth draped tables to perform necessary rituals.  A couple of boys were making their Bar Mitzvahs, and other men draped in prayer shawls prayed at the Wall, the closest area to the Holy of Holies. To the right was the women's area.  A fence erected down the center to keep the two separated did not stop some women from standing on chairs to watch their sons and grandsons as they read the Torah.  One family group danced the Hora afterward holding hands across the barrier.

Looking over the fence to the men's side.

The smaller women's side.

Men on the left, women on the right.  In the area

near the wall men and women celebrate over the barrier.

I went to the wall.  I am standing in front of the woman in the pink coat, wearing a black head scarf.  My satchel strap is across my left shoulder.

 I pulled my black scarf up over my head and approached the wall to say a prayer for my husband and sons.  Women near the wall were reading from prayer books, crying and clinging to the wall--some seated in chairs.  Other women were standing on chairs looking over at ceremonies being performed on the men's side.  I was somewhat surprised that a number of women did not cover their heads or back away from the wall, walking backward until out of the prayer area.  I was not surprised at the 'wailing' only that it seemed to be confined to the women's area.

Leaving the Wall, we went around to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Museum on the southern side of the temple mound.  This area was fascinating for me.  Herod had built a huge palace adjacent to the temple wall with a private entrance only for himself.  Behind his palace was the ruins of a steep hillside covered with lanes and small market stalls.  Thousands of pilgrims, according to a film in the Davidson Center, would have navigated these lanes collecting the items needed for sacrifice as they climbed the hill.  Finally they would have ascended a broad set of marble steps, climbing over three stories high to the Ritual Bath under the eastern Huldah Gate, and then ascending again another few stories to the Huldah Gates to enter the temple plaza.  

The entrance to Herod's palace compound.  The arches on the left were the king's private entrance to the Temple Mount, the inner courtyard is marked by the arbor near the people in the center, and the palace itself extended out to the cypress trees and connected to the city walls and the temple walls.

To the left is part of the upper wide staircase leading up to the Huldah Gates. The students in the distance are sitting on another section of the stairs. From the plaza I'm standing on pilgrims could access the Mikveh baths below the stairs.

A better view of the arched Huldah Gates at the top of the steps.  These gates were walled over by the Romans in 73AD and the houses and shops in front burned to prevent the Jews from returning to Jerusalem.

Looking across the market ruins and the valley below to the Mount of Olives in the distance.

The original gates into the city to begin the climb to the Temple are below the current street.  The Kidron Valley drops still further before climbing steeply up the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

 

Through the lanes to the Via Dolorosa.

 After touring the ruins, we walked back through the Jewish Quarter to the Arab Quarter to the Via Dolorosa, which runs from east, at the Lion's Gate  (St. Stephen's Gate), at the Umariya Elementary School, near the location of the former Antonia Fortress, and winds its way westwards towards the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter. There are 14 Stations on the Via Dolorosa, 9 along the route and 5 inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 
This route is largely a matter of faith - some believe that the route is wrong and should run from the east to the west, while others believe that the actual crucifixion and tomb of Jesus lie outside the city beyond the Damascus Gate.  According to Eyewitness Travel guide to Jerusalem, "Excavations show that this site lay outside the city walls until 43AD when new ones encompassed it.  Until that time it was a disused quarry in which an area of cracked rock had been left untouched; and that rock hewn tombs were in use here in the first centuries BC and AD." 

 

The sixth station of the cross

The sixth station (detail to right of door) reads 'Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.'

Entrance to the multi-denominational Church of the Holy Sepulcher

 The Church of the Holy Sepulcher went through centuries of fierce disputes over ownership.  This was resolved by Ottoman decree in 1852, known as the Status Quo.  By this decree custody is divided among Armenians, Greeks, Copts, Roman Catholics, Ethiopians, and Syrians.  Every day, a Muslim key-holder unlocks the church, acting as a neutral intermediary. This role has been performed by members of the same family for generations.

 Inside the Church the first thing to be seen is the 'stone of unction'.  At the foot of Golgotha, is the stone of Unction or of Anointing. It is a polished red stone about six meters long and one meter wide. According to tradition, the body of Jesus  was anointed and prepared here for burial. Note the people laying out
crosses and rosaries to bless them.

 Further inside to the left is the tomb itself, now ornately encased in marble and granite rather than the limestone the quarry contained. Somewhere in this massive complex is the rock of Golgotha, but I did not see it. 

Actually, I found nearly all of this just a bit disturbing.  I loved the city of Jerusalem itself with its crush of people, markets, and symbolism.  The Western Wall was moving in the devotion of the pilgrims who came to pray, but it also reminded me of the story of Job sitting in the ashes of his life wailing. 

The Christian sites were an homage to the desire to get closer to where Jesus walked, lived, and died.  And yet, they also curiously carried a taint of an elaborate hoax.  Pilgrims want to believe and need to believe and so they do, but I am not convinced that in the immediate days, weeks and years surrounding Jesus crucifixion that anyone was thinking of carefully saving the cross, the stone of unction, or in noting the exact places of the trial, the exact route walked to Golgotha, and the specific burial location.  The time was just too precarious.  Just 30 years after the Crucifixion, Jerusalem was burned and the Jews (and the Jewish followers of Jesus Christ) were kicked out of Jerusalem.  It was 300+ years before Constantine and the missions to save the Christian sites began.  Besides to the early Christians, Jesus' resurrection and teachings were the important things, not the minutiae of detail that became so important 300+ years later. 

It was time for a break.

This was the most awesome felafel I've ever had!  And all the toppings and sauces were fresh and delicious.

  After wandering about eating the felafel from a street vendor on the Via Dolorosa, we came to a small plaza with a cafe on the rooftop of one of the buildings. We climbed up to have some restoring Arab coffee served watered down a bit (American style) and to see the view.  Then we worked our way back along the Via Dolorosa to exit the city through the Lion's Gate, directly across from the Mount of Olives.  When we got to the bottom of the hill at the main road, we exhausted-ly stared across the road to the steep climb that awaited us if we were to climb the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane on foot.  Not for the first time did the idea cross my mind that Jesus and the apostles must have had "buns and thighs of steel" not to mention very strong feet!
A very observant Palestinian cabdriver came to the rescue!

A night in Reading, England

Our flight arrived at Heathrow Airport at 4:30am, thanks to a very strong tailwind, according to the pilot.  By 5:30am we were through customs and out to the car rental area.  Rush hour was already in full stand still in an absolutely black misty, rainy morning.  It turns out that the sun doesn't rise in January until just before 8am!  So in the blackness, on the wrong side of the road, and without GPS we drove south instead of north off the M4 and turned a 30 minute journey into 2 1/2 hours.

Reading Abbey Ruins including the Prison

Abbey Chapel

Reading was once a very important Abbey town (according to the guide post).  The Abbey church and ruins date from 1100AD and are very striking Norman buildings in a checkerboard design of small blackish glossy Onyx stones with larger cut white limestone detail. 

There are two other churches still in use that also date from Norman times:  One is in the center of the old town next to the town hall.

Chruch next to the Town Hall

Reading Town Hall

 The other is St. Mary the Virgin which dates from 979AD.  It strikes me as odd that in the US we have a difficult time keeping buildings that are 100 years old maintained and in use, while here is a stunning example of a church over 1000 years old that still holds daily services - for parishioners not just tourists!

The rear of St Mary the Virgin Church from the cemetery.

The front of St Mary the Virgin church.

St. Mary the Virgin Church held its Millennium Celebration in 1979.  Amazing!

A close up of the onyx stones which make up the field of the walls between limestone blocks.

Of course, like all proper English towns, there are pubs!  We had a dinner of steak and ale pie and a pint of house ale while we were chatted up by the locals.  Lots of references to "a dodgy pie that" and in case we didn't understand, "there's better pie to be had at Sweeney Todd's."  There is actually a Sweeney & Todd's pub in town specializing in steak and kidney pie.  Dodgy, eh?

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Managed to find an ancestor in the pub!

Getting Ready

It's Sunday evening, January 15, 2011. Our trip begins on Tuesday afternoon and, as usual, I've been packing in my head but nothing has made it anywhere near my suitcase yet.  In fact, we finally booked the hotels and cars today!  Yes, I am a major procrastinator!


Procrastination has nothing to do with sub-conscious fears about the trip, or of some sort of anticipation paralysis. I think I actually like the craziness that happens when you wait until the last minute to pull it all together.  It makes the excitement palpable.

This doesn't mean that I haven't created the complete packing list in my head, however, or that I haven't imagined every step of the itinerary.  I have wanted to visit the Holy Land "someday" since I first created my childhood list of "Things I want to do in my life."  A few years ago I heard that this is called a bucket list, but in 1970, it was a list of pipe dreams.


I found that list I wrote in my grandmother's house about ten years ago - thirty years after I wrote it.  I was amazed at how many of the things I had actually accomplished without even remembering that there was a physical list laying around somewhere. Score one point for visualization!