Jerusalem - The Holy City

Laura, at the airport, just after arriving in Israel!

Jerusalem, known as either the “Holy city,” or the “Eternal city,” is filled with sacred locations and many religious people of all walks of life. Since we had only a few days in Jerusalem, and nothing additional planned for Israel, we spent most of our time in the old city, which is surrounded by a city wall, built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500’s. The entire city is filled with shops, selling everything from t-shirts to supposed ancient remnants to spices to religious icons. It is an interesting place, to say the least…with a plethora of religious pilgrims armed with holy books and soldiers armed with semi-automatics on every street corner. Many of the shops selling everything you could imagine were housed within centuries old buildings, sharing space with the many holy sites. The city of Jerusalem has a certain “feel” to it and we definitely will never forget our time there.

As many of you may know, the cheapest flights are always at the most inconvenient times. Our flight to Jerusalem left Rhodes at 11 PM, had a layover in Athens for two hours, and then arrived in Jerusalem at 4:30 am. So, without much sleep, we hopped onto a service (read: shared) taxi, and sped off toward our hotel. The bus driver was an odd man. The whole way to the hotel he was having a strange conversation in Yiddish, with one of the passengers who didn’t seem to be able to hear him. He also didn’t seem to feel comfortable staying in one lane. He mostly drove in the center, between the two lanes. He also seemed to pass cars, then slow down and let them pass him, only to pass the car once again. All this while making sure to avoid committing to one lane. It was a pretty wild ride.

Our hotel was nice, ok, no it was kind of a dump. The plusses were that it was a three story, Muslim owned place just behind the Tower of David, next to the Jaffe Gate in Old Jerusalem. We had a single room with bathroom ensuite and could see most of the holy sites from our balcony, including the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, and the Mount of Olives. We also had a fridge and SATALITE TV, which was totally cool. 4 whole channels in English, and more news, talk, and religious channels from around the Arab world than anyone could every want or need. The negatives to our place are that the bathroom was pretty gross, and there was no A/C, so the room having no windows tended to get very hot…Also, our room was right across from the kitchen/breakfast area. So between the heat of the day and the conversation of the early risers, we didn’t even need to set an alarm clock. We also were somewhat near a mosque, so we heard the call to prayer five times a day, starting at 4:30 am, which did not help our sleeping in or napping either.

Once arriving in Jerusalem and after a short nap to recoup from our night of flying, we met up with an old friend of Eric’s named David Druce, who is an avid reader of our blog (Hi David!! Shout out!). Eric and David were good friends back in the day, until David moved away in fourth grade. They reconnected on Facebook and then face to face here in Israel. After we met up with David, we all walked around the old city for a few hours, went to the wailing wall, and then went to dinner at a salad bar/bakery restaurant. David also introduced us to the coffee slushy, which is a tasty and cool beverage. They serve them like Slurpees, but it is coffee and ice, not sugar. We turned in early that night, after making a few phone calls and sending out a few emails.

Eric and his buddy, David, in front of the Mount of Olives.

Eric and Laura in front of the Dome of the Rock and the Western, or "Wailing," Wall.

Eric and Laura in front of the Western Wall.

Laura in front of the Citadel of David and Jaffe Gate, at night.

The next day we got on a bus and headed to Tel Aviv, and the Jordanian Embassy, to get our visas and special access permits for crossing the Jordan River over the Allenby bridge. On the bus on the way to Tel Aviv, there were quite a few soldiers, and one of them was sitting across from Eric on the ride there. His rifle was sitting on his lap while he ate a sandwich, and it just so happened that the rifle was pointed at Eric’s foot. This caused us to stir, as we both were hoping that the young man did not drop his Falafel onto the trigger! We made it safely to the embassy and did our business quickly. With that finished, we headed back to Jerusalem to walk through the Muslim Quarter, and to check out the Via Dolorosa, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We saw where Veronica’s veil was, where Jesus rested his hand, and where he was crucified and entombed. It was a very beautiful and sacred place, and really an honor to see in person.

Laura in Tel Aviv, before we got to the Jordanian Embassy.

Eric, in front of an ancient tile map of the world.

Eric, in front of the Dome of the Rock, on the rooftops of the old city.

Laura, at the Roman Cardio Maximus, the main road through town.

Not only is Jerusalem full of holy sites, but we also found that it was the site of the first wheel!!

Eric and the western wall, in front of a group of soldiers who are being sworn in.

Eric pushing through a crowded street on in the Muslim quarter.

Laura, on the roof of the Church of the Holy Spulchure, where there is an Ethiopian Monastery.

Eric, at the Ethiopian Monastery

Eric at the Church of the Holy Speulchure

Eric inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchure

Eric touching the Rock where the Crusifiction took place.

Laura shopping in the old city.

On our third day in Jerusalem, we hopped on yet another bus and rode down to a place called Ein Gedi. This is a nature reserve down by the Dead Sea which also happens to have a beach and a swimming area. The drive to the dead sea was captivating, as the Negev desert is beautiful and dry. We “tanned” on the shore (impossible to do in the intense heat), and swam in the salty water, which makes you much more buoyant than normal, allowing you to float almost up out of the water. It is slimy, and the shore is covered in salt crystals. Fortunately, there were showers nearby. After a snack and an ice cream, we headed back to Jerusalem. When picking up dinner we chose a sandwich, which looked good, but then later, luckily just before we ate it, we found out it was made with chicken hearts. Whoops! Needless to say we did not partake!

Mountains of the Negev Desert

Laura in front of the "Dont drink the water" sign

Eric with some rocks, covered in Dead Sea salt crystals.

Eric, floating in the Dead Sea.

Laura and Eric on the shore of the Dead Sea, under an umbrella.

Eric on the shore of the Dead Sea, with some mountains

Eric on the shore of the Dead Sea, with some Dead Umbrellas

So we were hungry at this point and we walked and stopped by an open market on the way to the hotel and picked up some different and less gross food for dinner. The market was full of people who were pushing and shoving, and yelling out prices for things like cakes, bread and fruits. It was chaos, but the food was good and relatively cheap, so all was well. We ended up with pita bread, hummus, a Mediterranean sandwich, and a few other tasty goodies. We walked back to the old city with three young boys, who spent the half hour trying to teach us some words in Arabic, and then we rested to prepare for our border crossing into Jordan the next day..