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Middle East » Israel » Jerusalem District » Jerusalem
October 13th 2009
Published: November 26th 2009
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We arrived early in the morning in the commercial Port city of Asdod, Israel. The Israeli's customs had already boarded the ship the day before to do face to face interviews (ours lasted 20 seconds I would guess) with each visitor and give us our visa (they didn't stamp our passport). They double checked our passport again as we left the ship, we were one of the first to disembark to meet our tour guide Gideon in his mini-van that barely fit the six of us. After a few wrong turns in the port area and through security again we were on our way to Jerusalem, about an hour drive to the east. "Welcome to the Land of Milk and Money" -- Gideon.

Gideon dropped us off right at the entrance to the Temple Mount with a view of the Mt. of Olives while he parked the van. There are three lines, one entrance to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) for men, one entrance to the Western Wall for women and a third for the Temple Mount. Signs posted that it was not allowed for certain Jews to enter the Temple Mount, I think this was a religious edict as
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Gideon, Kelly, Mike
there was another along with it saying it was acceptable to enter a metal detector during the Sabbath. The lady in front of us had a Bible and was not allowed to bring it in. We weren't allowed in the Mosques here and at one point we stopped under a tree while our tour guide gave us a brief history and a young Arab sitting on his prayer rug near us got up to argue with our tour guide who declined to argue back so we walked away as he continued and followed up with a Website we should look at. A "Why Islam?" leaflet would have been preferable.

We walked through the Cotton Gate through another metal detector but with no lines into the Western Wall area. Not sure why but this one didn't separate the women from the men like the other entry did into the same area. I borrowed a Kippah (yarmulke) from Gideon and we entered walked down to the wall, men on the left, women on the right divided by a curtain. There was a (air-conditioned!) room attached to the men's side with bookshelves filled with books in Hebrew. All along the walls inside and out Jewish men were praying. Inside the small room was a scratched Plexiglas window on the floor covering a small area excavated to show the depth of the foundation of the wall, it went as deep as it was tall outside.

Tour of Bethlehem: As we left the walls of Jerusalem we drove past the grave of Oskar Schindler (couldn't see it, just the sign indicating it was close) who is well known for helping Jews survive the Nazi concentration camps towards Bethlehem. I hadn't given it much thought but our tour guide is not allowed as a Jew into the Arab controlled area of the West Bank where Bethlehem is separated by the Israeli security fence which is actually a large concrete wall here; a very imposing wall made of concrete, guard towers, barbed wire around 25' high. Gideon and one of our tour group members wasn't in favor of this wall but a concept of a fence to keep people out isn't a new and it seems to be effective. We were passed to an Arab tour guide that works with Gideon and he led us on foot easily through the wall onto the other side. Our new guide led us to another van with a driver and a small lady Gabriella. Only a block or two away our tour guide got out leaving us with the driver and Gabriella taking us the rest of the way. This was all very surreal at this point, we had left our contact with Gideon, the guy he handed us off to was also now gone after walking through the large security wall and everybody in our group was just looking around and not talking at all.

Gabriella, a Romanian who married a local quickly put us at ease after our 10-15 min ride to the Church of the Nativity, co-operated by Greek Orthodox, Armenian as well as Roman Catholic and is built over caves where it is been believed for almost two thousand years that this was the place Jesus was born. Large tour groups were in lines up to an hour wait to go below but since we were a small group we were let in through the exit (much the anger of those coming out) to a room where they believe is the exact spot where he was born and 10' away where the Magi met him. It was so crowded all I was able to take a picture of was the people bending over getting photo's and to the to kiss the markers, many of which were Asian who seemed to take this very seriously. The historical accuracy of this being the cave has validity but the exact spot markings I'm a bit skeptical of. We went through other rooms within the cave system and soon returned back to Gideon. Whew!

After a quick lunch at a chain soup and sandwich restaurant we went a private park known as the Garden Tomb. It's small park outside the gates of Jerusalem where a stone tomb was excavated and a hill that if you squint just right looks like a skull, or Golgotha. Golgotha by the way was just outside the fence with Arab gravestones on top. The Garden Tomb is run by volunteers who give tours and work the bookstore, the current volunteer couple were British. The Garden Tomb is an alternative to the site of the crucifixion as burial site to the older and established site of Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where we went later) that now exist inside the city walls. Our tour guide mentioned at least twice that this may not have been the exact spot but the part he stressed the most was his belief in the empty tomb, regardless if this was the exact one or not.

The advantage of a private tour is we were able to ask Gideon for a quick stop on the side of the road so we could look out over the desert to the east. He got out with us and pointed out that in the distance was the Dead Sea and to the left (North) was Jordan though I couldn't really make either out.

Gideon then drove us to the top of the Mount of Olives covered in Jewish graves overlooking the city of Jerusalem. Our next stop further down on the Mount of Olives we went to the "Garden of Gethsemane" with it's Olive Trees then to the Church of All Nations that is attached to the Garden. Young and teen Arab boys stood at the top and here at the Garden trying to stick twigs of olive branches into our hands (and even my pocket) looking for a bit of money.

We were running out of time as Gideon then drove us back into the city to see the following: Room of the last supper, King David's tomb, and we just happened to go through a courtyard where they were giving a small boy his first hair cut as they were having a celebration around this event.

Back in the van, Gideon dropped us off at the Jaffa gate to wait while he went to park the van again. We quickly walked through maze of small streets to arrive at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Golgotha founded when crucifix's were found during an excavation during the time of Constantine. It was getting dark by the time we arrived, crowds were heavy here and tourists walking among the active Church services going on - there were several functions going on at the same time. Like Bethlehem, people were clustered around the spots designated as the exact spot of the crucifixion and the place where the body was prepared. I would have loved to spend a few days taking our time and wondering around the old city streets of Jerusalem. At least we were able to see the outer walls at night lit up by spot lights before we left.

Traffic was heavy as we returned back to Ashdod. Gideon had trouble getting us to our ship through the maze of fences and blocked paths in the port but we eventually made it back around 7:20 or so, 10 minutes before our deadline or 40 minutes before the ship was scheduled to depart. We paid Gideon our flat $500 (~$83/pp) and a tip and said our farewells. I think Gideon would have stayed and talked to us as the gang plank was going up, he seemed to have just as good of a time as we had.




Link to Kodak Gallery Photos.

Video Mount of Olives, Jerusalem (YouTube). Click the HD button once video loads for 720 HD.

Video Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Video Western Wall.

Video Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

Video Haircut Celebration.








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