Blogs from Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel, Middle East - page 3

This was one of my must do activities while I was here. I specifically packed my Nana's rosary to bring to Isreal to carry it with me during this particular pilgrimage. I awoke this day and spent a good hour having coffee with Lori and finding out about her life while telling her a bit about mine. Then, it was time to head out and back to the old city. While there are tours that you can buy, I wanted to go it alone. However, finding the starting point was a bit harder than I had expected. I did stumble onto the first station but I apparently looked very lost. A gentleman asked if I wanted a guide and I totally took him up on it. I hired him and he took me to each station ... read more

I was so excited to get to the old city I was out the door by 8am! And considering this was the first night I slept the whole night through and didnt get up until 7:15, you can see I was anxious to get out the door! Stopped at the Train Station for coffee and off I went to explore... The Old City is a little over a mile away...perfect. As I was walking I couldn't help but admiring the view and when I was able to spy the walls of the old city...breath taking! Along my walk I met an older gentleman that was walking my way and we fell into conversation. I informed him that my goal was to tour the Tower of David today and then explore. He was so very gracious about ... read more

Visiting Israel evokes a reaction from friends and family. Isn't it dangerous? What about the Palestinians, the wall, Gaza? Why go, you're not religious? Well, Jerusalem isn't the little town I'd read about in the bible as a child. It is a modern city with traffic jams and super-trams. But there are so many names we half-remember. The Mount of Olives offers us a great view of the old city. The Garden of Gethsemane still contains olive trees. There are also sites and names that we remember from more recent news programs. Getting to the Al Aksa mosque and the Dome of the Rock requires queuing and being security screened. The same is true to visit the western, or wailing, wall. But it is all very civilised and polite. Three religions have a claim, a need, ... read more

Today we visited the birthplace of John The Baptist at Ein Karem. The family actually had two houses - one in the valley and one on the high hill where they spent the summers to escape the heat. It is believed that Mary (mother of Jesus) visited Elizabeth at the one in the hills. John The Baptist is believed to have been born in the house in the valley. John the Baptist was one of the babies that should have been killed when Herod ordered all the boys under the age of two to be put to death, however hie was hidden and saved. The church built on the site of the winter home is one of the most beautiful church I've seen. It is filled with beautiful ceramic tile from floor to ceiling. The pictures ... read more

This morning, The Israel Museum, home of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a large sculpture garden (I have a confession – I have a sculpture fetish). We needed to take a bus across town. The bus system in Jerusalem is complicated; there are separate Jewish and Arab buses. We set off up the hill to the nearest Jewish bus stop. We thought we’d located it; a sign and a bench and some bins (quite a lot of bins with hindsight), but the bus sped past and stopped 100m further up the road. We were sitting at a recycling centre. Second time lucky, we caught the bus to the museum. Upon arrival we discovered an added bonus; an exhibition by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Each piece was accompanied by a detailed description of the thought process ... read more