Jesus Christ Superstar Pilgrimage

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Dear Blog Readers,



We are back! We booked a week away in Israel with no real reason other than Laura missing out on it when she went on a secondary school trip due to political unrest...they ended up going to Syria instead. She sees this as her own personal pilgrimage of one of her favourite musicals. As has often been the case, relatively little planning has been involved but we booked some flights (BA) and a nice hotel (Grand Court) accompanied by a guide book and my Panama hat.



We had a couple of lounge passes so decided not to slum it with the plebs at Terminal 5 and went at the buffet for three hours like it was an endurance challenge. The flight over went smoothly, as did the landing, but I struggled to stay awake for the movie I was watching called, ironically, The Accountant. Even worse, there were three other Panama hats in the queues for getting into the country!



Once landed in Tel Aviv, we got a shared taxi out to Jerusalem (64NSI each, about £15). It was 6am so we got to our hotel pretty quickly and dumped our bags as our room wasn't ready yet. We walked into the old city of Jerusalem. It was a really pleasant walk, the weather here is fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky and not oppresively hot or humid. In fact it sounds similar to London's heatwave at the moment...yet this city doesn't go into meltdown by the looks of things.



We had a wander around the city and got lost weaving in and out of the marble stoned streets. It was a quiet Sunday morning and many of the Jewish men we saw pacing around were trying to get to their respective synagogues. We found a nice little cafe which served pastries and fresh orange juice to try and wake us up. We flicked through the guidebook and were advised to go onto a walking tour of the city as early into our trip as we could. How about 3 hours from landing?



The walking tour started just outside the old city walls which almost put York's to shame. We begun outside one of the four main gates into the city - so far untouched by the UK confectionary industry, the Jaffa Gate. Our tour guide for the next two hours, Yariv, was an enthusiastic history buff who oozed a love for his job and the city. He was fantastic. He went through the fascinating history of the city in the shortest time possible, even handing us a bookmark he made with the timeline for when things happened. He blamed the British for bringing too many cats to the city to try and kill all the mice and rats (suppose it could have been worse). We managed to have whistlestop tours of all the major sites the city had to offer, an overvew of each of the religious quarters and put us in good stead to plan out the rest of the week.



After the tour, on a full stomach of hummus, skewers and chips, we walked back to the hotel in the now blistering heat and finally got some sleep! The hotel room is great - top floor overlooking the city and a swimming pool to boot. After a good power nap, we walked back into the city via the closer Domascus Gate about 20 minutes away. This went through the Muslim quarter initially which had more of a hustle and bustle feel to it than the Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters we had predominantly walked through on the tour in the morning. Made sense too...given that its Ramadan, most of the Muslims would have been asleep due to the fasting this morning.



We decided to follow the 14 stations through which Christian tradition assumes Jesus passed on his way to crucifixion. The walk was truly fascinating and following in the footsteps along Via Dolorosa (The Way of the Cross) compounded the feelings we experienced when Yariv spoke to us in the morning such that here is where millions of people's belief systems actually occured. The historic route ends in the holiest church in Christianity - the Holy Sepulchre. This was really special seeing pilgrims from around the world gather and pray in the same place Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. We were able to touch the slabs of rock that they believe he was on and as it was later in the evening, away from the tour groups of the day, we had relatively peaceful tranquility in which to experience the place. However, we did enjoy the mardy priest who kept hurrying people out of the Holy Sepulchre section, the other priest cleaning the holiest alter in the world with some Dettol spray and the fact that because none of the Christian factions could decide on who actually owned the church, the only keys to the place are in the hands of a local Muslim man we saw waiting outside when we left!



On the hunt for some food for dinner, we went through the Muslim quarter again but it had turned eerily quiet again. Just as the prayer calls starts coming out of the speakers, we realised we had mis-timed it and that most of the shops and restaurants had now closed as families turned to each other for a celebratory feast each evening. Instead, we headed into the city and scoped out a nice kebab place followed by some quality ice cream. The evenings here are really pleasant - a nice breeze and perfect for the long walk back to the hotel...clocking up a solid 38,000 steps in the day according to Laura's watch!



Tink & Laura x



PS: Photos to come later once we upload them from our camera...

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Welcome back to blogging...
I look forward to reading about the rest of your pilgrimage...perhaps with pictures?!