Jerusalem

Jerusalem

One of the few disappointments we had on this lovely cruise was when they told us we would only have one stop in Israel.  We had been scheduled to stop at both Haifa and Ashdod but they decided to eliminate Ashdod for security concerns, which meant that the scheduled tours of Jerusalem would now depart from Haifa as opposed to Ashdod.  In practical terms this meant that we would be on a bus for ninety minutes longer than we would have if we had started the tour in Ashdod. 

We had to wake up at 6 am to get ready for a 7:15 departure to Jerusalem, not something you relish when on a vacation, but this was our only shot so we really had no choice.  The bus ride was narrated by a Zionist who attempted to be fair in his representation of the Arab/Israeli conflict, but of course it was impossible.  His soliloquies were as monotonous as the scenery; there was nothing but rock and dust once we headed inland for the long drive to Jerusalem. At some point we came to an ugly wall that separates Ramallah and the West Bank from the rest of Israel. 

We finally got to Jerusalem and were able to get some photos from atop Mount Olive.  This was a rather overwhelming day since our guide was hell bent on making sure we saw EVERYTHING in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  After our vista photo ops we headed to the Garden of Gethsemane and the neighboring Churches of All Nations and the Paternoster.  Back on the bus and off to the Western Wall, aka the Wailing Wall.  We first had to go though security to enter the wall area, separate lines for men and women since the Orthodox Jews do not like the sexes to mix.  In fact, only a very, very small portion of the wall is open to women while the rest is just for men.  There is a large library within the caverns of the wall that holds scrolls and holy books.  It was also filled with Orthodox Jews in prayer and I understood more why it used to be called the Wailing Wall.

We regrouped as a tour and were off to the Arab Quarter of Old Jerusalem.  These were narrow alleyways filled with people and shops. This is a very old quarter and the walkways were all made of large smooth stones that have been there for thousands of years.  We had a few downbursts of rain and the stones became very slippery and it didn’t help that most of the way was uphill. We followed the Via Dolorosa, Sorrowful Way, which marks the route that Jesus followed from Antonia to his execution.  All fourteen stations are marked in the walls where they took place; the last four are all in or around the Church of the Sepulchre.  I must say that at the end of our time in Jerusalem, I was feeling much like this quotation from a review of the book Jerusalem in the Washington Post, “The 19th-century novelist William Makepeace Thackery, one of many disillusioned visitors, wrote that ‘there’s not a spot’ in Jerusalem ‘at which you may look but where some violent deed has been done, some massacre, some visitors murdered, some idol worshipped with bloody rites.’”

We exited the Arab Quarter past a Mosque that had been erected right next to the Church of the Sepulchre and headed to the bus, once again, for our trip to Bethlehem. I must say that at this point of the day I would have been happy to just head back to the ship but of course there was no turning back.  Bethlehem is basically a walled city.  Inside the Palestinians manage it so we had to stop and get a Palestinian guide since the Jewish guy was not allowed to continue the tour.  After getting permission from the local police to drive to the Church of the Nativity, we finally got out of the bus and headed up the hill to one of the oldest churches in the Holy Land.  There is a very, very small entrance into the church, supposedly to prevent livestock from entering.  We went through the three separate altars and areas that are controlled by the Armenians Apostolic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, and the Catholic Church. There are, as you would imagine, lots of little spaces where there are special shines and it can get very crowded very fast, so I was in and out of the must-see places rather quickly.  It was kind of cool to be right there where Jesus was born and they have done a great job in keeping this place ‘outside’ of the politics of religion.

We were finally finished with all of our touring but they had one surprise left for us. It is mandatory for all tour buses to stop and shop in Bethlehem before being allowed to leave.  We had to stop at one of the large and lousy religious souvenir stores for thirty minutes before being allowed to get back on the bus. The one good thing was that the store had a nice toilet so everyone had a last call before our three-hour trip back to the ship in the dark.  As it turned out the trip back was more like three and a half hours because of an accident and we didn’t get back until about 8:30 pm.  The ship extended the dining until 9:30 pm so as to accommodate everyone on tours.

Needless to say, we did not sign up for any tours the next day opting instead to just a gentle walk around Haifa, which is a really pretty city if you stay in the wealthy areas; isn’t that always the way it is anywhere?  We managed to get back to the ship in time for a late lunch and lovely nap to rest up for the trip to Port Said and our visit to Cairo the next day.

To be continued….