Tuesday was a relaxation day, for those who took the tour to Cairo and the Pyramids to recover prior to the next long day in Israel.
Wednesday dawned as a repeat of most days - sunny and cloudless, although a little cooler than most everyone on the ship has been used to for almost the whole world cruise. The Captain might as well just record the weather report for his 9:00 update: ‘It is a beautiful ‘Crystal’ clear day out there…the latest weather forecast I have shows nothing but good weather ahead of us…’ has been a standard refrain throughout the trip.
Of course, most of us were awake BEFORE the sun rose as the all-day tours were set to leave at around 7:15AM and there was mandatory personal-appearance Israeli Immigration inspection beforehand. No one could get off the ship without their stamped visitor’s pass (no, they don’t stamp your passport) and of course, this didn’t start on time so it held up a lot of the tour buses.
We had originally planned to go to Masada and the Dead Sea, but changed that to a tour of Jerusalem instead as it was Holy Week and, as Larry has said, ‘going to Israel in Holy Week and not going to Jerusalem is like going to Rome and not seeing the Vatican’. Apparently it turned out to be a good choice, since we overheard someone at one of lectures saying that a bad traffic accident in front of them on the highway to Masada made the whole tour extremely late and their swim (float?) in the Dead Sea became no more than a chance to dip their toes in.
We had very light traffic going into Jerusalem - about an hour’s drive from Ashdod - but most likely it was because everyone had been up late the night before celebrating the Pesach or Passover Seder with their families. Our first stops in the morning weren’t too bad, but by the time we finished lunch and headed out to our walking tour of Old Jerusalem, the tour crowds and the locals had caught up with us.
We had an extremely knowledgeable tour guide named Rafael, who had undergraduate and graduate degrees in Theology, and who did his best to bring the religious/political issues between Israel and Palestine into an unbiased perspective. At one point we were standing overlooking a valley as Rafael pointed out the distant hills in Jordan, the Red Sea, some Israeli settlements and the infamous “security fence”, at which point someone asked if what we were looking at was the “West Bank”. When he said that in fact it was, a lady blurted out “then those settlements are in Palestinian territory!”, to which he replied “Welcome to the Middle East!”
From Mount Scopus, overlooking the West Bank
Also in the morning, we visited the room where the Last Supper might possibly have taken place. Our destination lecturer had explained that some fairly recent discoveries of the remains of a synagogue dating back to the 1st Century right underneath the building gave the claim more archaeological credence. And since there’s no fancy build-up like there is in some of the other sites, it was much easier to imagine that it in fact could have happened here. Of course, Larry didn’t find the scribble on the wall saying ‘I was here (signed) Jesus’ so he’s not entirely convinced.
The 'actual' room is the area on the left by the stained glass window. The other areas were added afterwards
Mary's tomb under the Domition Church - one of 3 possible sites around the Middle East and Turkey
Our first stop on the afternoon walking tour of the Old Town was the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Being Holy Week we had expected it to be crowded, but this was ridiculous. According to our onboard destination lecturer, who is a credentialed historian, most scholars accept that this church is in fact located on/over Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. The “actual” site is on the second floor and is reached by an incredibly steep and narrow staircase. A (really gaudy, in an Eastern Orthodox sort of way) shrine has been built over a hole in the floor (a sterling silver plated hole no less) revered as the actual hole that held the cross! Call us cynical, but we figure the chances of this being the actual hole are right up there with winning 6/49 all by yourself…………ten times!!!! Nonetheless throngs of good Christians couldn’t wait to get close to this place. You could tell they were “Good Christians” by the pushing, shoving, cutting in line and general disregard for anyone but themselves. We had several older people in our group and a few of us “younger” types actually feared for their safety. Actually one of the older ladies was very nearly knocked down the stairs on the way out by someone trying to get in through the exit. These pictures will give you some idea of what we are talking about.
A small sample of the crowds
The Shrine - the person in the middle is bending toward 'the hole' where the cross allegedly stood
Note the restrained decoration
After exiting the crucifixion site, the next stop (on the lower floor) was the “actual” tomb Jesus was buried in We put that in quotes as there are at least one, and possibly two, other sites that our lecturer told us are better candidates as the true site. Nonetheless, a three-hour-long line of pilgrims meant we weren’t going to be able to get into the tomb. Our guide explained that the length of the line (besides it being Holy Week) is due to the fact one must enter and exit the mausoleum surrounding the tomb through the same door, and this gets to the constant battle between the five Christian Sects that control the church complex. Five of the six control the “entrance” door, but the sixth controls the “exit” door and has decreed it to be a “holy place” suitable only for use by their clerics!!! Well at least the line was orderly here. We left the church feeling more than a bit disgusted by the whole thing.
The Mausoleum surrounding the tomb. At noon, the sunlight shines through the hole in the dome and hits the tomb. The only thing all the Christian sects could agree on.
We think we may have walked on/crossed over/been somewhere close to the Via Dolorosa, but our guide never had a chance to point it out specifically since he and Sarah the tour escort and Michael from Shorex and one of the ship’s photographers were extremely busy trying to keep our group of 23 intact. Some of the old streets, now converted into what reminded us of Arabian souks, were so narrow that two people would have a hard time passing each other, never mind the hundreds trying to.
Not the greatest photo, but could you imagine Jesus trying to find his way around modern 'Old Jerusalem'?
Our final stop was the Western, or Wailing Wall in the Jewish Quarter. This wall is the last remnant of the Second Temple and as such is Judaism’s holiest site. Our guide had explained that in Biblical times entire families would travel to Jerusalem at Passover to worship at the temple, and although only the wall remains today, the tradition remains the same, particularly among the most Orthodox of the Jewish community. Actually our guide did tell us that this site is always busy and as crowded as it was, it is actually more crowded on Friday/Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath!!!!
The “tradition” when visiting the Wall is to put a prayer or request to God on paper and insert it into a crack in the wall, and our guide handed out paper and pens to those who wished. While a few of our group went off to do this, we stayed with our guide as he discussed the “Palestine” situation from a different perspective. In the picture you see the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s holiest site, which is built right on top of the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. He said that the majority of people in Israel accept that the West Bank and Gaza will be the Palestinian state of the future. The problem is both sides want their “holy site” to be their capital and “how do you do that when one is built on top of the other??” His best guess is that his great-grandchildren and “our” great-grandchildren will still be having the same conversation years from now.
