Last Leg of the Journey

Our journey began with hauling our bags  towards Budget Rent-A-Car, just down the street from our hotel, when who did we see but Jusuf! He convinced us to let him drive us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and do a short tour of Jaffa Old City before heading to our Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Jaffa is up on a lovely hill looking out over the Mediterranean. One of the pictures shows the ruins of the original harbor, barely discernible now, as a quay of mostly submerged rocks.

Just to walk around for a while, we meandered through the mall, which is located in a tower of levels (3 or 4), attached, more or less, to a four-tower complex of businesses, hotels, bank, and train service (which opens directly into the mall! Imagine taking the train to the Annapolis Mall and getting out right next to Lord and Taylor's!).

The hotel has an indoor pool, jacuzzi, and spa on level 10 (Dave took a swim), and a chic - chic restaurant on level 11 with an amazing view.

We decided to feast on sushi and salad for our last meal in Israel, before catching a three hour nap.

Up at 12:45 a.m., taxi to Ben Gurion International Airport, and going through a series of very carefully processed checkpoints (I had to haul out my diver's license with a more recent haircut to assure the officer I am who my passport says I am).

Bags checked, boarding passes issued, and now begins the long flight home, with a stopover in Frankfurt--where yes, we have every intention of eating frankfurters and documenting the event for posterity!

The People, the Book, and the Land

Thankfully, we'd already planned on relaxing into the last few days of our trip and, just in time, it was exactly what we needed, physically.

The first set of pictures are various views of the place we've stayed in all week--the YMCA Three Arches Hotel, directly across the street from the famed five star King David Hotel. Every day has been a treat in this well-kept secret of Jerusalem. We got the inside skinny from Dr. Eric Cline, and now we pass on to you.

For an amazingly inexpensive fee you get deluxe accomodations in a beautiful place with sumptuous breakfasts thrown in. The YMCA has a long and evidently beloved history with Jerusalem. Everyone we met smiled in surprise and acknowledged what a good choice we'd made.

Yesterday we decided to take the bus to visit the Bible Lands Museum. Israel has an impressive rapid transit system!

We learned things about the ancient Middle East we'd never heard before. For example, the ancient city of Mari, Syria counted its dynasties from the timing of the Flood. The Hebrew alphabet was adapted from ancient Canaanites' alphabet. Proto Hittites actually had their own form of hieroglyphics. And though there are significant and distinctive differences, there are also some striking similarities between ancient Egypt's and ancient Canaanite's religious practices, to Moses' instructions in the Pentateuch.

Afterwards we walked through one of the numerous beautiful parks that dot the city and watched children play in the city fountain before they were trundled off to Shabbat services.

Last night we walked up to the Jaffe Gate and did some people watching. Jewish families dressed in the garb of their various sects were streaming out of the Old City, having completed Shabbat worship, while Muslims in their own garb, men with their prayer rugs slung over their shoulders, streamed into the city for evening prayers.

Today we dedicated to exploring the archaeology section of the Israel Museum, which includes a permanent installation for the Dead Sea Scrolls. Even after five solid hours we did not see it all! So we bought the book.

From the Dome to the Upper Room

We knew today would take some strategy, so the day before we did a trial walk-through of times and locations for entry-points to the Dome of the Rock (on the actual Temple Mount, built squarely over not only sacred Mt. Moriah, but also the spot where Isaac was bound and offered by Abraham, and where David bought a threshing floor to offer up sacrifices to God).

The narrow walkway allows only one person at a time to go up, and is entirely enclosed. The police checkpoint includes a bag search, metal detector, and passport inspection. Non-Muslims are not permitted inside the Dome, and only limited areas on the Mount.

Led by a guide for part of the way, we got too close to one of the mosques, and I needed to cover my hair (I had already donned a long sleeved shirt as precaution). The person in a black head covering, blue shirt, and olive skirt is not a peasant women--that's me.

A very few tourists had braved the journey to the Dome. Otherwise Ramadan is a somber time; Muslim men were gathered in prayer and study, and Muslim women also, separated to their areas, many in full black burkas.

Afterwards we hiked down to the City of David to Hezekiah ' s tunnel. It took us about forty minutes to walk through this tunnel of living rock, chiseled three thousand years ago using amazing engineering, the cool flowing water rising sometimes up to our thighs. The tunnel empties into the newly discovered Pool of Siloam, originally an acre-sized public pool, and currently only partially excavated.

Getting to both these sites had required traversing the great plaza banking the Wailing Wall, complete with police checkpoints on both sides. So once again, we removed our bags and paraphernalia to enter the plaza and saw a whole line of Bar Mitzvah parties processing up to the Wall for services.

Rabbis in their hats, side curls, and long black coats, musicians on the clarinet, shofar, and hand drums, crowds spontaneously dancing, clapping, and singing joyfully, proud father's with their gorgeously bedecked sons waving and grinning under canopies, we just had to stop and celebrate, our hearts swelling  with them.

This time, as we wandered through the Old City, we found ourselves in the Christian Quarter eating delicious hummus, pita, and fresh salad, and drinking lemonade with mint leaves.

Right next to us was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place almost all archeologists agree is the most likely site for Jesus' crucifixion and burial. In the picutres, what looks like a house within the cathedral actually encases what is thought to be the empty tomb. The picture of glass - encased rock is thought to be the exact location of Jesus' cross.

It had been my intention to find the Armenian Quarter to see their world famous ceramics. But somehow, in the maze of narrow and often enclosed streets, we ended up in a quiet corner in front of a great gate, with not a soul in sight. After the throngs of the city it was almost as though we had walked through the wardrobe into Narnia.

We walked through the gate and realized we had come to the oldest church on the planet, home to 600 Syriac Christians, who still speak ancient Aramaic. Under this church, the claim, is the Upper Room where Jesus and His disciples held their Last Supper, where Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection, and where the Holy Spirit descended on the 120 men and we gathered there at Pentecost.

We spent a delightful two hours listening to the riveting stories of Justina, a Syriac Christian who had emigrated from Iraq.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped to listen to two street musicians (Note to our daughters--yes, young, handsome men, just like these two, are all over the place here in Israel!!!)