Jerusalem

Israel 80’s

I LOVE Israel. No matter what your religion is, it’s an incredible country!
It is an ancient, yet very modern city. The entire country is an archaelogical dig. There have been amazing changes since we were here 17 years ago.

Yesterday, we splurged on a private guide to Jerusalem. Three days prior to disembarking, Israeli officials boarded the boat to check each of us with our passports face-to-face. When we arrived at Ashdod, and disembarked, our guide was no where to be seen. Fortunately we had his cell phone and the port authority called him. They told us to take a shuttle to Gate 2. We got on the shuttle and waited 10 minutes while the driver argued with an Israeli guard. Finally, we took off—first stop Gate 5. When we got to Gate 2, our guide wasn’t there. They had told him to go to Gate 5! We finally got together for the beginning of an unforgettable day.

He took us on the back roads to Jerusalem. We went through a beautiful forest and stopped at a fascinating sculpture called the Gates of Fire. That depicts the Holocaust to redemption in a metaphoric way. We visited the grave of Dan, where we saw religious Jews praying—then on to En Kerim, a small hillside village with a Carmelite monastery. We arrived at Yad Vashem, which is totally different from the way it was 17 years ago. I thought it was the best representation of the Holocaust possible. Our guide said that it overwhelms people, so he took us to the highlights, which still took over 2 hrs. Two of the most moving sights were Shindler’s original lists and videos of 2 Lithuanian Jews who as children survived being taken to a pit to be shot. They fell on top of a pile of dead bodies before they were shot and managed to survive.

We had a choice of going to visit the Knesset (parliament) or a large market and neighborhood. You may think we chose the Knesset, but we’d been there before and went to the market. The food stalls were all beautifully displayed and immaculate. The smells were wonderfully good because of the spice stalls. Our guide knew everyone there and it was a kick. We had falafel and schwarma at a small restaurant and walked the neighborhood which has small, colorful houses around a large garden or small park. There were tiny synagogues next to some of the houses each one with a story.

We headed to the hold city to visit the City of David Archaeological Park, which contains the excavations far below the level of the western wall. My 3 favorite sites were a stone with the carving saying something to the effect of “stand here to blow the shofar.” There was a grand staircase leading up to the temple mount, and a pile of large stones that remained where the Romans destroyed the temple. Our guide felt these 3 places were more significant than the western wall, which was just part of an outer wall.

Next we went into a tunnel that goes beneath the western wall. It contained ancient streets, an extension of the men’s wall, a large cistern among other sites. We excited the tunnel next to an Arab shop, with a Jewish boys’ school on top, across from a Christian church. Our guide pointed out that
Although books say that the old city is divided into 4 parts, Armenian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, they really all are together.

Right in the old Arab quarter, we went into the Austrian Hospice. From the outside, it looks like nothing special, but you go up some stairs to a gate and enter a large, beautiful garden with a Viennese coffee bar. We had apple streudel and coffee. From the roof top, we got a spectacular view.

We briefly walked thru the Cardo, the Arab quarter, the Armenian quarter, and the Jewish quarter before heading back to Asdod.

Put Israel on your bucket list. We only scratched the surface yesterday.