Days 380-382: Jerusalem
We weren’t planning on visiting Jerusalem on this trip. But we saw how close it was to Amman, then Marcus saw a picture of the Dome of the Rock, and Kelly really wanted a bagel, so we went.
Sure, the government travel warnings actually had us a tad worried for the first time on the trip. So we made it a quick trip in-and-out (3 nights). Just enough to see some of the holiest sites of the three largest monothesistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
The vast majority of the time it takes to get from Amman to Jerusalem is spent spanning the four kilometer stretch across the King Hussein Bridge at the border. Between the bus wait, the check points, being held captive on the bus while “higher priority” folks went ahead, and trying to get our bags screened without figuring out how to bribe the bag handlers, it took us a good four hours. Getting through passport control (they didn’t even question our Syria visas) and through bag check (they didn’t open ours) was a piece of cake in comparision. Others didn’t have it so easy.
We got to the Old City and were shocked by the number of people about and a bit nervous about finding a place to stay. Turns out it was the last day of orthodox Easter celebrations, and thankfully everybody was leaving. We got a sweet hotel room, and during the next few hours a steady stream of every foreign tourist on our bus across the border eventually arrived at the same hotel.
The Old City is divided into four “quarters” consisting of the Armenian, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sections. We didn’t see much character in the Armenian quarter, but lots of posters about the Armenian genocide. The Christian quarter had churches and robed orthodox folks. The Muslim quarter had a maze-like souq (covered market). And the Jewish quarter was mostly recent construction and full of orthodox folks and very young soldiers with enormous guns. The great thing about having so many religions represented was that the days that the shops were closed varied by quarter.
We stayed in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and spent much time wandering through the narrow souq.
In the morning and evening the souq was a pleasant place, but in the middle of the day it was so bumper-to-bumper with people that Kelly declared shopping had turned into a full contact sport. 🙂
A spice shop in the souq. Note the tower of spices.
On our first day there, we were greeted with incliment weather. So we started out with the indoor site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – which most major Christian denominations recognize as the site Jesus was crucified, burried, and resurrected.
Lamps above a sacred stone at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Throngs lined up to get into the shrine within the church.
Lots of groups of religious travellers around the churches would break into choral songs and have services in the street. This got Marcus singing “Joshua fought the battle of Jerico” from the old church choir days in San Diego.
The Lutheran church next door had a tall bell tower with a nice view of the city.
Next we visited the Wailing Wall. The men and women had separate areas, and all the action was on the men’s side which also had a huge indoor section with boisterous groups carrying big Torahs and throwing candy.
Close up of the Wailing Wall. Note the scraps of paper with prayers wedged into the cracks.
We did venture into the posh New City a few times for chow. A lot of places had pat-downs at the entrances – at least for Marcus. It took us a bit to figure out why they only patted down his torso. The taxis in the New City were gleaming white, new model Mercedes-Benz. We never bothered taking a ride since we knew we couldn’t afford it.
Kelly was also able to satisfy her bagel cravings in the New City.
Kids yarmulkes for sale in the New City.
The next day we visited the gorgeous Dome of the Rock. The rock is holy to the three monotheistic faiths as this is the site where Abraham was tested by God to sacrafice his son. It is also where Prophet Mohammed is believed to have launched into heaven.
A detail of the blue tiling on the Dome.
We were not allowed inside, but we were able to peek through a window. The lit spot in the bottom left of the picture is part of the rock (as we were able to tell from the postcards).
A common scene in daily life in Jerusalem.
We also visited the tomb of the Virgin Mary. This metal-on-painting picture outside of it was the first we’ve seen of this style.
In addition to Mary’s tomb at the base of the hill, there were many other churches on the Mount of Olives east of the old city. The one we found most beautiful was the Russian Orthodox Chruch of Mary Magdalene with it’s stunning gold onion domes.
Although we’re not religious ourselves, we were surprised by how much we enjoyed our visit and were glad we went.
Tags: Jerusalem
Kelly & Marcus
May 18th, 2006 at 7:37 am
So, how was the bagel?
May 18th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
… where Prophet Mohammed is believed to have “launched” into heaven…
Okay, I understand that you are not religious. But really?
May 20th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
we are so jealous you got to see jersusalem. marcus and i just spent the last year studying the book of genesis. we were blown away by God’s plan. neat that you all saw the holy city where so much of Gods plan occured…
May 20th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
greetings from Belgium! Don’t worry, I’ve had plenty of waffles, chocolate and beer.
Did you see on the news the ‘naked guy’ from Berkley died in prison?