Israel - Jerusalem

We were up early, and after a big clean-out-the-fridge breakfast, Deena and I crammed our gear and two sleepy children into the little silver Picanto and sadly drove out of Tiberias.  While we’re excited about spending seventeen days in Jerusalem, it was hard to leave Galilee where we made so many deep memories with our kids.  The GPS told us the night before that Jerusalem was about two hours away, but as we drove, the ETA kept getting later due to heavy traffic and construction delays on the major highways heading south.  After three hours of stressful driving, we finally started climbing the hills up to the city and entered the reality version of Mario Kart.  Thanks to Deena’s expert navigation, we stayed on the correct course while I dodged cars, scooters, and buses whose drivers didn’t seem to notice that there were painted lane markers on the streets, and I think we arrived in Jerusalem on the national “Honk Your Horn Wildly” day in Israel.  It was hairy for a while, but we managed to deliver the car back to the rental company in the basement of a parking garage off King David Street with a tank full of gas and a cab full of memories.  The majority of the roads in northern Israel were very good and clearly marked, and I enjoyed motoring around Galilee for ten days.

We emerged from the depths of the parking garage and stood blinking in the bright sunshine and then dumped our bags on the sidewalk wondering how we were going to get to our apartment. The GPS said it was a twenty-minute walk, so we were strapping on our gear when a taxi slowed down across the street and Deena had the presence of mind to wave.  After a few minutes of playing Frogger to cross King David Street, we were settled in Charles’ taxi heading to our First Station apartment while he told us about his guide services and validated his excellence by pulling out a Jerusalem coffee table book and pointing to his name in the acknowledgements while driving seventy kilometers per hour.  The cab ride was only forty shekels, and it was money well spent as Charles dropped us off and left us a card to contact him—we'll probably do that at some point.  

The pictures of our our apartment on the AirBnB website showed a nice place, but we couldn’t quite get an idea of the size, and we were resigned to staying in cramped quarters during our time in Jerusalem.  We found the key stashed by our host and to our delight, unlocked the door to a spacious flat with tall ceilings, white painted walls, and golden-toned wood floors.  We explored the sheets, towels, and basic provisions supplied by our host and wasted no time finding a grocery store right across the street and struck out to stock the larders.  We were encouraged that the name of the store was Super Deal, but I think the moniker referred to the store owners’ profit margin and not the consumers’ benefit as we dropped some serious shekels for only a couple days worth of food.  We spent the rest of the afternoon resting from our travels and watched a few videos about the history of Jerusalem before calling it a day.  Tomorrow we enter the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, and the adventure continues.

As per our custom, we slept a little later after traveling the previous day and got a slow, relaxing start to our first full day in Jerusalem.  We’re still trying to construct a final itinerary, but with almost three weeks here, there’s no pressure to cram everything into a short period.  Our kitchen has no coffee maker, moka pot, press, espresso machine or any other type of contraption that would yield a true-brewed cup of aromatic java, so I’m back to roughing it with instant and dreaming of the double espressos in Santorini with the rich crema on top...sigh.  After breakfast, we decided to get out and explore a bit, so we bundled up to combat the cool air and cloudy sky that prevented any warmth from the sun and started walking toward the old city.  Our apartment is located in an area called First Station, which is considered the hip place to be in Jerusalem these day—not a real perk due to the fact that I haven’t been hip since 1979, and even that’s stretching it a bit.  Otherwise, the location is perfect since we only have about a twenty minute walk to the Jaffa Gate and entrance to the Old City.

The area of the Old City is only about one square kilometer, and just about everything else we want to see in Jerusalem is near the old walls, so we’re hoping to walk everywhere possible.  There are a few places farther away like Bethlehem that we want to visit, but buses and taxis are plentiful, and if we can just eat crackers for a few days, maybe we can afford them.  We were panting after ascending the steep hill up to the Jaffa Gate, but our adrenaline level was high as we viewed the walls of the city which were rebuilt by the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman in the sixteenth century.  With the Tower of David looming on the right and thousands of years of history in front us, we crossed into the Old City for the first time.  There was a tourist office near the gate, and we loaded up on maps and brochures before taking to the ancient streets and wandering through the Christian Quarter by way of the colorful market.  

Tower of David

We headed in the direction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which we thought we might visit on our first day if the crowds weren’t too heavy.  This church is one of the most popular destinations in Jerusalem for modern-day pilgrims and was originally built by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century after his mother, Helena, found what she believed were the locations of Christ’s crucifixion and burial.  The church encompasses these two sites along with the area where tradition says that Jesus’ body was prepared for entombment.  We came to the small square at the entrance of the church, which is subtle and nondescript, resembling an old warehouse more than a hallowed pilgrimage site.  One the second level of the entrance under the right-side arched window is the famous wooden ladder that has been in place for three hundred years testifying to the discord between the six Christian denominations which have claims to the church.  Unless there is total agreement between all groups, nothing on the grounds can be moved, cleaned, or fixed.  Even opening the front doors and locking up at night is a big deal with weird pointless rituals taking place to appease everyone.

There were groups of pilgrims present at the Holy Sepulchre, but the building was not crowded at all, and we took our time walking around the church viewing all the religious art and shrines placed by the different denominations.  We saw the rock purported to be Golgotha, and eventually wound up in line to view the area of the tomb of Christ.  We overheard a guide saying that two-hour queues are common to see the tomb, but thankfully we made it inside in about fifteen minutes.  There is not an actual tomb to view, only a marble shrine placed over the location, and it’s a small area with room for only five or six people to enter at one time.  We shared the room with one other man who got on his knees, spread out a bunch of pictures and trinkets on the marble altar, and began to pray.  We took a quick look around and left to make room for more pilgrims.  At the end of the exit walkway, a couple of long-bearded, black-frocked priests were laughing and pushing each other playfully, the only sign of mirth or joy we witnessed in this strange, dreary place.  At some point during our time in Jerusalem, we plan to visit the Garden Tomb, which is another possible site of Jesus’ burial.  We’ve done a good bit of research on both areas, and I’ll reserve my comments on the whole matter of location after that visit.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Check out the ladder under the window

We walked slowly back to the area of the Jaffa Gate and enjoyed a delicious lunch of falafel pitas stuffed with crisp vegetables and a spicy sauce.  After a brisk stroll back to First Station, we unloaded some more shekels at the Super Deal and bought supplies for a taco salad supper, which we considered an interesting blend of cultures, and spent the rest of the evening watching more historical documentaries while making plans to visit the Israel Museum.  The weather is supposed to take a nasty turn, and we hoped to spend the next day indoors viewing the archeological treasures housed in the archives.

The windows and doors of our apartment shook and rattled all night as fifty-mile-per-hour wind gusts ushered a cold front into central Israel along with driving rain and temperatures in the upper thirties.  While we’re thankful for the incredible weather we’ve enjoyed for the majority of our four months on the road so far, it’s going to take some adjusting to get used to more consistent cooler conditions for a while.  We ate breakfast the next morning and watched the wind blow the rain sideways across Hebron Road in front of our building, a sight which cemented our decision to visit the Israel Museum on this day.  We took our time getting ready and ran outside to grab a taxi between rain showers—an easy feat since taxi drivers here pass by every twenty seconds and honk at pedestrians in a reverse taxi hailing act.  Fifteen minutes later and 160 shekels lighter, we walked through the turnstile of the Israel Museum and spent the next five hours in one of the best historical and artistic archives in which we’ve set foot to date.

We spent the most time in the massive archaeology section, which houses exhibits from many civilizations surrounding the Middle East for a span of fourteen thousand years, yep that’s fourteen followed by three zeros.  It was exciting to see many artifacts taken from sites we visited in Galilee, and having the fore knowledge of location helped our perspective in the rich timeline of Israel’s history.  There were statues, frescos, mosaics, coins, and tools of every type in addition to scripts carved in stone—all linking archaeological facts to Biblical accounts.  We finally got to witness the original Pontius Pilate stone from Caesarea which was displayed between the ossuary of Caiaphas and the heel of a crucifixion victim with the nail still stuck in place.  One of my favorite exhibits was two small silver scrolls inscribed with the priestly blessing from Numbers—the oldest biblical script found in an extra-Biblical document and precedes the Dead Sea scrolls by at least four-hundred years.  The museum was packed with stuff like that, and it was all fascinating to behold.

Priestly Benediction

Pilate Stone

We spent the last hour of our visit to the main part of the museum in the fine art section and saw many works by our favorite impressionists like Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Van Gogh.  While all of the archeological exhibits were incredible, the one display in the Israel Museum that had me spellbound and will forever haunt me was a painting by my favorite Old Master, Rembrandt Van Rijn, titled St. Peter in Prison.  We had to be back at the entrance to the museum for a guided tour, and I had to tear myself away from this masterpiece which I hope never fades from my memory.  Peter is portrayed as an old man kneeling in captivity with a look of despondency on his face and his gnarly workingman’s hands clasped in prayer in his lap.  He is illuminated by a shaft of light from above while the keys to the kingdom are beside him on the floor.  Through the use of light and shadow, Rembrandt was able to depict human emotion and spirituality like no other, and this painting was the best example I’ve witnessed.

St. Peter in Prison

We wrapped up our visit to the Israel museum with a free, hourlong tour of the Shrine of the Book, a special building on the grounds of the museum constructed to house the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The docent who gave the tour was excellent, and he gave our group tremendous insight into Jewish history from the time of the the actual writing of the scrolls and the Essene sect responsible for their creation.  We saw the famous Aleppo Codex and other rare, historical texts which our guide explained in detail.  After the tour we had some time to wander the shrine and view many sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls including the famous text of Isaiah, which was discovered in its entirety.  On our way out of the shrine we saw the nano Bible, which is no larger than the head of a pin and contains the entire Bible. It has to be magnified ten thousand times to be legible.  What an incredible day filled with learning about history through a most compelling presentation.  It was dark by the time we got back to the apartment. We got out of our taxi and ran to the door in the cold rain, which was well-worth braving on this day in Jerusalem.

Nano Bible