Old Jerusalem
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2007
1
7
13
Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Jerusalem,
Israel
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
We started with a drive up to the top of The Mount of Olives to see the views. On the way down to the Old City we stopped in at the Church of all Nations with the tomb of Mary and the Gethsemane Gardens which has the oldest olive tree in the world at over 2000 (yes, two thousand) years old! We also glimpsed a view of the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene with its amazing domes.
Then, for us, the highlight of Jerusalem, we went to the "Western Wall", "Wailing Wall" or, in Hebrew, "Ha Cotel", the most important religious place in the world for Jews. As with any Orthodox Synagogue, the men and women do not mix but rather have separate places of prayer. When I went towards The Wall a Hasidic man took me to The Wall as well as into the small Synagogues were all of the Torah's are kept and where Barmitzvahs are held
Mount of Olives
. It was really special to be there as it is about 15 years since I last visited The Wall.The rest of our Old City tour took us through the Arab Quarter, where we stopped for a delicious Arabic/Turkish coffee. We then walked along the Via Dolorosa from the 5th station to the final 13th and 14th stations inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. From there we went to the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter, what was the Cardo Maximus, the main street of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem, a wide colonnaded avenue flanked by roofed arcades. There are wells that allow you to see down to the strata of a wall from the days of the First and Second Temples.
Time for lunch; we met Yael at a restaurant in "New" Jerusalem and were treated to another delicious meal. Rather than continuing on with more touring after lunch we all decided to call it a day. As it was not too far from our guesthouse, Annie and I went for a coffee at "Acaffe", apparently the best coffee shops in Israel, the coffee was very good. We found our way back to our guesthouse and relaxed for a while until our evening adventure.
A number of years ago I worked with Meira Milanov and that evening she and her husband Judge Itzik took us out for a tour of the night views of Jerusalem and a delicious dinner at one of their favourite restaurants
Mount of Olives
. The story of the restaurant was that, during one of his cases, Itzik had to have bodyguards as he had been threatened. When he asked the young man what he wanted to do when he "grew up" he said he wanted to own a restaurant. Itzik said he would and that night we were eating at one of the two restaurants owned by the then bodyguard! Needless to say we were treated really well.It was the most fascinating and enjoyable evening. We got to see a number of very different views of Jerusalem and spend an evening talking and listening to people who have lived in Jerusalem "forever". The only problem was that it got to around midnight and time to go home. We did get to spend some more time with Meira and Itzik on another occasion but we look forward to spending more time with them when we next go to Israel again.
