Our kids of course loved the zoo, and the next day Nelya and I set out to see some more sites around Jerusalem.

The next day, while Nelya’s aunt watched after Eitan and Nathan, we visited the City of David, one of the most ancient places in Jerusalem that goes back to the time of King David.  Here we descend to the tunnels.

A lot of history took place here, but it requires a strong imagination in most places to figure it out.  There are numerous signs saying – here was the palace.  There’s a bedroom.  There’s such and such a room.  Etc. Etc.  Then you look up from the sign and see something like this.

Still, it was fascinating to know that, somewhere in this rubble, King David and his contemporaries actually walked around.  There are some tunnels here you can take that are very long and wet.  We chose not to take them, but if you choose to do so make sure to wear flip flops and bring a flashlight – the ones they give you there make great toys for the kids, but little else.

Another note about the City of David, and most other sites around Jerusalem for new travelers is – there are taxis at most major sites.  A number of taxi drivers will attempt to convince you that there aren’t taxis at the destination you are going to, so you should pay them to wait.  Don’t fall into this trap.  Tip your existing taxi and then pick up a new one when you are ready to leave.

On the way to our next destination we stopped to examine the latest fashions…

We also caught a little soccer game in the Jewish Quarter.

Our final site of the day was the David Citadel – another of Jerusalem’s famous (and rather tricky to find) sites.

Unfortunately most of the history of this structure escapes me, but if you’re interested there are ample sources on the Internet.  It was very interesting though, and a good base to get some views of the new Jerusalem.  According to our relatives there, every building that goes up in Jerusalem is a mitzvah – primarily because it enhances their hold on the city.  This is a very charged part of the world, and many Israelis see every additional plot of land taken up with an Israeli structure as making it more unlikely it will fall into Arab hands.

Almost as interesting as Israel itself are the discussions about Israel.  One of my colleagues recently broke out into disgust about Israel – stating that he is pro-Palestinian.  In general, I have noticed that people in college and high school these days seem to sympathize more with the Palestinians than the Israelis.  Obviously I am biased in this debate myself, as Israelis are my kin I would not take sides against them.  However I did have a number of discussions with Palestinians there and both sides have points – which is generally the case with any protracted dispute.

The thing to keep in mind though is that on both sides you have individuals who really only desire to live their daily lives.  On the Israeli side, people want to not live in fear.  They want to be able to go shopping, celebrate, and take public transportation without fearing for their lives.  On the Palestinian side, you have individuals who just want a job to provide for their families.  They want to live in a decent place and be able to afford food and daily things that we take for granted. 

Standing in the way of this happening for both sides are a small number of fanatics who simply cannot stand the site of one another.  In the madrasas, they teach young Arab children that all Israelis must die.  In synagogues, speakers compare Palestinians to dogs and children are brought up to fear them as they would any rabid animal.  Hate breeds more hate and the cycle continues.

While it was fascinating spending time in Jerusalem, our time there really showed us how deep down this problem is.  However, for our trip it’s time for some fun.  Tomorrow we will leave Jerusalem and head for the Dead Sea, Masada, and Qumran.

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Unfortunately when we arrived most of the museum was closed for renovations and would only reopen the following year.  At the time of this writing, I believe it is still closed.  However, all was not completely lost.  The highlight of the museum, the Shrine of the Book (pictured above) houses two incredibly important documents to the Jewish culture – the Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Not all of these documents are on display, but it is the only place in the world where some of the originals from both are on permanent display.  Photography is not allowed inside, and therefore I cannot provide any photos.  However, tomorrow I will show where these amazing documents were found.  As the rest of the museum was closed, we headed on after a short period of time.

The next part of our journey was the most difficult to take.  Vacations are supposed to be fun times – seeing cool things, beautiful landscapes, amazing animals, and visiting with family.  However, with some places comes the requirement to share the dark with the pleasant, the horror with the beauty, and take upon the duty to honor those of your ancestors who perished.  It was time to go to Yad Vashem.

Yad Vashem is a requirement when visiting Jerusalem – whether you are Jewish or not.  It is not an easy place to take and children below the age of 11 are strictly forbidden for their own safety, as some of the sites there would likely give them nightmares for years.  When you go, I suggest you use a guide who will give a lot of background information to the tons of signs and videos on display there.  The museum has few historical artifacts, but instead focuses on telling the story of the systematic destruction of over six million Jews and millions of others who did not deserve death.  It was advised to us to make this the last activity of the day, as you will be too heavy hearted to continue on.

All of you have heard about what happened during the Holocaust and have seen some of the amazing films about it.  Still, seeing actual movies showing machine guns mowing down people, then the bodies being pushed into huge ditches – lifeless faces each of whom likely was an interesting person in real life, were hard to take.  What was perhaps the toughest for us was watching what happened to the children – who were always killed with their mothers because otherwise it was more difficult.  On one occasion we heard of a security guard taking a young child from his mother and handing him to an old woman.  The mother screamed for the boy back and the guard hushed her – “I just saved your life”.  After the Holocaust the parents, who went on the build the well known Spiegel brand, donated a sum of money to create a memorial to children. 

The memorial is not that large, but is completely dark save for a few lit candles and hundreds of well placed mirrors, that make it appear as if you are in a large section of spaces with candles as far as you can see – each candle representing on of the several million children who died just for being Jewish.

Sorry that this could not be a happy post, but I owe it to these people to not continue and allow a period of reflection.  This is the last event for the day, and our trip will resume tomorrow.

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The Western Wall (also called the Kotel) is open twenty four hours a day and there are almost always people there praying.  This is a very serious place, and you are expected to be respectful.  Dress must be appropriate and for men the head must be covered (most women also cover their heads as well – but with a scarf or bonnet instead of a kippah).  While I was there, I saw a number of presumed Christian approach the wall without a head covering.  Please, if you feel uncomfortable covering your head, don’t approach the wall.  Not wearing a head covering is considered extremely offensive.  Note that there are individuals from which you can rent scarves and kippot.

Also note that, as the Western Wall is considered to be an orthodox synagogue, there are separate sections for men and women to pray.  Men are not allowed in the women’s section and vice versa.

The Western Wall is considered the greatest synagogue in the world, and many people write requests on small pieces of paper and place them between the stones.  While I am not a religious person, I must admit that seeing this site did have its effect on me.

For those not interested in religion, this wall also has historical and political meaning.  This is ground zero in the Israeli/Arab debate – as on top of the wall is built the Temple Mount.  To Arabs, this is the third holiest site in the world.  To jews, the Temple Mount is considered a desecration.  With strong opinions and obstinacy on either side, a solution in our lifetimes seems unlikely.

Historically, the Western Wall is the only thing that remains from the Second Temple that was destroyed in the year 66 by the romans.  If you go to the Israel Museum – on the outskirts of Jerusalem – you can see a model of what ancient Jerusalem looked like, complete with the Second Temple.

Interestingly, my guide book had several pages discussing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and one paragraph on the Western Wall, which I found rather strange given its importance.  Most of the Western Wall is actually below ground and there are tours available that take you down to see the base of the wall.  Unfortunately they get booked up quickly and we did not find the time to go.  However, you can get a view of how far down the wall goes by entering the prayer book section on the left.  I’m not sure if the women’s section has this, but in the men’s section there are windows that let you see how far down it goes.

This is a poorly taken picture of it – the lighting was very low and obviously I’m not going to bring a tripod into a prayer room.

My wife mentioned that she didn’t remember seeing this on the women’s side.  In the room where this was taken, there are a number of chairs and tons of prayer books.  This is the only picture I took, as I did not want to bother the people praying.

When you go to the Western Wall, you will notice an inordinate number of beggars.  The reason for this is it is custom to give money to the poor when visiting the Western Wall.  Whenever someone in our family goes, everyone usually gives him/her a few dollars to give to people there.  Obviously the beggars there are well aware of this.  While many keep their distance, a number of them can be quite intrusive and a security guard had to pull one away from me while I was praying.

As I like to understand all religions, against the wishes of my wife’s family I went to visit the Temple Mount.  This area is forbidden for Israelis and their is a passport check.  The entrance is up a windy ramp next to the Western Wall.  For non-Muslims, this is the only entrance.  All other entrances are for Muslims only and are guarded by non-humored heavily armed Israeli soldiers.  There is a large sign upon entering that it is against Jewish law to go there.  So I guess I wound up breaking the law.

I set out early in the morning as I wanted to get the best possible light.  I also hoped to be able to get shots without people in them.  The guards at the check took apart my camera bag, but the only thing they were concerned with was a kippah I had accidentally placed there.  The guard mentioned that no prayer was to be done there – it is illegal not just in the religious sense, but also in the jail sense.  I nodded and tucked the kippah back into the bag where I would not accidentally open it.

When I got up there, as predicted the site was very sparse.

I tried to gain access to the Dome of the Rock, but there were two burly Palestinians who explained that entry was forbidden for non-Muslims.  I noticed several tours also rejected – so I suspect this is not always the case.  I later found out that entrance depends on a number of factors – such as who is guarding it that day.  Often a bit of money will gain entry, but these guys weren’t letting anyone in that day.  Still, the site was very beautiful from the outside.  I didn’t try to get inside as I don’t like people offending my culture, so I didn’t want to offend theirs.

While I was up there, a man (presumably Arab) came up to me and asked me whether this was the first time I had visited the Temple Mount.  I said it was to which he responded – “thank you for visiting and enjoy your stay”.  This area has been known for some very violent acts and for that reason I presume it gets so few visitors.  This is a shame, as the area has tremendous historical importance.

This is the Al Aqsa Mosque – where the latest infantada uprising began.  Several years ago, and Israeli politician came to the Temple Mount to pray.  Arabs were outraged and violent protests broke out.  On this day it was a bit more peaceful.  Again, I didn’t try to gain entry.

Well, that is enough for today’s journey.  We’ll spend one more day in Jerusalem – visiting sights such as the Citadel and the City of King David, then we’ll head to the Dead Sea, Masada, and Qumran.

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So let’s get started with the first destination in the trip – the holy city of Jerusalem.

Before I get into depth about the trip, I would like to dispense with one preconception about the Middle East in general and Israel in particular – it is not a dangerous place.  Not once during our trip did we hear a bomb, bullets, or anything the least bit threatening.  The most scary part of the entire trip was the horrible Israeli customer service.  So don’t be dispelled with what you hear in the news – Israel and a good portion of the Middle East is perfectly safe to travel too.  In fact I feel safer in most parts of the Middle East than I do walking in the US at night.  We have so far been to Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Oman and felt very safe in all of them. 

So getting on with the trip, we typically arrange to arrive at our destination at night – which allows us the chance to sleep and then get up in the morning – usually finding ourselves already adjusted to the time zone.  We did this with Jerusalem as well and one of my wife’s cousins picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel.  Our first big scare was when his car got stuck on the freeway and we couldn’t figure out how to start it.  Luckily I found the instruction manual for the car but it was in Hebrew which didn’t help me much and he had difficulty following all the steps listed.  Finally one of his friends drove by and we rode with him to the hotel.  A policeman finally stopped to start our cousin’s car – so he was OK.

We checked into the American Colony Hotel which was easily the best hotel we stayed in the entire trip.  It is a very historical hotel and despite its name receives very few Americans these days.  There is a reason for this – the hotel is located in the Arab part of Jerusalem.  We didn’t mind this and felt perfectly safe, though two buildings away was a headquarters building for the PLO.  (I didn’t bother asking to go in)  Despite this, the area is very peaceful and one of my wife’s cousins who served in the Israeli army near there mentioned that it is not dangerous.  Still, my wife’s relatives were all hesitant to go there due to Arab/Israeli relations.  The hotel is lavishly decorated but for some reason I didn’t take any photos.  Ironically it used to belong to a Nazi collaborator and anti-semite.  As I understand it is Swiss owned, though all of the employees are Palestinians.

Enough about the hotel, let’s take a short walk into the old city.

This is the gate (Herod’s gate I think?) that enters into the Arab part of the old city.  Jerusalem is a fascinating city and is very ancient.  However the most interesting thing I found about Jerusalem is it’s still in use.  If you travel around Europe, most medieval towns now house shops and tourist related activities.  This is not the case with Jerusalem – where most of the city is still being used the way it was a thousand years ago.  In fact, I was rather surprised that Jerusalem in general had poor tourist facilities.  In particular finding things in the old city was a challenge.  This is a the definition of a “street” in the old city.

There are very few signs and we often had to ask where to find things.  Even very important things – such as the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were rather difficult to find.  On the first day, we decided to follow Via Dolorosa.

This street (or network of streets – it is not a simple path) lived up to its name.  It is very much like the street above, but darker because most of it is covered.

Along the way there are different stops where different important things occurred.

Add to this the fact that we had too strollers and two lazy kids (three and four years old) meant that we often had to carry all of them (kids in strollers) up and down all of these stairs.  By the time we were done my arms were bleeding from getting constantly scraped by the strollers and we were completely out of breath.  I am not Christian, but during the whole ordeal I often though – “poor, poor, Jesus”.  Just when my wife was ready to insist that we give up and head back, we ran into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of the most important churches in the world, supposedly contains the tomb of Jesus and is a very strange church.  Partly due to history, partly due to the fact that multiple churches own it (Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic), the church is more of a maze than a cathedral.  Each way you look there is some staircase that goes somewhere interesting.

After hanging around a bit at the Church and catching our breath, we wandered around some of the Arab spice markets, where Nelya picked up some spices to take home.  A number of spices she remembers from Tajikistan were available there that are not obtainable here in the US (or are of a better quality there).

All in all it was an interesting first day, and we were quite exhausted at the end of the day, though there was one extremely important thing we still saw that day.  However that deserves the beginning of a new post, so I will discuss it tomorrow and in the meantime leave you with the thoughts of covered crammed markets and exotic spices in the old city markets of Jerusalem.

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So let’s get started with the first destination in the trip – the holy city of Jerusalem.

Before I get into depth about the trip, I would like to dispense with one preconception about the Middle East in general and Israel in particular – it is not a dangerous place.  Not once during our trip did we hear a bomb, bullets, or anything the least bit threatening.  The most scary part of the entire trip was the horrible Israeli customer service.  So don’t be dispelled with what you hear in the news – Israel and a good portion of the Middle East is perfectly safe to travel too.  In fact I feel safer in most parts of the Middle East than I do walking in the US at night.  We have so far been to Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Oman and felt very safe in all of them. 

So getting on with the trip, we typically arrange to arrive at our destination at night – which allows us the chance to sleep and then get up in the morning – usually finding ourselves already adjusted to the time zone.  We did this with Jerusalem as well and one of my wife’s cousins picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel.  Our first big scare was when his car got stuck on the freeway and we couldn’t figure out how to start it.  Luckily I found the instruction manual for the car but it was in Hebrew which didn’t help me much and he had difficulty following all the steps listed.  Finally one of his friends drove by and we rode with him to the hotel.  A policeman finally stopped to start our cousin’s car – so he was OK.

We checked into the American Colony Hotel which was easily the best hotel we stayed in the entire trip.  It is a very historical hotel and despite its name receives very few Americans these days.  There is a reason for this – the hotel is located in the Arab part of Jerusalem.  We didn’t mind this and felt perfectly safe, though two buildings away was a headquarters building for the PLO.  (I didn’t bother asking to go in)  Despite this, the area is very peaceful and one of my wife’s cousins who served in the Israeli army near there mentioned that it is not dangerous.  Still, my wife’s relatives were all hesitant to go there due to Arab/Israeli relations.  The hotel is lavishly decorated but for some reason I didn’t take any photos.  Ironically it used to belong to a Nazi collaborator and anti-semite.  As I understand it is Swiss owned, though all of the employees are Palestinians.

Enough about the hotel, let’s take a short walk into the old city.

This is the gate (Herod’s gate I think?) that enters into the Arab part of the old city.  Jerusalem is a fascinating city and is very ancient.  However the most interesting thing I found about Jerusalem is it’s still in use.  If you travel around Europe, most medieval towns now house shops and tourist related activities.  This is not the case with Jerusalem – where most of the city is still being used the way it was a thousand years ago.  In fact, I was rather surprised that Jerusalem in general had poor tourist facilities.  In particular finding things in the old city was a challenge.  This is a the definition of a “street” in the old city.

There are very few signs and we often had to ask where to find things.  Even very important things – such as the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were rather difficult to find.  On the first day, we decided to follow Via Dolorosa.

This street (or network of streets – it is not a simple path) lived up to its name.  It is very much like the street above, but darker because most of it is covered.

Along the way there are different stops where different important things occurred.

Add to this the fact that we had too strollers and two lazy kids (three and four years old) meant that we often had to carry all of them (kids in strollers) up and down all of these stairs.  By the time we were done my arms were bleeding from getting constantly scraped by the strollers and we were completely out of breath.  I am not Christian, but during the whole ordeal I often though – “poor, poor, Jesus”.  Just when my wife was ready to insist that we give up and head back, we ran into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of the most important churches in the world, supposedly contains the tomb of Jesus and is a very strange church.  Partly due to history, partly due to the fact that multiple churches own it (Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic), the church is more of a maze than a cathedral.  Each way you look there is some staircase that goes somewhere interesting.

After hanging around a bit at the Church and catching our breath, we wandered around some of the Arab spice markets, where Nelya picked up some spices to take home.  A number of spices she remembers from Tajikistan were available there that are not obtainable here in the US (or are of a better quality there).

All in all it was an interesting first day, and we were quite exhausted at the end of the day, though there was one extremely important thing we still saw that day.  However that deserves the beginning of a new post, so I will discuss it tomorrow and in the meantime leave you with the thoughts of covered crammed markets and exotic spices in the old city markets of Jerusalem.

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