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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Imagine that someone woke up someday and thought.

“I live here in some desolate area of Wyoming, but I kind of like Chicago.  So, I’ll build Chicago right here.”

The scale of building in Dubai is matched by nowhere on Earth.  When we were there, every patch of ground in sight was the future location of some skyscraper.  The following shot gives you an idea.  This is part of the Marina complex, which is now complete.

Admittedly, the original reason we went to Dubai was for the shopping.  Dubai is well known as the shopping destination both of the Russian rich and famous as well as the bargain seekers.  Normally when we are bargaining for a price, Nelya and I will use Russian with each other to discuss what price we should offer.  This approach did not work at all there.  Neither did using Tajik, as the large persian population there understood it very well.

Although Dubai is known for its shopping, we weren’t really impressed by it there.  While every high end brand you can imagine is available there, the prices were not bargains by any means.  The silk souq did not really compare to the silk markets of Singapore and electronics and camera equipment were more expensive there than in the US.  We did however get decent bargains on gold and a beautiful silk Persian rug.  The quantities of gold in the gold souq itself was impressive.

Nelya and I both had fun at the spice souq, where you could buy vials of saffron for a quarter.  It was quite mind boggling seeing saffron for sale by the kilo.  The vials made great gifts for friends and coworkers upon returning. 

Malls in Dubai made the largest of our malls look tame.  They are currently constructing the largest mall in the world – far larger than the current largest mall located in Edmonton.  We went to a relatively new mall called Ibn Batuta, where each section of the mall resembled a different part of the world.  The following shot is of a ceiling in a mall, not a mosque or any historic structure.

The primary mistake we made with Dubai was not bringing our kids.  Like a lot of people, we were worried that the Middle East could be a dangerous place and was no place for children.  We could not have been more wrong.  Children are welcome everywhere there and there are many playgrounds and activities just for them.  Almost every hotel has baby sitting services.  Now I realize that the truth is the opposite.  The Middle East is one of the easiest places to take children, with children being far more welcome than they are in most places in the United States.

We started our trip in the Oasis Beach Hotel.  This was a very nice hotel and would easily qualify for at least 4 stars in the US.  Next to our subsequent destination it was a drop in the bucket, but for the price it was a very nice place.  The picture below was from our window.

Dubai is a very international place.  Tourist flock there from almost every corner of the world, with the exception of the United States.  We saw Germans, French, Russians, Indians, Pakistanis, Venezuelans, Chinese, Australians, and Kenyans there – but hardly a single American.  Although many signs are in Arabic, English is widely used there and most people understand it.  In fact I suspect more people understand English there than Arabic!

I will keep the highlight of the trip for the next day’s post though, where we had the chance to stay in the best hotel in the world.

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