September 19, 2016 in words

I would like to apologize in advance but this entry is going to read more like a tour book but it reflects our day. We had an amazing guide and I just wish I could capture even half of what we learned.

Morning

Despite being exhausted we both woke up around 3 am. We did try to go back to asleep but there was no use, we were wide awake and by the time our alarms went off at 6 we were deep into Israeli history.

The plan was to head over to the shuttle meeting point (Royal Beach Hotel) early and grab some coffee and breakfast while waiting for the shuttle which was scheduled to pick us up at 7:15. Turns out breakfast at the Royal Beach is stupid expensive and 6:30am is too early for most places to be open. We did eventually find one place that was open where we were able to get flat bread and bagels warmed in a wood fire oven but no coffee.  

Travel to Jerusalem

The shuttle arrived around 7:30 am. It took us to a meeting point where we were re-distributed to other shuttles depending on the tour you were signed up for. I was worried that the tour would be a full sized bus group of people but so far the shuttles only held maybe 15 people. However, we weren’t doing the same tour as the others on the bus and were meeting our guide in Jerusalem so it still could turn out to be a bigger group. I’ll spare you the suspense – we totally lucked out and were the only ones on our specific tour! The drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem takes about an hour. The interesting part of the drive is that a section of the highway (highway 443) goes through the West Bank. There are check points and barbed wire fencing along this section of the route. Once in Jerusalem we stopped at a coffee shop (Yay coffee!) to once again re-distribute to other shuttles and meet our guide.

The tour

We started out tour in the same shuttle as 2 other groups. The first point of interest was Mt Scopus where you get great views of the city of Jerusalem.  We did a drive by of the Garden of Gethsemane where I tried my best to get a photo of the Basilica of Agony through the bus window. The church was built in 1924 and marks to place where Jesus last prayed before being betrayed and arrested. Just up the road is where Heidi and I and our guide, Jano, separated from the others and headed on foot to the excavation site of the City of David. First order of business was to buy some water shoes. Turns out one of the options on this tour is to walk through the wet tunnels (aqua ducts) below the city of Jerusalem. We didn’t realise this before hand so we were not prepared for it. Equipped with our new water shoes and 5₵ flashlights, we headed off. First was the site of the excavations. The guide was great and explained a lot of the history not just of the City of David but also of the various excavations and what proof there was or wasn’t in some cases of the claims made by various archeologists.

The tunnel was created by King Hezekiah in 701 BC to protect Jerusalem’s water source and it allowed people to draw water from the Gihon spring without leaving the city. When Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrians, Hezekiah built the tunnel to bring water into the city to relieve the siege. Two teams worked on the project digging simultaneously from both ends. I don’t know how they managed to meet up and indeed near the middle there are a few more bends in the tunnel and some obvious false starts as they corrected their directions. The water depth varied from ankle depth to mid thigh and it was pretty fast flowing. Most of the time we could walk standing normally but there were sections where you had to crouch and it was also only shoulder width wide for the majority of the time. And it was dark. Our little cheapy flashlights helped but I would have loved a proper headlamp. Sigh, no photos for Leone.  There was a group of school children ahead of us. As much as some of the screams were almost painful, their excitement and fears added to the whole adventure.

After the tunnel the guide wanted to take a shortcut up to the old city but someone convinced him that that route wasn’t a good idea so we went the longer route. It feels a little surreal. We never felt any tension and yes there were guards but there wasn’t a large visible presence and half of them seemed to be napping.

We went through the old Jerusalem city wall via the Dung gate – yup, it’s literally named Dung gate. It’s the gate they used to take the refuse out of the old city! Just inside the gate was a Bar Mitzvah celebration taking place. We kept running into them through out our tour as they made their way singing and dancing through the streets as well. From inside the city walls we were able to get a close up view of Temple Mount. The guide had various visual aids for the tour with him and it was at this point he pulled one out that was a depiction of what it may have originally looked like. It was such a great yet simple way to help visualize the original structure. Next stop was the Wailing Wall which is a section of the western wall that is closest to the former Temple within the walls. I found a great aerial view on Wikipedia.

A quick lunch break where we ran into the Bar Mitzvah celebration again. Next stop was The Broad Wall which is a massive defensive structure that is seven meters thick. It is said that they wanted it built quickly and didn’t care if that meant going through existing houses. The photos with the young soldiers and the columns is The Cardo (as in heart of the city) which was Jerusalem's main street 1500 years ago. The guide pointed out how exceptionally wide the street was and we were just seeing a portion of it. It is also clearly visible in the photo of the Madaba Map, the mosaic map of the old Jerusalem and said to be the oldest known map of Jerusalem.

We visited the workshop of a scribe Jamie Shear who is originally from Montreal. He does beautiful work and was kind enough to take some time to show us his work and explain the symbolism behind the art.   We continued to make our way through the old city streets stopping at various points of interest and learning about the history of the city. The amount of times some of these buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt is incredible. Eventually we made our way to the Zion Gate and then over to the room where the Last Supper was held. Our guide gently pointed out various reasons why this could not be the actual room (the architecture, the location…) and in my further readings I noticed that it was often referred to as the room that commemorates the last supper as opposed to being the actual room. Right below this room is King David’s Tomb which again has several inaccuracies that make it unlikely to be the actual Tomb.

We had just enough time for a quick coffee break (it was really good coffee) before finding the shuttle bus. The ride back was miserable but fortunately it wasn’t that long of a trip. Despite being exhausted we headed to the beach, found ourselves a nice spot and a lemonade and watched the sunset. Perfect end to a great day.

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