Israel

There's something about walking where Jesus walked. It's a very cool feeling. I'll sheepishly admit I really never had a huge desire to go there, but I'm SO glad we did.

I guess I was so excited about going to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and wasn't thinking straight because I forgot my camera! I know, can you believe it? Me without my camera is like a White Spot burger without the Triple-O sauce ... just not right. But luckily I have 2 wonderful friends who let me steal some of their pictures and make a few collages so I have something to show for the day.

We docked in Ashdod very early in the morning and it was about a 45 minute drive to Jerusalem. Our first stop was the Mount of Olives which overlooks Jerusalem. According to the Book of Zechariah, the dead will be resurrected on the Mount of Olives in the days of the Messiah.

Picture 1 - Welcome to Jerusalem - so very cool - never thought I'd be there

Pictures 2 & 4 - Looking out at The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount

Picture 3 - Me on the Mount of Olives looking out over Jerusalem

Next we went to Gethsemane (Pictures 5 - 9). Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives believed to be the place where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion. Picture 6 is the Church of all Nations. The church is built around a rock that is said to be where Jesus prayed before His arrest. One of the gentlemen that sat at our table works in Ontario with an order of Nuns. When we were at this church, he pointed out the rock outside in Picture 7 and said, "I bet you this is the actual rock where Jesus prayed. It would be just like those nuns to say it's the one inside but really it's this one." I thought that was kind of funny, so we took a picture of the one outside as well. Picture 8 is the actual Garden of Gethsemane. This is said to be the garden where Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. I could actually picture it happening as I stood there and got a little teary eyed.

Picture 1 below - olive branch

Picture 2 - Me with the Kidron Valley in the background. Kidron Valley runs along the eastern wall of The Old City of Jerusalem, separating the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. The Bible calls the valley "Valley of Jehoshaphat - meaning "The valley where God will judge."

Pictures 3 & 4 - This is the Golden Gate. In Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541 to prevent the Messiah's entrance. It baffles me that someone thinks they can prevent the Messiah from doing anything.

Ezekiel 44: 1 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east; and it was shut. 2 Then the LORD said to me; This gate is to remain shut, it must not be opened, and no one shall enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. 3 The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD; he is to enter by way of the porch of that gate, and go out the same way.

Picture 1 below - This is a road that was uncovered recently. They think it led to a market place, therefore, have put up a mural at the end of what it might have looked like back in that day.

Pictures 2 through 5 - The Wailing Wall
Jews may often be seen sitting for hours at the Wailing-place bent in sorrowful meditation over the history of their race, and repeating oftentimes the words of the Seventy-ninth Psalm. On Fridays especially, Jews of both sexes, of all ages, and from all countries, assemble in large numbers to kiss the sacred stones and weep outside the precincts they may not enter. - copied from Wikipedia.

Pictures 6 & 7 - Via Dolorosa (Latin for "Way of Grief" or "Way of Suffering") is a street in the Old City of Jerusalem. Traditionally, it is held to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. It is marked by nine of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. The last five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (pictures 8 & 9). It is a focus of pilgrimage. - copied from Wikipedia.

I feel a little ripped off about the Via Dolorosa. We had been told about the market that we weren't aloud to stop and shop at so many times that all I thought about was shopping in the market. Of course you want to do it more when you're not allowed. Because we talked about this so much, I don't know if I wasn't paying close enough attention or if our guide didn't point out the fact that this was also the path that Jesus walked on the way to His crucifixion. I think I would have been in a little different state of mind if I had been focused on that instead of shopping.

The pictures below are from inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is said to be Golgotha or Calvary, where Jesus was crucified (Pictures 1 & 2), laid after being taken down from the cross (picture 3) and buried in a tomb similar to the one in picture 4.

Of course this is all alleged and I have heard that other people have gone to Jerusalem and been taken to a place where they were told Jesus died and was resurrected and it was all outside instead of in a church. It was really hard for me to picture it with a church built over top of the sites. Not how I had pictured it at all.

Although when we were just about to walk into the church and turn the stairs going up to the hill, there was construction going on outside and we heard a man hammering in nails. A few of us stopped and listened to that sound and thought it was a bit ironic to hear that just as we were entering this site.

After our tour of Jerusalem, we hopped back onto our bus and were on our way to Bethlehem. Did you know that Bethlehem is only about 8 km from Jerusalem? I had no idea they were that close to each other. Our tour guide who I believe is an Israeli citizen is not allowed to cross over into Palestine, so she left us and another tour guide joined us once we crossed the border.

Here we went to the Church of the Nativity. This church is said to be built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus (but apparently there are about 3 different places you can visit where "they" say Jesus was born). Again, a little hard to really imagine when a church has been built over top of it.

Picture 1 below - going down into the cave.

Picture 2 - said to be "THE" spot where Jesus was born.

Picture 3 - said to be "THE" spot where Jesus was laid in the manger.

Picture 4 - me coming out of the tiny doorway to the church. The Door of Humility was created in Ottoman times to prevent carts being driven in by looters, and to force even the most important visitor to dismount from his horse as he entered the holy place.

Again, we didn't get to shop at the places where I think there would have been cheap souvenirs, but instead they took us to an expensive souvenir shop. I bought myself a small nativity set that says "Made in Bethlehem" on the bottom.


I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Jerusalem and Bethlehem but didn't feel like half a day was enough time. On our drive back to the ship our guide pointed out many places where things from the Bible happened and it was so great to see these places with my own eyes. She even pointed out to us the valley where the David and Goliath event happened. I would LOVE to go back and spend more time in the Holy Lands. We were so close to the Dead Sea and Mount Sinai and many more landmarks that I could definitely see myself planning another trip there someday.