Jerusalem--Last Day

Jerusalem Old City

2 January 2012 (Last Day)

This is our final day in Jerusalem, but it also promises to be the highlight, with the Old City and Temple Mount on the docket!!

One quick note before the day starts:  I’m really getting rather attached to the idea of having vegetables for breakfast.  In Israel, Jordan, even previous trips to China and Egypt, I've been able to make a salad of sorts for breakfast.  Yes, I usually augment it with eggs or meat, but the veggies alone are a good way to start.  I may give this a try back home.

Last night I was very tired, and I lay down at 6:15 PM, only to be totally asleep by 6:30!  I hated to miss the chance to stroll around Jerusalem, but I do feel very refreshed this morning and am grateful for that in light of what this day holds for us.

Again, my tour guide has really disappointed me by blowing off another question I asked.  I don’t mind if the tour guides go off with their biases, but I really dislike it if they ignore questions or don’t answer them fully.  It’s OK in my book to hear what they think, and I may or may not accept it, but blowing off a question is really disappointing.  In that sense, this tour guide has been the low point of the trip.

In any case, the day started with a photo op of the old city from a viewpoint above the Mount of Olives, followed by a drive to and a tour of the Garden of Gethsemane as well as the church (basilica) right next door.  This is the place where Christ prayed the night before his passion, and where Judas provided the kiss.

We entered the Old City of Jerusalem through the Mercy Gate and went to Bethesda to see the Church of St Anna (Mother of Mary) with its incredible acoustics; the church also houses the home (cave) of the birthplace of Mary.  After that, it was on to the pools of Bethesda, where Jews would wash themselves before entering the second temple, and where Jesus healed the lame man on the Sabbath.

Next was a walk along the stops of the Via Dolorosa, with the highlight of the day being the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  We saw, in the expanse of just a few steps, where Jesus was nailed to the cross, where the crucifixion occurred (Golgotha), then the stone where Jesus was washed afterwards, and next we saw the headstone of his tomb (the line for the tomb itself was three hours).  Again, all of this was just within a few feet.

There's an interesting interplay among the six different religious factions who jointly share ownership and administration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, with one of the more humorous and outrages examples being an "Immovable Ladder," a simple ladder on the facade of the building, but a one that has remained unmoved for essentially two centuries!

Our lunch, with the location again dictated by our tour guide, was in a falafel place, in spite of my desire never to try one again.  I had a beef falafel, and on top of not really enjoying it I became irritated when the waiter told me to wait before accepting the payment.  You see, I finished before the others, so I wanted to pay and take quick look at the shops, but the waiter wanted me to wait and pay when all the others did.  I actually became very grumpy at this, and hearing this my tour guide accepted my money for me.  (I think he realized I was becoming very fed up with his choices for me.)  In any case, I was able to take a brief walk around the shops while the others finished eating.

In all, we walked through all four quarters of the town, then we took a final view of the Western Wall, this time in daylight.

There was one major disappointment in today's visit:  We did not visit the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif or The Noble Sanctuary) directly.  Yes, we could see it, along with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa (The Furthest Mosque), but we did not gain access to the area and walk about it.  This area, rising on the huge mound above the Old City, is very contentious, and even one or two individuals may have difficulty convincing the Muslim guards to permit entrance, so with that in mind I understand why the tour group was not able to gain entrance.  Still, it was a major disappointment, and had I known this in advance, I would have scheduled a private day in Jerusalem to see if I could enter it on my own.  I'd very much like to go back to Jerusalem just for this reason alone.

This was our last day, and we all were taking different flights very early the next morning, so we said our farewells that evening.  Parting from the group was fairly fast and without drama; the guide and driver said good-bye outside the hotel, I said farewell to others inside, and I had a drink with one of the women in the hotel bar.

Greece was awaiting in just a few hours.