Jerusalem and Bethlehem

22^ndAugust 2018

Up at 5.30am, for a 6pm breakfast we have a long day ahead of us, and an early start. Today we are booked to visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem and the tour is scheduled to leave this morning at 7.15am.

Unfortunately our Arrival in port is slightly delayed, apparently due to port traffic, but we are alongside within 15 minutes of our scheduled time. 

Haifa is the 3rd largest city in Israel, after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is also the larger of the two ports in Israel, built by the British during their occupation between the World wars.

Haifa

We are at the assembly point for the tour at 6.45am as planned, and it soon becomes clear that things are not running to schedule. We are told the problem is getting Israel Immigration set up to process all of the passengers going ashore, which requires a face to face inspection. Whatever the real issue was, we end up leaving a hour later than scheduled. This was already going to be a 12 hour day, so we are now looking at arriving back at the ship at 8.30pm.

Finally we are on our way, and it is about a 2 hour drive from Haifa to Jerusalem. Our guide uses this time to give us a detailed history of Israel aided by a useful map, which showed the old and new state boundaries.

Our first stop as we arrive at the outskirts of Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives. It provides a great view of the old city.

The Old Walled City of Jerusalem, with the Dome on the Rock prominent (but on the Palestinian side of the western wall)

From here we drive down the ridge of the mountain to our next stop, Gethsemane. Here we visit the Gardens of Gethsemane, and the Church now erected there, also known as The Church of All Nations, recognizing the worldwide effort to finance it. This , of course is the site where Jesus spent his last few days.

Gethsemane Sanctuary

The Garden of Gethsemane

Gethsemane Church (Church of All Nations)

From here our guide takes us the enter the Old City of Jerusalem, through the Dung Gate (so named because it was apparently the Gate that all of the waste was removed through). 

Dung Gate looking out of the walled city

Inside the outer wall of Jerusalem

Soon we find ourselves inside the Old City, and our first stop is the Western Wall (or The Wailing Wall as it is well known as). This is a sacred place for Christians who do not have access to the other side of the wall which is Muslim and the site of the Dome on the Rock, a Muslim mosque.

The Wailing Wall

It is a pretty quiet day at the wall

Whilst it seems crowded, we are assured that this is not peak season, and the crowds are not bad. There are lots of people in the square before getting to the wall including large groups of female Israeli soldiers (doing their National Service). 

After the Wailing Wall we walk further on and enter the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, eventually coming to via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus took, carrying the cross to his Crucifixion.

Walking through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem

At the end of this path we reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is the site of the  Crucifixion, contains the Anointing Stone and the tomb of Jesus.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The site of the crucifixion ( the Church was obviously not there then), but this marks the location

The tomb of Jesus

The Anointing Stone

By now it is almost 2.30pm, and most of us had breakfast at just after 6 am, so the team is getting restless are a asking about lunch. Fortunately this is our last visit in Jerusalem, and after a long walk back through the old city, we exit at the Jaffa Gate and find our bus to take us to lunch. The lunch venue is a Kibbutz, called Rachel Heights Kibbutz, and has a gigantic food hall set up to provide meals for bus tours. It was a buffet of Kosher Food which was pretty ordinary, but we were all so hungry we would eat anything. Our guide Yossi seemed much more impressed with it than we were.

With our hunger sated, for the time being, at 3.45pm, we headed off to Bethlehem, which requires crossing the border at the West Bank to enter Palestine.

The Security Wall between Palestine and Israel from the Bethlehem Side

Walking the streets of Bethlehem to the Church of Nativity

The Church of Nativity was constructed over the top of the Grotto in which Jesus was born in 4 AD. The Church was built by Constantine.  Prior to that Hadrian had built a Temple of Adonis over the site to cover it in 1 AD

The Church of Nativity

 The Church is made up if 3 Churches, an Armenian Church, Greek Orthodox and Catholic. The largest and newest addition is the Catholic section.

Inside the Church some of the old frescoes have survived

The Greek Orthodox Section

Entrance to the Grotto where Jesus was born. 

The site of the Manger inside the grotto

The place in the Grotto where the birth took place

An old floor mosaic still surviving in the Armenian Section of the Church

Part of the Catholic Church

Now it is back to the bus for a 2 hour plus drive back to the ship. We expect to arrive back there by 8.30pm. It has been a long day.

The checkpoint on the Palestine/Israel Border on the West Bank

Our arrival in Israel coincides with the Muslim holidays following the end of Ramadan. The benefit of this has been much lower crowd levels on the streets and subsequent better traffic flow.

One thing we all find a bit off putting is how filthy the streets are with garbage lying around on the streets throughout both Jerusalem and Bethlehem and pretty much everywhere we have been.