We are waking up in Jersalem this morning, having arrived yesterday afternoon about 5 p.m. Our current hotel is City Center Suites, located in the “new city” not too far from the old one. After checking in we walked to the Old City through Jaffa Gate and strolled through the Armenian Quarter for a bit, enjoying the souks and the people.
The temp is 40 C — 104 F — and although it was very warm last night we all loved it.
I’m looking at the forecast on our room TV this morning, which is again 40 C for today but cooling a bit for the next few days to 26 C, so we’ll be back to the low 80’s. In about an hour we’ll start our itinerary which will begin with a walk to the Garden Tomb, then through the Mount of Olives and the garden of Gethsemane, Via Del la Rosa, Church of the Holy Sepulcher and possibly Temple Mount. All of this in 104 degrees might be problematic, but we have water!
Jerusalem is striking in its uniqueness. We are enthralled with its history, of course, but also with the people. Walking around yesterday we saw Arabs, secular Jews, religious Jews — Orthodox with big black hats and curls on the sides of their faces, many Jewish men with kippahs and strings of prayer shawls hanging down from both hips, African people, Asian people, Russian people. Anna and I noticed an elderly, English-speaking, caucasian woman asking for directions to Jaffa who appeared to be alone. We wondered if she was on a “pilgrimage”. Many have asked us, “Are you here for religious reasons?” Well…
Let me run through our day yesterday and post pictures real quick before I need to take my shower and head out.
After landing and going through passport control, we were handed a little blue card with our picture on it but no instructions. Thankfully, we put the cards inside our passports before heading out the door to realize that we needed them to “scan” out of the security area. Next we headed to the taxi place where we found a Sherut (shared taxi for 10 people) going into Jerusalem. The ride was supposed to be about an hour, but soon after leaving the airport our driver pulled into a gas station/mechanic shop and got out. We had a flat tire. A young couple, a Jewish man and his Arab girlfriend, told us, “Welcome to Israel!” Tire fixed, we drove to the city and were dropped off with very good instructions to locate our hotel.
The walk to Jaffa took us through bustling new city streets, and we were excited to glimpse the old wall finally. Inside the gate, Tim and Anna took us first to Gloria Hotel where they stayed on their last trip, and where we wanted to stay this time but it was full. Such a lovely, old, middle-eastern place. Next, Anna took us to the Armenian shop where she bought Roman glass earrings last time, and we talked with the two men who own the place. They told us they are “third generation” owners, and instructed us not to be fooled by other shops who claim to be them but don’t have as good of stuff. We said okay and we’ll be back in a few days!
I did get sucked in to a purchase for Naomi a few shops later, and I even tried to barter a little bit. Naomi will love my purchase, and so will her mommy.
Finally, it was dusk and we were starving. Eating in a strange land is always an adventure, and last night was a good beginning. Swarma in pita bread eaten at an outside table was perfect.
Pictures below!
All of it, so cool. And Naomi CANT WAIT!