Weather: Mid-70’s and a little hazy with temps feeling much hotter as the day progressed. Winds picked up in the late afternoon.
Well so much for sleeping in! Doesn’t it always figure, when you know you can sleep in, somehow your body still wants to wake up early. Oh the joys of getting older. I was wide awake at 6am, which is an improvement from 4am. I did feel like this was the first night where I started to feel more on the right time zone.
With our free time, we decided to explore the Temple Mount this morning after breakfast. Also, I wanted to catch up on blogging at the cute coffee shop attached to the Guest House (as there has been such little time for that on this trip). We also wanted to get massages on this day at a local spa. So we had a good rough plan for the day.
Others in a our group visited the Temple Mount site EARLY the day before with our guide, you had to be up and ready to go by 6:15am for that, so we had passed on that early tour. We thought it wouldn’t be too much to explore it on our own, without the guide, and the Guest House concierge said it was completely safe. Israel controls all 11 entrances to the site (complete with metal detectors, but the Arab Muslim organization ‘Waqf’ controls all activities on the compound).
The site is so controversial because it is considered a ‘holy’ site by three main faiths – Judaism, Muslim, and Christianity. For Christians and the Jews it is the site of where all of the Temples were built including the first one by King Solomon. Many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to Rabbinical law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site. For Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammad’s journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven.
One reason our group went early the morning before is to avoid the lines and you have to get through the gate by 10:30am in the morning as it is closed several hours mid-day. We showed up at 9:30am to a long line that extended almost to the entrance to the nearest Old Jerusalem City Wall gate. Amy was hesitant, ‘This line is so long, do we really want to wait in the sun?’ I said, ‘Let’s just get in line to see how fast it moves, it may not take that long.’ In my mind I was thinking, we’ve waited 2 hours for rides at Disneyland for something that lasts a few minutes, this opportunity to see the Temple Mount would stay with us for a lifetime, it was worth a bit of a wait.
We weren’t in line for more than 2 minutes when we heard the sounds of a large celebration coming up our way with musicians, and families, singing and clapping. At the front of each procession were 13-year-old boys – some dressed in all kinds of robes or fancy attire. We thought, this must be a Bar Mitzvah celebration procession. It touched your heart to see this ancient tradition on display before your eyes. The families that accompanied each boy, were so enthusiastically dancing and clapping, it was a sight to see. We saw about 3-4 of these processions and the time passed quickly. Before you knew it, we were at the front of the line to go through security to enter the Temple Mount. The line had only take us about 15-20 minutes.
Once we entered one of the gates the Muslim guards decided I wasn’t dressed modestly enough because I had a short-sleeved shirt on (my elbows and forearms were showing). Amy had a 3-quarter length sleeved shirt on so she was okay. I was thinking ‘Really? All of that long blonde flowing hair on her and I’m the one that gets picked out to have to add more clothes because I might draw too much attention to my arms?’ So they give me this hideous turquoise hoodie top to put on and wear around the site. If a woman’s pants were too tight, you had to wear a turquoise skirt they gave you. Luckily, I passed that test and my pants weren’t too tight. It was so hot on this day; the extra clothing was definitely not comfortable.
We started walking around the site and were drawn to these cool walls and arches, I told Amy to go get in front of them and I would snap some pictures with my good camera. I take some really good pictures of her and then she says ‘Now, you go. Let me get some pictures of you.’ So we switch positions and as soon as I get up on the wall with the arches behind me, a guard says ‘Hey Lady, get down.’ We both look at each other and start laughing as it is a running joke between us that she always can get away with things that I can’t get away with. She was able to sit up there for numerous poses, but the minute I got on the wall, I got the ‘Hey Lady’ treatment. LOL.
It was just as well, we took pictures on other spots of the Temple Mount and any pics of me just looked hideous because of my new turquoise wardrobe. Possibly the least flattering thing I have ever put on my body. I was happy to just keep snapping pics of Amy, she looked like she just fell out of a travel magazine and the sites behind her were jaw dropping.
In addition to being the location of the original Solomon’s Temple, Jewish tradition identifies it with Mount Moriah where God led Abraham when the binding of Isaac took place for sacrifice. We tried to walk around and take this all in within the context of our own beliefs and faith which felt like such a contrast to what now dominates the Temple Mount, including the Dome of the Rock – a Muslim shrine built thirteen hundred years ago – and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. You could feel the reality that you were standing on one of the most hotly contested pieces of real estate on earth. This is a profoundly sacred area to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
After a while we decided to leave. Amy says, ‘Hey, Jessica Reese from work says we HAVE to try hummus in the Muslim Quarter.’ I started laughing, ‘Oh really? Jessica said that? Okay, let’s do it.’ We look at our map and find which of the 11 gates we need to exit that leads us out into the Muslim Quarter of Old Jerusalem. The Old City of Jerusalem is divided into four different quarters that divide the city culturally, religiously, and historically – The Christian Quarter, The Jewish Quarter, The Muslim Quarter, The Armenian Quarter.
We exited from the Temple Mount and just like that we were dropped into another world of the Muslim Quarter. No experience on the whole trip felt like this one where I felt engulfed in an ancient middle-eastern village. It as totally amazing and even unsettling at times to walk through something that is so foreign to your normal world. I appreciate how it stretched me as I walked through the streets. Most women were covered up, which makes you feel immodest even in long pants and a short-sleeved shirt. Fortunately, they are used to Westerners, so you don’t get too many stares.
There was one moment when we walked through the marketplace that this old Muslim lady was sitting on a chair against the wall dividing big bags of herbs, she looked up with a BIG toothless grin when she saw Amy coming and shouted, ‘You pretty!! You so pretty!!!’ We kept walking and giggling and it made my heart feel good to know extreme cultural barriers can be broken with an act of a genuine expression of kindness and affirmation. In that moment, she was an older woman affirming a younger daughter of the Western World. Other Arabs looking at the scene were frowning and rolling their eyes at this woman. Amy and I thought maybe ‘she’ is the one they keep an ‘eye’ on in town, the wild card. Whoever she was, we loved her.
There were lots of little hole-in-the-wall places along the way, but none that we felt confident enough to stop and try the hummus. Neither of us were willing to risk sickness mid-trip. We finally walked by a shop where we saw the trusted ‘Trip Advisor’ high rating sign. We walked into an empty place with a nice ambiance. We were there first customers of the day (it was 11am) and they were falling all over themselves to accommodate us. ‘Windows open or shut? Fan off or on? Music on or off?’ We were a little overwhelmed and just kept saying, ‘Whatever you think, we are good.’
We ordered the Mediterranean Platter with hummus, pita and side dishes to try. When it came out, it looked nothing like we imagined as we didn’t recognize the look of most of the dishes. The old grandpa, who was also the cook, came over to explain how he made EACH of the dishes. He broke down each one for us with the ingredients, and how he approached the creation. It took away the mystery of what we were looking at and it was just what we needed to hear to bring out the adventurous eating in us. We loved how earnest he was and after he walked away we enthusiastically enjoyed each dish. It interesting how just knowing the ingredients and how something is prepared takes the foreign feeling out of it, and makes it feel much more like home.
After our adventurous lunch we decided to head back to the guest house. The walk was quite crowded and there was a big group of folks walking up the Via Delarosa with a big cross. The Via Dolorosa is a street within the Old City of Jerusalem, believed to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. It is unlikely this is the actually path, yet still it is considered by some as a Christian pilgrimage to do this walk. It hit me in this moment in now observing this pilgrimage, we had come full circle – starting the day with the Bar Mitzvah celebrations, then to see the Muslim worship on top of the Temple Mount, followed now by this display of Christian passion – that all three religions are so passionate about the expression of their faiths, it is no wonder this is an area of such worldwide focus, attention, and tension.
Once we got back to the guest house it was about 1pm and I had been wanting to try the cute coffee shop attached to the guest house, and it also seemed like a great opportunity to get caught up on my blog. There has been such LITTLE time to blog on this trip, it felt like a luxury to have a few hours to myself to sip cappuccinos, eat a fresh made cookie, and of course, blog. Amy joined me in the coffee shop and did some reading and quiet time. She also reminded me to we needed to make our massage appointments. As this was our ‘rest’ day, we were hoping for a little pampering in the afternoon. We found a nice hotel called the David Citadel, just outside of old Jerusalem and near the outdoor mall. They could take us at 3pm and 4pm. Sold!
It wasn’t long before it was time to head over for our massages, we walked to the hotel and into the spa. It was complete with fluffy robes and spa shoes for us to wear during our time there. There was only one Deep Tissue available, so Amy took that one at 4pm. I went for the Swedish at 3pm. We were both extremely happy with our treatments. I had a girl that had grown up in New York, was Israeli, and now living in Israel the past 4 years. Amy had a German girl and said it was the best massage she thinks she ever had.
The spa was really nice and clean, the only ‘odd’ part was the quiet room where you lay down before or after your treatment to rest. It is separated by thin sheer curtains to give you privacy as you lay there in your robe. Unfortunately, it is co-ed, and privacy sheer curtains don’t offer sound proofing. We could hear a young couple sharing a bed at the end and giggling and smooching – like the sound your mouth makes when you offering a kiss on someone’s cheek or something, it was so awkward because you knew it wasn’t a cheek. Headphones were key in this room!
We headed back to the guest house by 6pm for dinner and to get packed. Our suitcases had to be packed and outside our door by 9pm as they would be loaded on the bus for us tonight. Tomorrow we would be leaving for the Galilee region. As we packed, we were amazed at how we were so used to our little room by now, we were almost sad to leave it as we had gotten into a routine. Plus, you didn’t know what was ahead, and I was hoping for no downgrades from this room.
There was a group of ‘Russian’ boys on our trip, we referred to as ‘The Russians’ – in fact, everyone on the tour referred to them that way. Different people on the trip had nicknames that we all laughed about. Amy and I were referred to as ‘The California Girls.’ Anyway, this place had no elevator, and it was a few flights of stairs down with the suitcases. I told Amy, ‘Hey, I made a deal with the Russian boys at dinner, I asked them take our bags down when we were ready.’ She was happy to hear that plan as neither of us wanted to be in our PJs taking our bags down. When we were done showering and packing, I knocked on the Russian Boys room door in my PJs and said, ‘Our bags are ready.’ They snapped to it! They were so sweet and helpful.
We had to be up and ready by 7am the next morning. Such a regimented trip! By now we are feeling like we are in the military with the schedule. But there is so much to see each day and they were trying to get us out of Jerusalem early. The Jerusalem marathon was the next day, so many of the streets would be closed off and there would be a lot more traffic than usual (and there is a LOT of traffic on a normal day). While the schedule felt a bit much at times, I appreciated I had NOTHING to worry about in navigation in getting us from place to place, my only job was to show up on time when asked – that I could do.