02.15.23
After almost one month, we are in our last week in Israel. This has been one of the most unique and special places we have visited, both from a historic and cultural perspective, as well as a personal voyage of my own religious history. These are daily blogs from my Facebook site which Kat suggested I add to this one, too. It starts when we finally got inside the Old Jerusalem city walls until our trip to Jordan for two days, to visit Petra.
Feb 3, 2023: Jerusalem
Over the past few days we were able to dodge rain drops, overcast skies, and wind, and we finally got inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. This hotly contested area for centuries is an amazing mix of cultures, religion, and ethic focus, and is actually like several cities inside a perimeter. We entered one of the main gates, the Damascus Gate, which led us into the Muslim quarter, which was very reminiscent of Tunis, Tunisia, and Istanbul. Lots of beautiful clothing, dishes, and tons of eateries, and as we walked along the road suddenly it changed.
“Welcome to the Jewish quarter,” and just like that, the signs changed, along with the flags and the merchants inside the shops. That led us over to one of our primary goals to visit that day: The Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, since it is known as the most coveted piece of land for Jews, and until the 7-day War in 1967, was off limits for thousands of years. For many years this was in Jordanian territory, and the boundaries in that area are still open to opinion. It is the only remaining wall left from the Second Temple period, one of the highlights of Jewish history, and is also known for holding the prayers written on pieces of paper that visitors insert between the rock.
The inside sections are a maze of shops, walkways, and how they can supply all the businesses inside is a mystery! But from the Jewish quarter we were able to find the Christian quarter and to one of the most revered sites in Christianity: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This name was not familiar to Kat and me, but what it held inside was: it is claimed to be the site of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. To see the supposed site, called Golgotha (Calvary) was humbling, and the church itself was amazing to walk through and find little nooks and historic locations.
We both decided that another visit to the Old City was due, that way she can shop without my resistance, and I can tour and seek out history, which is more up my alley!
Feb 5, 2023: Jerusalem
As much as we enjoy the sights and the places we visit, we also get to meet some amazing people along the way. That is one added benefit of being a traveler rather than a tourist. We normally connect with expat groups in each place we live, and some are more active and outgoing than others. Over the past two years we have especially enjoyed being part of these groups and have made some lifelong friends. One of our fellow travelers, Paul, has followed our path to Turkey and we followed his to Albania. We also met while we were both in Romania, and next month he will return to Albania, and we get to hang out once more. Sometimes we also make friends with our hosts, and that is what happened yesterday.
When we first arrived at our room, our AirBNB host, Shlomi, invited us to Shabbat dinner, which takes place Saturday afternoon. We did that yesterday and had an amazing time. We joined his wife and two kids, plus two grandkids, and had a great meal and wonderful conversation. He educated us about Jerusalem and answered some questions we were wondering about, and his family asked us about our travels and experiences, so it was a great exchange of cultures. He has been involved with philosophy and humanities for many years, and we all shared deep questions about “The Meaning of Life,” and once again we were shown that people everywhere—regardless of religion, nationality, color, or age—all wonder the same things.
Feb 11, 2023: Jerusalem
This has been an interesting week, as the rain and extreme cold kept us closer to home than we would like. We were able to dodge raindrops a few days ago and visited the David Museum, as in KING David, the slayer of Goliath. Like most ruins we have seen, it was humbling to walk among such history. There was a section that still had the original walls from 2000 plus years ago, and considering the Old Town of Jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt several times, that really rolls back the calendar several dozen centuries. We’ve seen innumerable ruins in so many places, but to have so much history contained in such a small area says a lot how about the significance of this town.
Today we went to their Holocaust Museum, called Yad Vashem, which was fascinating. Many of my new friends did not know, but I am the son of a Holocaust survivor, and my Hungarian born mother spent three years in Auschwitz. The first time I went to a Holocaust Museum, in Washington DC, was just a few years ago, and it was an emotionally charged day. I’m not ashamed to say that I cried throughout and since that was my first time, it hit way too close to my heart. Visits after that to similar places, including Auschwitz itself, have become less impactful, but no less important.
It is now (Friday night) the beginning of Shabbat, the Sabbath, and tomorrow hardly anything will be open, so it’s a great day to relax and get ready for Sunday, which takes us to Petra, Jordan for a two-day stay, which includes sleeping in a Bedouin camp. This is part two of what I call the Triangle of History tour, and THIS will be one of the most unusual places for Kat and me yet!
