We ordered our breakfast in our cabin to facilitate the early meeting time of 7:50 with our taxi mates. Our group was Debora and Neil from California, Fran and Ian from Montreal, Gunila and Ecran from Denmark, and ourselves. The disembarking process was fairly straight forward but with additional passport checks and security. Soon we were entering the taxi fray! Actually it wasn’t that bad.
There was a desk at the arrivals terminal and they hooked us up with a dispatcher who was seeking out an 8 person van for us (score!) In the end he succeeded and after a bit of back and forth we settled on $200 US each way. This seemed fair enough based on what I had read. The only catch was we had to agree on a time to meet and come back since all the drivers refused to do a one way trip. Luckily we found a compromise easily enough and we were on our way! The Ashdod port is industrial and huge. You can’t actually leave under your own steam, but the port had a shuttle to the centre of Ashdod – but it only ran from 9 am to 5 pm.
We left the port at about 8:50 am and took our first picture from Mount Scopus at 10 am. So all in all a fast journey. A journey made even faster by the chatter! We all got along quite well and there was lots of banter. We ultimately got dropped off outside Dung Gate (at the Western Wall) even though the driver insisted it was Jaffa Gate. Whatever! It worked out well for us since our first stop was the Mount of Olives to catch the Church of Dominus Flevit and the Church of All Nations before their noon closures. As we were on foot, we dipped down into the old cemetery and saw the Absolom Tomb and the cemetery up close. Absolutely amazing. There are over 150,000 people buried there – a popular place since the Jewish faith believes that when the Messiah comes on the Day of Judgement, this is where he will begin to redeem the dead. It is the oldest continually used cemetery in the world.
It took us about half an hour to walk up to Dominus Flevit. This is the church that stands on the site where Jesus wept for Jerusalem and then subsequently cast out the sellers from the Temple (robbers den). The views are quite spectacular over the Old City. Much better than our stop on Mount Scopus with the taxi. We were just ahead of a mid sized group so it was actually quite a peaceful visit. The title image is the view from Dominus Flevit.
Afterwards, we headed back down the hill (relying on Javi to take photos from the very top of the Mount of Olives on their tour!) to the Church of All Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane. Now this was completely overrun with tour groups! But since we had the luxury of time, we sat for a while just taking it all in. As we approached the closing time at noon, the groups thinned out until finally it was just us and a few others left.
The mosaics are very impressive but unfortunately the facade was covered with scaffolding so we couldn’t see the main mosaic there. Meanwhile in the gardens it was quite easy to identify the olive trees that were thousands of years old with their narled trunks…if they could only talk!
At this point we entered the Old City through St. Stephen’s Gate or Lions Gate. We passed by St Anne’s Monastery and the Pools of Bethesda but they were already closed for midday so couldn’t go in – and we never made it back to this area. The 8.5 hours flew by really quickly! Just a few steps further on starts the Via Dolorosa with the First and Second Stations. We couldn’t access the first station but could go into the Chapel of Flagellation.
At the fifth station we deviated from the Way of the Cross and continued on El-Wad in search of food. We looped around and ended up in the market (shuk) area and in particular the butcher area of Al Lahamin. We stopped in Abu Taher and feasted on hummus and an unknown beef in milky soup/broth. It was all really good – especially the pita! The man was really nice and brought us into the kitchen so we could see everything available and their price – which was inflated since we were paying in US dollars but we accept that premium!
After lunch there was still some time left on the afternoon opening of the Temple Mount for non-Muslims (13:30 to 14:30) so we scurried over to the entrance just off the parking area for the Western Wall. We took the high road so had the lovely views over the plaza. Security was TIGHT! The metal detector was even picking up the polarizer in Carlos’s pocket! He got waved through and then it was my turn with the backpack. They touched everything thing it and I thought it was game over when they picked up Carlos’s kippa (we brought the one from Shawn and Judith’s wedding for the Western Wall). In fact it turned out to be game over when they found my teeny tiny New Testament bible from grade 4 that Mom had sent over – a bit of a guide book, really! Obviously there was nothing to be done but toss my camera with the wide angle lens over to Carlos and find a shady spot to wait!
The funny thing is that it was about 10 minutes until closing so I figured on at least 15 min before Carlos would be back so I investigated toilets, the meeting spot for the taxi, and then sat blocked by a bus but with sightlines to where I thought he would be coming from. You can guess where this is going right??! It turns out that the security guard must get a cut from the scarf sellers inside the Temple Mount since they let Carlos through but the instant he stepped through the gate on the other side, he was told that his (long) shorts were too short and he needed to buy a scarf for $5 or have to leave. He was pretty fed up by this point so he just left! The irony of course is that I was wearing long pants and had a scarf he could have used in the backpack! As a result, he was back at our meeting place within about 5 minutes but I wasn’t there since I thought we’d have at least 15 minutes! It took us a while to find each other so all in all a pretty frustrating 40 minutes! But a good story and lesson. Don’t have a bible if you want to go on the Temple Mount! And don’t bother burying it in your bag. They’ll find it! And just because you make it through security, doesn’t mean your shorts are long enough!
There are lots of public toilets within the Old City which is nice to know. The ones just there at Dung Gate and the Davidson Visitor Centre are handy. There are also loads inside the Western Wall Plaza. All really clean with toilet paper.
Next we walked along the wall towards Jaffa Gate but then branched off in the Jewish Quarter to seek relief from the sun in the shaded streets. It wasn’t nearly as hot as Rhodes but still that burning sun was unrelentless. We were aiming for the Tower of David museum so really only had time to stop at the Cardo area in the Jewish Quarter. It was very impressive and hard to believe that the street level back then was so much lower.
The Tower of David museum was quire good. It brings you through all the different eras of history in the city. We only had an hour but it was a great overview. And the views were pretty sweet too.
Now it was time to finish the Via Dolorosa. We did the remaining stations in reverse order starting with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was by far the most overwhelming stop in terms of quantities of people and difficulty in knowing what was what (and very hot inside). There were several services in progress which was neat to see. We did a few circuits and luckily hit a gap in the groups so we didn’t have to wait more than a minute to go up to the upper level to see the stations. As with everything in this city, it is hard to imagine the layers and millenia of history that surrounds it.
We only had one hour left by this point so we headed for our final stop: the Western Wall. It was really quite moving to witness it and we felt it was a fitting end to a very interesting day.
And the best part – we were all on time for our 7 pm taxi meeting! A good group! We spent the hour and twenty minute ride exchanging stories (mainly Temple Mount stories!) And generally the ride went really quickly.
Just like that, we were back on board tucking in to the Mediterranean poolside buffet! We found Javi and Virginia and shared our stories from the day. They loved the Dead Sea (well, Virginia anyway!!) and had a great day out. After dinner we skipped our usual after dinner drink in the Crow’s Nest and just had a beer in the cabin while watching the season opener of Real Madrid!
What a day!