Our Jerusalem Journey

It's impossible to describe the history, atmosphere, or religious or political importance of Jerusalem in a blog post, and we're not even going to try. All we really can do is describe what we did in the city, give our impressions, and show you some pictures.

We're also not going to address the current political situation in this blog post.  This post is about what we experienced during our time in Jerusalem, which was before the latest tensions arose on Wednesday.  So, maybe we'll discuss politics in a future blog post, but for now it's really all about the fun stuff. 

Our journey (to be honest, it should be “journeys,” since this blog post is actually a composite of several different visits to Jerusalem – we're going to invoke poetic license) started with a walk from the city's imposing and chaotic central bus station to the bustling and colorful Mahane Yehuda market. The large covered market presents a stunning display of Israel's voluminous and varied agricultural and culinary output. There are plump, juicy figs; freshly roasted pistachios; flatbread with zatar; enormous mounds of mouth-watering halva; dried dates, apricots, kiwis and watermelon; huge blocks of creamy goat cheese; every imaginable kind of olive; flaky borekas with spinach, mushrooms and cheese; hot pita bread; chewy long oval sesame bagels; a bounty of fish from the Mediterranean; and spices of every color and scent – just to name a tiny fraction of the offerings for sale, and that's just the edible stuff. The enticing sights and smells of the market are punctuated by an entertaining cast of characters loudly pitching their products and their bargain prices.

 

 

Halva Kingdom gives free samples!

After picking up a delicious portable lunch, we headed over to Ben Yehuda street, the pedestrianized center of modern Jerusalem, where you can enjoy a "half-caf" mocha cappuccino at The Coffee Bean and then admire the selection of yamulkes at the "Kippa Man" (there are several selections for fans of The Simpsons or the Boston Red Sox).  You can also listen to an eclectic variety of street musicians, like an old man on an organ playing "Avinu Malkeinu" (which for some reason brought to mind Phish's psychedelic live rendition of this High Holiday classic).  

We then approached the scenic Jaffa Gate (one of the eight gateways into the Old City), our downhill approach affording great views of the Old City walls, the Crusader Citadel, and the Tower of David minaret. 

From outside the Old City, approaching Jaffa Gate

Inside Jaffa Gate, gazing back at the massive Old City walls

We felt a surge of excitement as we entered the Old City, an exotic jumble of narrow cobblestone lanes offering a feast for the senses and momentous historic monuments at every turn. Eden and I have both been here before (Eden in 1990 and me in 1978), but it was a special moment to be here with our children for the first time.

We spent some time wandering though the shuk (or souk) - a dense, frenetic marketplace that instantly triggered intense memories from my prior visit some 32 years ago. Offering everything from jewelry to Judaica, t-shirts to teapots, headwear to brassware, and tacky tourist kitsch to the basic necessities of everyday life, the marketplace is described by one website as a “cluttered warren of bizarre juxtapositions.” Whatever you buy, don't forget to bargain hard!

The noisy, narrow shuk is packed with vendors, shoppers, tourists and locals. But there's an unassuming staircase that leads to a surprisingly untouristed rooftop promenade, which offers a quiet, almost solitary, perch over the crowded commotion of the Old City. The views from the rooftops provide a unique angle on Jerusalem's historical monuments, like the Dome of the Rock seen through the clutter of people's houses, roof decks, water tanks, and satellite dishes.  There's also a place where you can walk along the Old City ramparts for equally impressive views.

Prime view from the rooftop promenade

Another view from the rooftop promenade

A view from the ramparts

We strolled through the Christian Quarter of the Old City, joining the mass of tour groups at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which sits on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Several different Christian sects share ownership of the church and our guidebook states that due to the rivalry among the sects, repairs are often the source of great controversy and the keys have been entrusted to a local Muslim family, who are responsible for unlocking it each morning and closing it up each night. There are apparently more than 20 Christian sects with churches in Jerusalem.  Here are some pictures of the many churches, monasteries, and other Christian institutions located throughout the city (both inside and outside the Old City walls). 

 

After exploring the Christian Quarter, we entered the plaza for the Western Wall, known in Hebrew as the Kotel. The Kotel is what remains from the Second Temple (to be precise, it's what remains of the retaining wall that supported the Temple Mount on which the temple stood).  The Second Temple was constructed in the 6th century BCE (after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians) and then destroyed (again) by the Romans in the 1st century CE. Today, the Kotel is a giant open-air synagogue that serves as the most important prayer and pilgrimage site in the world for the Jewish religion. It's difficult to describe my emotions as Jeremy and I approached the Kotel to carry out the centuries-old tradition of putting written prayers in the Kotel's crevices. It was particularly moving to be here on a morning a few days before Yom Kippur, as the area was filled with bar mitzvah celebrations and with Jews of all stripes getting their prayers in before the Day of Atonement.

We then explored the quaint side-streets and squares of the Jewish Quarter, where a highlight for the kids was the long-awaited consumption of ice cream.

Quiet street in the Jewish Quarter

Right next to the Kotel is the Temple Mount, a sacred Jewish site (as the location of the First and Second Temples) and the third most sacred place in the world for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Without going into religion, history or politics (topics that are tough to avoid when you're talking about Jerusalem), suffice it say that the Dome of Rock, a large Islamic shrine which dominates the site of the Temple Mount, is understandably one of the most photographed buildings in the world.  Okay, maybe a little religion and history – apparently, the architects of the Dome of the Rock borrowed the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but then embellished the design with brightly colored mosaics, inscriptions from the Quran, and a dome covered with solid gold. The idea was to make sure that the nearby church was not seducing Arab minds away from Islam. The result is a stunning architectural masterpiece, and the centerpiece of Jerusalem's magical skyline.  Note that the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque for public prayer, but a shrine for pilgrims.  Here are some pictures of the Dome of the Rock and its surroundings, including the gray-domed Al Aqsa Mosque:

 

After leaving the Dome of the Rock, we took a rest and then wandered the lively streets of the Muslim Quarter. We came across a throng of people leaving afters prayers, creating an exciting cacophony of sights and sounds (and smells from food vendors) that had our cameras a-clicking.

 

Here are some more pictures from the side-streets of the Muslim Quarter:

We think they're playing backgammon but we didn't ask

The latest fashion in headscarves

Don't know where this "street" leads (it wasn't on our map)

We exited the Old City through the imposing, but remarkably picturesque, Damascus Gate. The “modern” gate was built in 1542 by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent, although the gate existed long before Ottoman times and was probably the city's main entrance as early as the 1st century BCE.

 As we leave through the Damascus Gate, crowds enter the Muslim Quarter of the Old City

Inside Damascus Gate

It's only an hour away by bus, but it's striking how different Jerusalem's Old City is from anything in Tel Aviv. The contrasts between the two places seem to dwarf the differences between, say, New York and Los Angeles or Beijing and Honk Kong – as great as those differences might be. And even the contrasts within Jerusalem are startling. It's impossible to paint a picture of Israel, or of Jerusalem, using only a single brush.