Road Trip: Day 1

After living in Israel for approximately 6 weeks we finally took some time off to see the country.  My husband's brother and his wife flew out from California to see us and we took the opportunity to do some touring.  I plotted our route on Google Maps below in case you ever want to follow it yourself:

Day 1: Jerusalem

Unlike my previous visit to Jerusalem which had been on the Sabbath, our Wednesday in the Old City was much less chaotic.  We started by touring the Western Wall Tunnels which is a great tour and my favorite part of Jerusalem so far.  The walls of the Temple Mount extend much deeper than the current street level which has been raised over the years as houses got built on top of houses and rubble.  They have excavated underneath the city along the western wall and you can go walk in the tunnels on the actual road that people in the period of the Second Temple would have used.  At one point in the tunnels there is a Jewish menorah that marks the closest place to where they think the ancient Holy of Holies was located.  Jews pray here underground because they are prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount.  It was a very moving experience to be so close to something so ancient and mystical.  As a Christian I believe that no one place is more sacred than another, but there's something about the old Temple remains that stirs the imagination.

Our route is marked by the lights

Facing the base of the Western Wall



Close to the Holy of Holies

We finished up at the Wall and went to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre again.  Fortunately, there were no special services and it was much quieter.  We even visited the sepulchre itself.



We left the church, did a little shopping in the nearby souk--Kenny and I bought a Syrian inlaid chessboard/backgammon set--and then went to the Garden of Gethsemane.  I found the garden and the churches surrounding it to be very powerful.  We were there about 20 minutes before closing and were fortunate to be free from the large crowds of Christian tourists who inundate the small churches with their talking and picture taking.  Instead, it was just an old monk lighting a candle and silence.  I didn't even take a picture in that church.

Here are some pictures from outside the Church of All Nations that marks the approximate place where Jesus spent his final night with his disciples.

We wrapped up our tour as the sun was setting.  We had just driven out of the parking garage at the Jaffa Gate when I received a call from my coworker, transcript follows:

CW: Hi
Me: Hi
CW: Oh, you're okay.  Good to hear.
Me: What?  What happened?
CW: You didn't hear? There was a bus bomb at the entrance to Jerusalem.
Me: A bomb? When?  We hadn't heard about it until you called.
CW: About 3 o'clock.  Roads are closed. I thought you would be in Jerusalem today which is why I called.
Me: Thanks!  That's crazy...

Fortunately we were headed East to the Dead Sea while all the traffic was headed West towards Tel Aviv and past the bomb site at the Convention Center in the new city.  The first bomb in Jerusalem in four years of peace and we had been in the same city on the same day and all we saw of it was a little traffic snarl.  That is life in Israel for you.  Later, my manager told me that it is common for everyone to flock towards the bombing out of sheer curiosity.  I was happy to be going in the opposite direction.