Mel's Trip, Day 2

Today we took a tour to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We waited in the lobby at 7:15 in the morning for our tour group to show up. The bus finally came, about 20 minutes later. Our group consisted of 8 people - me, Nick, a nice couple from Savannah, Georgia, a father and daughter from Queens, NY, a girl from Poland, and a guy from Italy. Our tour guide was an older gentleman by the name of Israel. We got on the bus and made the trek toward Jerusalem, which is about an hour away from Tel Aviv.

Our first stop on the tour was Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank, an area controlled by Palestinians. If you read Nick's previous blog about going into Bethlehem you will remember that it can be a little unnerving for tourists going into Bethlehem if you aren't aware of the rules and procedures. Thankfully, I read Nick's blog beforehand, so I wasn't fazed at all when we got to the border. At the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem there is a wall topped with barbed wire and covered in political graffiti. We walked through the turnstile and into the West Bank, where we were greeted by our Palestinian tour guide (who happened to be the same tour guide for Nick's first tour). We took a taxi to the Church of the Nativity. I won't go into too much description here since Nick covered it pretty well in his blog post. I have to say that the most amazing moment for me in Bethlehem (and for the entire day, for that matter) was going down to the grotto of the church and placing my hands on the spot that is believed to be the actual place of Jesus' birth. Never in a million years did I think I would stand in the same place where Jesus began His life. I wished we could have stayed and enjoyed the place a little longer, but mass was being said when we got down there and I felt that we were being ushered out.

So we made it through the rest of the church tour and then we were taken to a gift shop, which is run by the tour guide and his family. Here we were given a sample of the wine that is traditionally served at Christmas mass and, of course, we were encouraged to buy some religious souvenirs. Being that this area relies so heavily on its tourism and the tour guide was so nice about not pressuring us to buy anything from his gift shop (despite the 20% discount we got) I didn't feel bad about making a purchase. Nick and I bought a nativity set, hand-carved by the locals and made out of olive wood. We thought it was fitting to buy a representation of Jesus' birth in the place of Jesus birth. Afterward the tour guide tried to make an offer to Nick to purchase me for 600 camels. Is that a good price? We told him we'd think about it and get back to him. Then we made our way back to the border and crossed back into Jerusalem, and back with our Israeli tour guide.

We were then taken to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum here in Israel. We were given an hour to go through the entire museum. This was not nearly enough time to see everything - I wished I'd had at least another hour to spend in there. It was both amazing and horrifying to see all the artifacts and displays that told the story of what happened to the Jews during that time. We left the museum feeling quite depressed and ready to move on to the other sites on the tour.

We went on to Jerusalem's Old City, the site of countless historical and biblical events. The Old City is divided into four quarters - Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim - so several religions converge in one area here. We first stopped at the Western Wall, one of the holiest places in the world for Jews. Although it was not crowded, there were many Jews and non-Jews praying and writing wishes on slips of paper to be placed in the cracks in the wall. We then ate lunch at an Arab restaurant and made our way toward the Via Dolorosa.

The Via Dolorosa, or "Way of the Cross", is the path Jesus traveled from his condemnation to his crucifixion and burial. We followed the stations, starting at Station V (I'm not sure why we skipped Stations I-IV). As we went along we realized that immediately behind us was a large group of Franciscan priests and other religious people praying through the Stations of the Cross as well, as they do every Friday at 3 PM. They were praying in Latin but it wasn't too hard to follow along. That was really neat to witness. We eventually made it to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. As this is a very, very holy site for Christians, there were many people here praying and paying homage. We went up the stairs to Calvary (this is a huge church that houses all the major sites of the events that took place on the day Jesus died, so all these sites are now indoors) and we were able to touch the actual ground that held Jesus' cross. I knelt down, touched the ancient ground, and prayed a minute. It was amazing. We went back downstairs to the main level, where Jesus' tomb was located. Unfortunately, because of the long line, we were unable to go into the tomb area. We made it back outside and started to make our way out of the Old City, as things were starting to close up for Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath).

Our last stop on the tour was the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Jesus did a lot of his preaching. It provided a great view of the Old City, and since we were there close to sunset, it also provided some nice photo ops. We stayed there for a few minutes and began our journey back to Tel Aviv. Most of us fell asleep on the way back, since we did so much that day. Finally we arrived at our hotel, said goodbye to our fellow tourists, and went out again to the Port to have a seafood dinner.

I know this post was very long, but we just saw so much on this day that I had to capture it all. It was definitely a day I will always remember.