Some people we knew had mentioned that we should get in touch with a private guide to tour Jerusalem, I contacted the guide, and Zvika met us at the port terminal. We went to the old part of Jerusalem in his car with the Rabbi from the ship and his wife.
Our first impression of this area of Israel was that it is sooo green. Millions of trees have been planted in Israel from tree donations mostly by Americans and Canadians and it was glorious to have been there in April with the sun shining in a brilliant blue sky and to look out on the vast forests and fields of crops in the desert compared to all the other desert countries we have visited.
Did you know that Israel is the largest country (not Belgium) that ships tulips all over the world, including to Belgium!
Jerusalem is divided into 2 parts. The old city and the new city. Here is a view of new Jerusalem.
You enter old Jerusalem through gates and we entered through the Turkish gate. They devised the entrance to the city so that when enemies tried to enter the city they had to make a sharp right turn so that they could not just charge through the gates.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BC, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world.
Talk about crowds!
Christians, Jews and Moslems filled the streets, and this was one of the first weeks tourists came after the missles the week before.
There is a serenity within the old city and the mixture of Christian, Jewish and Moslem sites is amazing.
There are excavations all over the city and the ruins, dating back thousands of years is spectacular.
Built into the sides of the hills, the walkways are steep and narrow and accessible only by walking.
Here is one of the excavations of Roman ruins painstakingly being rebuilt. There are frescoes on some of the walls and original mosaics on the floors of wealthy homes built during King Herod's time
There were hundreds of young people - many with guns walking around and Len posed with a few. The young people look clean, energetic and proud.
Here a photo of the Dome of the Rock with the sun glittering of its golden dome.
Located in the center of old Jerusalem, it was filled with visitors.
We walked the Via Dolorosa, where Christ walked his last steps. Amazing.
The object of the Stations is to help the faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer, through meditating upon the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death. It has become one of the most popular devotions for Roman Catholics.
This was a group of nuns making a pilgrimage up the Via Dolorosa.
Throughout the old city are markets carrying everything from holy objects to foods, spices and souvenirs. There are Jewish, Armenian, Moslem and Christian markets. We wandered all though these areas
It was a very touching moment when we saw and prayed at the Western Wall.
On our return to Ashdod there were these "sandwich trucks" memorial. The reason these armored vehicles are referred to as "Sandwich" trucks is due to their type of armor. Shortages of proper military-grade metal armor neccesated the use of alternating layers of lower-grade metal/plywood armor. Sand, cement, rubber and even glass were also used. These trucks were used to bring food and supplies to the Israeli troops defending Jerusalem in 1948.
There were armaments on the truck mostly supplied by the Czecs. Since the Israelis had no money
Ben-Gurion sent Golda Mier to American Jews to get money for Israeli defense. He told her she had to come back with $25 million dollars, instead she came back with $50 million dollars.
Our guide Zvika, who served as both a para-trooper during the 6 day war as well as part of the security team of the Ambassador to Brazil in the 80's was so full of interesting stories we were sorry to leave.
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