CAARI - A unique Israel travel experience: Jerusalem

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Jerusalem - Old City Tour

Today we spent our day in the Old City. We boarded the bus and drove along the City Walls to reach our destination - The Ancient City of David. As we drive along the Old City Walls - one thinks - how did they lift the huge stones to build the massive walls? Building, destruction and renovation from thousands of years ago - the time of King David, through the time of the Romans, Ottomans - all until today. Even now, the Municipality and other organizations are restoring the ancient wall. JNF Canada in Toronto is undertaking a project to restore the area around the Jaffa Gate. Not only view is amazing, but also the people walking about - children going to school, mother's with their children in buggies going someplace, people going to work on the new light rail, men in black hats and coats coming and going to pray, Christian priests and nuns in brown and black robes and habits, Arabs men and women, in their traditional dress walking through the Damascus Gate to shop and also all the tour buses and tourists - everywhere!

Once inside the City of David, Neil takes us to the rooftop of one of the buildings for a view of Jerusalem and what a view - the day is clear and you can see forever! We are looking at the present buildings, but listening to him tell us about the history of what we see - from the time of King David. The area of the City of David has been an active digging site for many years - with archeologists from all over the world discovery and rediscovery facts, uncovering Jerusalem's ancient water channels, finding pottery, coins and jewelry - even today this is going on.

Next, we enter the theater to view the amazing 3D movie about the site - the 3D makes it really come alive. Then we begin our walking tour with our City of David guides. Instead for Former’s Guide Book, the guidebook is the Bible! Each step, each view has some reference to the Bible. We walk up and down steps – view walls, rocks and learn about Jerusalem from the First Temple Period. Finally, we reach the bottom of the hillside and enter the ‘dry’ water tunnel. Truly a worthwhile experience – how did they do this in those days?

Our bus picks us up to take us to the Zion Gate to enter the Jewish Quarter – yes, time for lunch! Our meeting place after lunch is area in front of the Hurva Synagogue – Neil gives us a little history, as we will be touring the synagogue at the end of the week. We continued walking through the Jewish Quarter, down the many steps to the Kotel, the Davidson Center and the Southern Wall Excavations. As we get to the Women’s section of the Kotel we are told that we can’t enter. How can that be? A new rule? Where will the women pray? Oy, now what did they do? Finally, we find someone who explains that they are performing construction work in the area and they have divided the men’s section and women can pray in that area. For many of us, this is first time in the men’s section – imagine that? We reach the Davidson Center – very modern building built among the ancient rocks. The guide, who was terrific, takes us to a theater where he shows the virtual model of the area during the 2^nd Temple Period. Then, Neil takes us around the Southern Wall excavations where we can see the destruction from the time of the Romans. Now, it is getting cold and we are bundled up – time to return to the hotel to reflect on our day. Ah…but we have a speaker tonight – Barbara Goldstein from Hadassah who talks about Hadassah’s work and the new hospital wing, and what we can do as Ambassadors when we return to the USA. That was our day!

Enjoy the pictures!