Day 6: Mountains and More
We awoke on our last day in Jerusalem with a good amount of sites still left to see. That's what happens when you have things like Christmas and Sleeping In as part of your itinerary the last couple days. The schedule was actioned pack for the day, first with stops to Mountains Olives and Zion, and then a last couple rondezvousii in the old city.
Jerusalem is a large city, larger than the old city and the few train stops on the way to the old city. We learned this the semi-hard way taking the tram to Damascus Gate, and walking to the second arab bus station to catch a bus that would go the long way around the old city, up to and up on top of the Mount of Olives, the site of among other things, Jesus's Ascension, Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemene prior to him being arrested and crucified, and a few other things.
We started at the top, at the Church of the Ascension, which was probably the one big disappointment from a site perspective in Jerusalem. The spot commemorates a special moment in teh religion, but is not treated as such. The 'church' is a small octagonal courtyard with a tiny chapel inside, with a walled off piece of exposed rock, said to be where it happened. The church is run by the Greek Orthodox (like so many other sites, for a reason that has still not really been explained. The site gets a lot of visitors because of the moment it celebrates, but really should be so much more, especially given its position at the apex of the Mount of Olives.
Luckily, the rest of the spots were better maintained, more meainingful, and more special. The next was right down the street from the Church of the Ascension, the Pater Nostra ('Our Father' in Latin, a phrase I would get a lot more closely aware of) church, memorializing where Jesus was said to teach the Lord's Prayer for the first time. This is not a huge moment, at least in comparison to the Ascension, but was so far better showcased.
First, the Pater Nostra had an open courtyard with the Lord's Prayer written out over 100+ languages, including various ancient languages and those spoken by small tribal islands. The overall experience is quite stunning.
The next part was a long traipsing walk down the mount, with countless opportunities to snap pictures of Central Jerusalem, with temple mounts and domes on rocks and all the rest. The mount also contains a giant graveyard built on teh mountain face, with graves now reportedly costing $0,00 - $100,000. The Jewish people started using this area as a gravesite when they were kicked out of Central Jerusalem one of the many times that happened over the years, as per yesterday's lessong taught me.
The main two stops were at the bottom of the mountain, which gave us a nice break to just focus on picture taking and walking down the winding alleyways taht could have easily been out of any country in Europe. I started thinking, giving the history I now better undersatnd, maybe the Europeans based it off of this instead of the other way around.
We finally reached the bottom about 20 minutes later, and reached the ifrst of the two main sites the main mountain had to offer, the Basilica of All Nations, built over the Garden of Gethsemene, the place where Jesus often came to pray, including the night before he was betrayed and killed, etc.
The Garden has been rebuilt to look like it used to, but the true gem was inside the church, in front of the cedntral altar, a large piece of exposed rock, presented the way it should be (unlike it was at the top), thought to be the actual rock where Jesus prayed that night. Yes, it requires a bit of suspension of belief that we can know it is that exact rock, but god damn if it wasn't powerful.
Multiple tour groups were a few setps behind the entire time on the Mount of Olives, taking the exact same path down. When we entered the Basilica, there were about 15-20 other people. By the time we left, that had grown to about 150, there was little elbow room around the perimeter of the rock, and no way to take a picture without a score of other tourists/pilgrims either mingling about, praying or taking their own photo.
The final stop was across the street from this, which was a Russian Orthodox memorial that was the tomb of Mother Mary (again, a big 'Thought to be' on this one). The tomb was in a really nice, very Russian Orthodox chapel built well below ground level down a series of a couple flights of stairs. By 'very Russian' I mean with oodles of lanterns fronm the ceilings, each as haunting as the others, and a large walk-in sarcophogous in the middle with the tomb. Given that Jesus didn't 'die' in the traditional sense (the 2nd time, I mean), this might be the most sacred grave in Christendom, and the Russians did it well, even if it is a bit understated.
This tour of incredibly important sites was finally over, a rapid dash through our religions history at some of its biggest moments, all on one solemn hill. I have to say, given how much walking the same roads as pharoahs and Egyptians couple months back, this was the same, except more personally more meaningful.
From the Mount of Olives to the Mount of Zion took a while before we could find a cab to take us there. We had to barter a bit, with the cabbies relying to the favorite pity tactic of crying about the abd traffic. In about ten minutes we were at the King David Tomb complex, which housed that, the room where the Last Supper was purported to take place (no bigger 'thought to have' than this one), and where Mother Mary died. In the end, there was no nicer place than the church where Mother Mary died. After going to many memorials all across Jerusalem to Christian figures, I have to say, biases aside, the Catholic maintained ones were often the best of the lot.
We then went adjacent to the Machane Yehuda market, to have lunch at Azura, a well known Mom and Pop shop that sells family style Turkish meats and stews, prepared in large giant cauldrons seen when you enter. It looks good, smells better, and tasted as good as expected. We ordered three different meats, all very delicious. First was a beef & pine nuts over eggplant (another great eggplant dish), and then two beef stews, first their version on goulash and second a beef head stew. I don't think I've had beef head before, and after having it a first time, I only want beef head. It was so soft, so perfectly cooked, so soft. Just excellent.
After lunch, we headed into the old city for the last time during the day. First to see the King David museum inside the Tower of David/Citadel complex. The Citadel is a castle looking structure that has a multi-generational, each successive ruler of Jerusalem adding their layer on top of the preceding building. combined with a few turrets that served as picture spots, the musuem told the story of these rulers from beginning to end, with nice exhibits and artifacts for each one.
Our final Jerusalem tourism stop was back at the Holy Sepulchre church to get a more Catholic experience. Starting at 4pm, the Catholic Franciscan Monks that are stationed at the church run a procession around the church that is more or less a live stations of the cross, but extending to post-death events in Jesus's life, and also some additional niceties like a prayer in the otherwise unreachable crypt where there is an alter to St. Helena. People can join the procession, which is led exclusively by the Franciscan brothers, which also geets you unfettered views of the main chapel where the stations of Jesus's crucifixion and death are. It was a haunting, solemn, mystical forty five minutes following them around the church.
The rest of the day was a series of lasts around Jerusalem, quickly becoming a city that will find itself nicely in the bottom half of the top half of my favorite cities list (i.e., somewhere between #11-20).
We awoke on our last day in Jerusalem with a good amount of sites still left to see. That's what happens when you have things like Christmas and Sleeping In as part of your itinerary the last couple days. The schedule was actioned pack for the day, first with stops to Mountains Olives and Zion, and then a last couple rondezvousii in the old city.
Jerusalem is a large city, larger than the old city and the few train stops on the way to the old city. We learned this the semi-hard way taking the tram to Damascus Gate, and walking to the second arab bus station to catch a bus that would go the long way around the old city, up to and up on top of the Mount of Olives, the site of among other things, Jesus's Ascension, Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemene prior to him being arrested and crucified, and a few other things.
We started at the top, at the Church of the Ascension, which was probably the one big disappointment from a site perspective in Jerusalem. The spot commemorates a special moment in teh religion, but is not treated as such. The 'church' is a small octagonal courtyard with a tiny chapel inside, with a walled off piece of exposed rock, said to be where it happened. The church is run by the Greek Orthodox (like so many other sites, for a reason that has still not really been explained. The site gets a lot of visitors because of the moment it celebrates, but really should be so much more, especially given its position at the apex of the Mount of Olives.
Luckily, the rest of the spots were better maintained, more meainingful, and more special. The next was right down the street from the Church of the Ascension, the Pater Nostra ('Our Father' in Latin, a phrase I would get a lot more closely aware of) church, memorializing where Jesus was said to teach the Lord's Prayer for the first time. This is not a huge moment, at least in comparison to the Ascension, but was so far better showcased.
First, the Pater Nostra had an open courtyard with the Lord's Prayer written out over 100+ languages, including various ancient languages and those spoken by small tribal islands. The overall experience is quite stunning.
The next part was a long traipsing walk down the mount, with countless opportunities to snap pictures of Central Jerusalem, with temple mounts and domes on rocks and all the rest. The mount also contains a giant graveyard built on teh mountain face, with graves now reportedly costing $0,00 - $100,000. The Jewish people started using this area as a gravesite when they were kicked out of Central Jerusalem one of the many times that happened over the years, as per yesterday's lessong taught me.
The main two stops were at the bottom of the mountain, which gave us a nice break to just focus on picture taking and walking down the winding alleyways taht could have easily been out of any country in Europe. I started thinking, giving the history I now better undersatnd, maybe the Europeans based it off of this instead of the other way around.
We finally reached the bottom about 20 minutes later, and reached the ifrst of the two main sites the main mountain had to offer, the Basilica of All Nations, built over the Garden of Gethsemene, the place where Jesus often came to pray, including the night before he was betrayed and killed, etc.
The Garden has been rebuilt to look like it used to, but the true gem was inside the church, in front of the cedntral altar, a large piece of exposed rock, presented the way it should be (unlike it was at the top), thought to be the actual rock where Jesus prayed that night. Yes, it requires a bit of suspension of belief that we can know it is that exact rock, but god damn if it wasn't powerful.
Multiple tour groups were a few setps behind the entire time on the Mount of Olives, taking the exact same path down. When we entered the Basilica, there were about 15-20 other people. By the time we left, that had grown to about 150, there was little elbow room around the perimeter of the rock, and no way to take a picture without a score of other tourists/pilgrims either mingling about, praying or taking their own photo.
The final stop was across the street from this, which was a Russian Orthodox memorial that was the tomb of Mother Mary (again, a big 'Thought to be' on this one). The tomb was in a really nice, very Russian Orthodox chapel built well below ground level down a series of a couple flights of stairs. By 'very Russian' I mean with oodles of lanterns fronm the ceilings, each as haunting as the others, and a large walk-in sarcophogous in the middle with the tomb. Given that Jesus didn't 'die' in the traditional sense (the 2nd time, I mean), this might be the most sacred grave in Christendom, and the Russians did it well, even if it is a bit understated.
This tour of incredibly important sites was finally over, a rapid dash through our religions history at some of its biggest moments, all on one solemn hill. I have to say, given how much walking the same roads as pharoahs and Egyptians couple months back, this was the same, except more personally more meaningful.
From the Mount of Olives to the Mount of Zion took a while before we could find a cab to take us there. We had to barter a bit, with the cabbies relying to the favorite pity tactic of crying about the abd traffic. In about ten minutes we were at the King David Tomb complex, which housed that, the room where the Last Supper was purported to take place (no bigger 'thought to have' than this one), and where Mother Mary died. In the end, there was no nicer place than the church where Mother Mary died. After going to many memorials all across Jerusalem to Christian figures, I have to say, biases aside, the Catholic maintained ones were often the best of the lot.
We then went adjacent to the Machane Yehuda market, to have lunch at Azura, a well known Mom and Pop shop that sells family style Turkish meats and stews, prepared in large giant cauldrons seen when you enter. It looks good, smells better, and tasted as good as expected. We ordered three different meats, all very delicious. First was a beef & pine nuts over eggplant (another great eggplant dish), and then two beef stews, first their version on goulash and second a beef head stew. I don't think I've had beef head before, and after having it a first time, I only want beef head. It was so soft, so perfectly cooked, so soft. Just excellent.
After lunch, we headed into the old city for the last time during the day. First to see the King David museum inside the Tower of David/Citadel complex. The Citadel is a castle looking structure that has a multi-generational, each successive ruler of Jerusalem adding their layer on top of the preceding building. combined with a few turrets that served as picture spots, the musuem told the story of these rulers from beginning to end, with nice exhibits and artifacts for each one.
Our final Jerusalem tourism stop was back at the Holy Sepulchre church to get a more Catholic experience. Starting at 4pm, the Catholic Franciscan Monks that are stationed at the church run a procession around the church that is more or less a live stations of the cross, but extending to post-death events in Jesus's life, and also some additional niceties like a prayer in the otherwise unreachable crypt where there is an alter to St. Helena. People can join the procession, which is led exclusively by the Franciscan brothers, which also geets you unfettered views of the main chapel where the stations of Jesus's crucifixion and death are. It was a haunting, solemn, mystical forty five minutes following them around the church.
The rest of the day was a series of lasts around Jerusalem, quickly becoming a city that will find itself nicely in the bottom half of the top half of my favorite cities list (i.e., somewhere between #11-20).
