Marvels
Today started early, because mom and I couldn't sleep past about 3:30am. We tried. But I didn't want to leave the hotel before we had enjoyed the complementary breakfast buffet. So we stayed in our room and some research about what we could do on a Sunday morning in Jerusalem until it was time for breakfast. Then we ate and were off to the Temple Mount.
We are staying at the Grand Court Hotel, which is about 20 minutes walking distance to the Old City of Jerusalem. We headed out with my Google Maps leading the way, and twenty minutes later we were standing at the Western Wall.
I mentioned the Western Wall (Kotel) in the blog post on Jerusalem a few days ago. It's over 2,000 years old, and it's where Jews can go to connect with their history, their heritage, their faith, and their people from all over the world. For the rest of us, it's a place to see history meeting the modern day, a chance to visit one of the most important places in the world, and a chance to witness and experience deep devotion.
To get to the Kotel we walked through the busy, car-honking, bustling streets of East Jerusalem until we arrived at the Damascus Gate. Once through the Damascus Gate we were transported in time to narrow, stone streets and no motorized traffic except the occasional cart transporting goods to one of several hundred shops in the Bazaar. We walked along the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus carried his cross after being sentenced to death.
We knew we were getting close to the Kotel when we saw armed officers and a security screening checkpoint. All bags through the scanner, all items out of pockets, all people through the metal detector. Then out of the stone tunnel and we were at the Western Wall Plaza.
The wall is separated into a men's side and a women's side. The men's side is about four times larger than the women's side. This turned out to be a bummer for us, because the men's side had huge open spaces, and the women's side was three people deep. We anticipated needing to cover our heads, so we brought head scarves with us for just this purpose. Most of the women entering the area for worship have their heads covered and are dressed in all black. We placed our prayers into the cracks of the wall and had a few moments of reflection. Then we took selfies and smiled at our good fortune.
It was helpful that mom was wearing fuschia today. She was easy to find in the crowds of people all dressed in black.
(The degree to which my skin matches the color of the wall was surprising. I had to touch up this photo just so you could see my hand. Otherwise I'm a perfect camouflage for the Kotel.)
After visiting the wall we headed to the Temple Mount, where the Al Aqsa and Dome Of The Rock Mosques stand. It was literally on the other side of the wall, but we were going from the Jewish side to the Muslim side, so another security check was required. Our guide explained that they don't allow you to go to the Temple Mount if you have a Bible in your posession, and if you're wearing a cross or Star of David pendant you need to hide it before being allowed in. Signs heading to the Mount explain that devout Jews are not to go at all, because no one REALLY knows the EXACT location of the Holy Of Holies, and to walk over it, even unwittingly, would be offensive. Non-Muslims are not allowed inside the mosques on the Temple Mount.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was built over 1,300 years ago, atop the spot where Muhammed experienced his famous Night Journey. The Dome On The Rock was built about 1,200 years ago, and is believed to be built exactly atop where Solomon's Temple once stood. Both structures are impressive, and it was incredible to be on the Temple Mount with so few people. Score a point in the positive column for jet lag!
After the Temple Mount it was time to make our way through the Bazaars, now open and bustling, to find the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Does anyone remember Roman/Christian History? Constantine was the Emperor who converted to Christianity in 312 CE, allowing any Roman who wanted to follow Christian teachings to finally
not be burned alive or fed to lions in the Coliseum. (Pre-Constantine, things for Christians in Rome had been pretty bleak.) Constantine sent his mother, Helena, to find the site of Jesus's tomb, and she did so much more. She found his tomb, the site of his crucifixion, and even a good portion of the true cross on which he was crucified. It is considered the holiest place in Christianity, and is one of the primary pilgrimage sites for Christians. In about two weeks, when mom and I are coming home, it will be PACKED with people celebrating passion week on the site where it all happened.
Mom and I spent nearly two hours there. We wanted to enter the small chapel in the center, which is where Christ was entombed, but there were Sunday worship services happening, and priests of a denomination we couldn't recognize (probably Greek Orthodox?) were going in and out of the chapel to get their items for worship -- candles, incense, communion bread and wine,... There was much chanting and singing, and officiants pounding staffs into the stage to alert onlookers that they need to move so the priests could move about. Then, about 40 feet away, another service began! Was it Catholic? A group of men in a choir loft started singing, and they sounded like Benedictine Monks, so maybe? Then the priest started talking and it sounded Arabic, so maybe Coptic Christian? But the Armenians also worship here, and so do the Syrians, so was it one of their services? They all worship at the same time. Their songs and bells and chanting and organ music and banging staffs and prayers in unison all overlapped in a cacophony of blending, international, interdenominational Christian worship. It was incredible.
It was also unintelligible, and while all the worshippers were going through their prayers and hymns, mom and I made our way from one empty chapel to another, taking in all the sites of the church while they were completely free of crowds. Guide books told us is typical to spend over an hour to simply enter this church, but this morning we walked right in, sat in one chapel by ourselves for awhile, then walked back to enjoy parts of the various services.
Photo: Does this man look Greek Orthodox? Syrian?
This is a part of Golgotha, the hill on which Jesus was crucified. There are other parts, all encased in glass like this.
This is facing the entrance to the chapel over Jesus's tomb. Those of us who were there to appreciate the relics were clearly an annoyance to the men conducting the worship service. They banged staffs loudly and corralled us to the edges of the church with scowls on their faces. I'm not sure Jesus would have dug it. He was more of a "hey! good to see you!" kind of guy.
One interesting thing happened when we made our way to the upper chapel, while they were serving communion. Mom and I sat on a side bench along the wall, taking it all in. A guy in a high-backed wooden chair started stomping his feet, so I had to look over to see what was up. He was pointing angrily at me!! I got a look of confusion and pointed to myself, and he pointed back at me with fire in his eyes! He wore a scowl I haven't seen since my Plymouth K-car accidentally rolled forward and bumped the back of the Ferrari in front of me at the Burger King drive through in Phoenix in the early 90s. What in the world was I doing? I was just sitting there. He dramatically crossed his legs, pointed at them, and did the "no-no" finger wave.
I had crossed my legs. 😱 Not in the cowboy manner, but in the knee-over-knee-like-a-British-Aristocratic-lady manner. (If a British aristocratic lady were wearing performance fleece, camp pants, and hiking boots.) Turns out, crossing one's legs in a house of worship is a sign of significant disrespect here, because the sole of the foot is visible and potentially pointing at something sacred. I knew about the soles of the feet thing, and the "no cowboy leg crossing" thing, but I didn't know it was offensive to "sit like a lady". So if you ever find yourself in any house of worship in the Middle East, be sure to keep your legs uncrossed -- even at the ankles!
We got back to the room and I could hardly walk. Four weeks ago I had knee surgery on my right knee, to remove torn cartilage on both the medial and lateral meniscuses. The amount of time to recover enough after surgery to comfortably walk on uneven terrain is about 4 weeks. Tomorrow will be four weeks after surgery, and today we walked 17,000 steps on a lot of uneven terrain. So we got back to the room and I put my feet on a pillow, wishing I were able to walk as well as my 82 year-old mother. She walked through the city really well all morning, and we were on our feet for 5 1/2 consecutive hours! Such a trooper! Having my feet up for a few hours helped a lot. I've been really glad I had the surgery. The pressure it takes to slide your foot into a slipper boot caused too much knee pain for me to bear before the surgery, so I'm in a much better situation now than I would have been without the surgery.
When evening came it was time to meet our tour group. There are seven of us, plus the tour guide. There might be an 8th tomorrow, if he shows up. He was a no-show for the meeting tonight, and the hotel said he never checked into his room, so who knows. After meeting one another, and after hearing from our guide about things like tipping and so on, we all walked to a very nice restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal.
I think my mom would be sharing a very different version of events. I never strike up conversations with strangers, because I just assume I'd be annoying to them, so I mostly keep to myself and observe from a distance. Mom, on the other hand, has struck up conversations with virtually everyone we have encountered so far. When our Taxi driver responded to her questions with, "No. No good English" she didn't hear him, so she just kept interviewing him, and managed to find out he has been driving a taxi for 20 years, things were very slow during COVID, and he drives nights AND days. The guy sitting next to her on the plane from O'Hare is from Belgium, he's seeing a woman in Peioria, Illinois, he has to go back to Belgium every so often when his visa expires, he used to teach math for a living, he played in a band when he was younger, and so much more. (I'm not sure what else. My headphones were on.)
That's all for today. L'chaim!
