First day in Jerusalem

Still pretty exhausted! Getting a slow start this morning.

Yesterday ED picked me up and drove me to the Old City. After a bit of accidental Turkish coffee (it wasn't that bad, even though I'm not a coffee drinker at all), she left me on my own, and I headed to the Western Wall. Where I nearly wandered into the men's section. (It isn't marked, and anyway I was looking at my guidebook, trying to find out how to get to the tunnel tour!)



On the women's side, I found this girl peeking at the men:



I did finally find the ticket office for the tunnels. Nothing is very well marked! I had to ask three people. But the tunnel tour was worth it. They excavated a tunnel that runs alongside the length of the Western Wall; you get to see the bottom stones, from Herod's time. The city is like a layer cake, a valley that has been filled in over time, and so you can see the excavations down to the various levels. Our guide was Canadian and very knowledgable, and there wasn't too much Zionism in her talk, though we did get to see a fancy model on hydraulics of what the second Temple would have looked like.

We passed by the spot on the Western Wall that is closest to the Holy of Holies, the spot (now under the Dome of the Rock) where Abraham was going to kill Isaac but didn't. A lot of people on the tour stopped there to pray.

The tunnel lets out in the Muslim section, at station 2 on the Via Dolorosa (where Jesus walked on his way to being crucified). Guards posted there, of course. I went first to the nearby Church of St. Anne, reputed to have great acoustics (I hummed a bit, as I was alone there, and can confirm that the acoustics are very live!).



It's funny to be in churches that aren't covered in carvings and stained glass and frescos like European churches.

Behind St. Anne are the pools of Bethesda, no longer pools, and with the ruins of a Byzantium church inside now, but anyway, it's where Jesus healed some guy.



After that, to the Via Dolorosa. I found this very annoyingly touristy. If you stop at all to try to find the stations of the cross, where various things happened on Jesus's walk, you were accosted by all sorts of men trying to get you to buy things or show you this or that. I didn't trust any of them. Actually, even if you kept moving it was pretty bad. I mostly just smiled and shook my head. Points for creativity go to the guy who said, "Do you speak English? Can you help me, how do you spell phenomenon?" And if you walk by the same place twice they say "Hello again!" Sheesh. I console myself with the thought that the Via Dolorosa has been full of tourist shops for centuries. Part of the experience.

Another part of the experience: The paving stones in the Old City are extremely slippery, polished by people's feet. So I understand now why Jesus fell three times.

Women like this one were selling leaves, possibly the leaves my cab driver had told me he chews on:



After that I went up to the Temple Mount, during the visiting hours when non-Muslims are allowed. Some pretty architecture. I was surprised to find that it's basically a park, where people have picnics with their families, fly kites, and so forth.









After this I wandered around some in the Jewish Quarter. Very different from the Christian and Muslim quarters. Cleaner and newer (all those rich American Jews giving money), and the only people accosting you are Hasidim trying to get you to donate for charity.

I went to the so-called "City of David," an archeological dig outside the city walls in an area that predates David, but you can go through the tunnels that the Canaanites used to bring water up to the city. Actually, you can wade through the water if you so desire, but I didn't. The tour guide pointed across the Hebron Valley to show me where he lived; he called and someone waved from the porch. (It's not in this photo, but this is the neighborhood.)



There were soldiers everywhere, some in tour groups (with their guns!) and some just walking around. Actually, I saw some guys that did not appear to be in uniform walking around with guns like that too, which made me do quite the double take.



I made my way back to the Holy Sepulchre, a really dliapidated building since so many people have to share it and there are disputes over the mainenance. It is a church of many different small spaces rather than one big one. I was really glad I was there on a Sunday; there was an Orthodox procession of about twenty priests making its way around the church, singing, and then there was a Catholic one with laypeople that started later, and for a while they overlapped, so that when one group paused you could hear the other group singing. The other priests, both Orthodox and Franciscan, tried to get tourists and pilgrims out of the way before the processionals came by: "Quick! Quick!" Because everyone wanted to go into Jesus's tomb (I did... and it reminded me a little of the Tohono O'odham holy cave I went to in Arizona), or pray under the altar at the alleged spot of the crucifixion. This photo is from the station where he was nailed to the cross.



Outside I saw this guy who looked like he was praying, but he was really sending a text message.



I walked out the Jaffa gate then, up alongside the wall of the City, past a pretty garden with some palm trees:



I was vaguely trying to find the bus station, but ended up walking alongside a park, and with the help of my guidebook, finding a very hip and happening part of town, still open at that hour. I had dinner at a new, empty grill restaurant, where I had four guys waiting on me all to myself, and then stopped at a bakery recommended in my book, called something de Paris, to get Arab pastries for later. I'm developing a real taste for them. They're all in the baklava family, with honey and ground nuts, but there is a vast variety.

I wandered down the pedestrian street, and found a shoe store open at that hour. I'd been meaning to get some sturdy, comfy sandals in Paris, but I found cheaper ones here! And the lady at the store, when I asked her how to get back to my guesthouse and proonounced "Givat Ram" with a French kind of "r", she said, "Vous parlez français?" and when I said I did, she proceeded to give me directions to the bus in French! So I felt right at home.

The bus was also empty, and dropped me right off near my guesthouse. Though they did check my passport at the university gate.

Whew! Longest post ever. Now to get my day started. I have another day to wander around, and having dinner with ED and NB tonight, with a concert after that. My talk is tomorrow.

There are more photos from yesterday in the usual place.