Jerusalem is a contradiction: Old and new, ancient and modern, orthodox and
profane, as well as everything in between.
No matter your religious bent, I think it’s safe to say no
one could fail to be impressed by Jerusalem’s many faces and its history.
Our modern hotel sat only a mile from Old City Jerusalem.
(I would have discovered this my first day in the city if I’d only turned left
instead of right on my walk.)
There were only 22 of us, plus Gila, on the field trip but
we were provided with a large 47-passenger coach. That meant that we could
spread out if we wished. We quickly discovered that ours was only one of
hundreds on Jerusalem streets that day. Traffic was a snarl of cars vs. a huge
number of tour buses at all the famous sites.
Our first stop was the Mt. of Olives, which
overlooked the eastern wall of the Old City. As we were there, a mass wedding
took place just below us. As each couple was wed, another stepped in for their
ceremony. All of that featured a backdrop of Jerusalem’s Old City, with the
golden Dome of the
Rock front-and-center.
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| Under the Chuppah - Weddings on the Mt. of Olives |
From the Mount of Olives it was possible to see many other
city sites below, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the
Russian Orthodox Church of Mary
Magdelene with its golden onion domes glittering in the sunlight , the Church
of All Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane,
the old train depot, which is now a modern shopping center and the excavations
taking place at the City of David. Some of these sights we’d see more closely
on days following.
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| Below: Church of All Nations at Gethsemane Above: The onion domes of the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdelene |
Gila astounded us with an incredible amount of information
about each site we visited. Some of us took copious notes. I wasn’t one of
those; I simply noted the name of each spot as best I could in my phone to research
later, thus the links that accompany this and future blogposts.
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| Gila explaining the scene in front of us |
If I stayed here a thousand years, I don’t
think I’d ever tire of seeing this view:
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| Jerusalem Old and New |
As I write this two weeks after my return, I am amazed at
how many of the details have escaped my memory despite my determination to
remember them.
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