One of the golden rules of travel, whether you are traveling to another town, another state, or another country, is to find out where the locals go. If you aren't sure where the locals go, it never hurts to ask. Many of the guided tours you will see offered in your travels are great. They'll mostly hit the high points however, if a tour bus is headed to a particular tourist site, you can be sure many other tour buses will be headed to the same tourist site. You may also find that you won't get to see everything you wanted to see due to time constraints and you'll generally find yourself constantly surrounded by large groups of people making personal exploration virtually nonexistent. I lucked out in the best possible way with my trip because, not only were all of my tour guides locals, we were a much, much smaller group and had no real timetable to keep.
After we (finally) managed to get a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep the night before, we woke refreshed and ready to continue our adventure. After we filled our empty bellies with breakfast, we then made our way to the Haas Promenade in Trottner Park. The Haas Promenade is a beautifully maintained area that overlooks the Old City of Jerusalem. It is constructed out of Jerusalem stone which was taken from the local quarries. My understanding is that the local laws require all buildings to be constructed from this material. You can see from the photo above that all of the buildings share a very similar aesthetic regarding the materials used in their construction.
Jerusalem is just as beautiful from a distance as it is up-close walking through the city.
At any point in time, you will come across all types of religions and cultural backgrounds while roaming through the city. There has been a lot of discussion in politics regarding who Jerusalem belongs to and, as luck would have it, these politics would play a part in the timing of our visit.
We had planned to make Jerusalem the first stop on our tour because, out of all of the places we were going to see, Jerusalem had potentially the most to offer and we wanted to take our time.
We were in Jerusalem on the 4th and 5th of December, 2017. On December 6th, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and make plans to move the U.S. embassy into the city. While this announcement was met with much celebration, you can imagine how many people would also condemn the decision. Needless to say, the atmosphere in Jerusalem would change drastically the day after we moved on to other parts of the country and it would not have been the safest environment. I am glad the timing worked out the way it had, it would have been a shame had we not been able to experience this remarkable culture and I'm not sure we would have been able to move the visit back.
After we were finished taking in the view at Trottner Park and before we made it to the Old City, we had one very important thing we needed to do before we could allow ourselves to properly enjoy the city. I was informed that we would be making a stop at Yad Vashem, also known as the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
To say that Yad Vashem is a difficult experience in an understatement of the highest order. I am going to put together a stand-alone article about that visit because I feel like it deserves my complete attention. For now, I'll fast forward to us getting into the Old City.
Here we go.
Walking into Jerusalem excited me in an unexpected way. I knew that I would be walking back through history, but I didn't stop to think how much of that history I had already been exposed to. I was raised Southern Baptist and have heard all of the stories that go hand in hand with the Christian religion. I was familiar with the tales of King David, King Solomon, and Jesus but, for the most part, that is what they were, just tales. Now, I was walking where those tales happened and it was no longer some ethereal story I heard in bible school. Jerusalem was concrete, it was solid, and it was a weird sensation.
Our first stop was the Old City Market.
This place is a maze. I believe you could find anything in the world you may be looking for if you had the time to visit every shop. Much of the merchandise looks the same but you can't help but dart your eyes from one display to the next. This place is Mecca for individuals who love to haggle, you can buy anything at face value or, you can talk the price down if you know how. I do not know how... My tour guides knew that I am terrible at bargaining so I was instructed to show restraint regarding any real interest in the things that I liked. It was not easy. More than a few times I locked eyes with a smiling merchant who was very quick to invite me in and take a closer look at his wares. After all of the browsing, I did manage to pick up a nice pair of sandals and that was about it.
Once we managed to extricate ourselves from the marketplace, our next stop would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Behind this unassuming church front lie some of the holiest sites in all of Christianity, among them, the site where Jesus' body was prepared for burial as well as Jesus' tomb (which would also make it the site of Jesus' eventual resurrection). I wasn't quite prepared for the emotions that would stir within me once we walked inside. To be honest, I was relatively ignorant to the historical value of the site. I had always imagined that Jesus' tomb would be outdoors, on a hillside somewhere. I envisioned a cave with a large boulder just outside the door, left from where the apostles discovered that the tomb was now empty. Instead, there was a building in the middle of a city surrounded by, for lack of a better word, pilgrims.
Immediately inside the front door, we came across this display. I did not know at the time what it was symbolic of, I just saw that people were kneeling down and kissing the surface of the stone. Some people were rubbing coins, rosaries, or some other trinkets on the stone as well. I assumed it was to imbue them with some sort of luck or good fortune, I wasn't really sure.
When we had come into the country, it was decided that I wouldn't activate roaming on my cellphone so, unless I was connected to wifi, my phone was good to use as a camera and that was about it. Had I been able to connect to the internet, I would have been able to discover at that time that this stone is known as the 'Stone of Anointing'. This is the place where it is thought that Jesus' body was prepared for burial after the crucifixion. I blame myself for not doing due diligence.
Visitors could freely move about a lot of the church barring a few stanchions and there was a lot of kneeling and moments of quiet reverence happening all around me. I am still not sure what the significance of each location was. If we had started our visit at the Church rather than the market, I may have been able to glean a little more information. It was already afternoon by this point and there was something of personal significance that I needed to see.
In the center of the Church, you will find the Tomb of Jesus Christ. Not a story, not a scale model, not a re-enactment, the actual tomb. There was a small crowd of pilgrims gathered around the tomb, but not as many as I would have thought. Walking around to the back of the tomb got you into the crowd which slowly turned into the line to go inside. Once I was entrenched in the crowd, my mind began to fixate on the stories I had been told as a child surrounding Jesus, the apostles, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It was slow going but the closer I got to the front of the line, the more I realized I was becoming, what I can only describe as, nervous.
At first, I wanted to see the tomb out of curiosity. I am not a practitioner of any particular religion but I'm also not immune to the fascination that comes with visiting any place of such historic significance. Now, here I am moments away from something extraordinary and I have come to the alarming conclusion that I am unprepared! What is it that I am supposed to do? Do I kneel? Do I make an offering? Do I rub a coin on the stone? What is expected of a person who is about to come face to face with his faith?
I was next to enter and my mind was still caught up in panic and ritual when I was ushered in. I knew my time would be minimal, a couple minutes at best, there were men in robes letting everyone know when they have been inside long enough. I also knew I may never get the chance to do anything like this for a while so I needed to make to most of the opportunity. Ultimately, I did the only thing I could do, I prayed.
I stood up to leave and, admittedly, I felt better. What does that mean in a metaphysical sense? I have no idea. What I do know is that I had just accomplished something that I never knew I would have the chance to make happen. Opportunities can be created or you can just stumble into them, either way try to recognize them for what they are.
Next on the tour we would be going to see the Western Wall. The Western Wall is one of the few things that remained after the invasion of the Romans. The Western Wall is of enormous significance to the Jewish community as it is one of the holiest sites for prayer (second only to the Foundation Stone).
There are a ton of papers in the wall. It took me a few moments to find an area to squeeze my own paper into but it can be done. I wondered what would happen at the point the wall can't hold any more papers, but I have since discovered that the prayers are collected twice a year and buried on the Mount of Olives.
I look forward to one day getting back to this remarkable city. I feel there was so much left unseen and there is still plenty to research for me in preparation of any return. What I did see had the unexpected side effect of solidifying stories and histories that I had only heard about. To bear witness to so much faith coming from so many, it's impossible not to acknowledge that I came to a place of belief. I came to a place where history stands side by side with faith. I came to a place where I, inadvertently, found myself taking my very own pilgrimage.
Comments