The pictures are:
1. Our guide and the first handoff outside Bethlehem.
2. The security wall between the Palestine side and the Israeli side.
3. The old city of Bethlehem.
4. Lunch.
5. The Wailing Wall.
When we looked out from our deck in the morning we saw 52 large tour busses parked at the side of the ship ready to take tour passengers on their tours. Were we glad we had booked a private tour. Being on a bus with 50 other tourists is not so bad, but it is when yo
u get off and try to hear the guide and try to stay together, that is when it is not fun and somebody always take too much time in the bathroom!!
Anyway, the port of Ashford is Israel’s largest and is one of the oldest cities in the world.
Our guide for today was a former State Policeman for Israel and had also been a tour guide for 30 years.
We had only booked a tour of Jerusalem and asked our guide if he would take us to Bethlehem and cut out the shopping time in Jerusalem. He said he had to make some calls to set it up and if he could connect with everyone we could go to Bethlehem first.
Calls were made and we changed directions to go to Bethlehem. The problem that he had to solve was he was not allowed into Bethlehem because he was a citizen of Israel. So we stopped at the top of a hill at a really bad hotel and waited 15 minutes for this car to arrive fast and a great big guy got out and said that he would take us thru the Palestinian check-points and into Bethlehem.
Right at this point it looked like we were the central characters in a really bad movie and we were more than a little nervous but it all worked out. He took us to a gift shop where we transferred to a mini-bus with some more tourists and drove to the Church of the Nativity. The driver handed us off to another guide we took us into the Chur
ch. There was a 2 hour wait for the tour bus people but our new guide talked at length to a policeman and got us in the back way!
The Church is build like a citadel over the cave where it’s believed that Jesus was born and it is one of the world’s oldest working churches. We were able to go down into the grotto to see the cave – what an experience.
We then got back on another mini-bus and back to the gift shop where we had been
told earlier we needed to buy about $30 or more in souvenirs as it was the gift shop owner who our original guide talked to that enabled us to get into Bethlehem. We bought “stuff” and were taken in another car back out of the Palestinian area across the checkpoints and to our original guide. All told, there were 5 different “guides” who got us in and out of Bethlehem.
Yesterday the Syrian, Jordan border with barbed wire and landmines and then today with people showing up and saying get in the car, driving like crazy and being transferred from an Israelite to a Palestinian citizen, we are ready to just ride camels tomorrow!!
We drove to the Mount of Olives and then traveled along the Kidron Valley to view the Garden of Gethsemane and the walls of the city.
We entered the 500 year old city and parked the car. For the next three hours we walked the city. First we went to the site of the crucifixion, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is actually the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the building is shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements. Google the Church to read all about it – it was an absolute maze of rooms and churches within a church.
Then we went into the bazaar to a local place to eat. They only served one dish and had about 10 seats in the “restaurant”. The dish was chickpea humus. They had taken the chickpeas and pureed them and mixed some spices and gave us bread to go along with it. My words to describe it – “interesting”.
We then walked the Stations of the Cross and ended up at the Wailing Wall – what a site. Barb and I each placed prayers into the wall. We then walked back to the car through the Jewish section of the old city.
After getting into the car we went to the Children’s Holocaust display and I cannot describe it to you in writing but suffice to say it was moving, very moving.
Back to the car and 1 ½ hours later we were back at the port and watched a lot of the busses unload their exhausted passengers.
We had to wait for 1 hour to leave the port because one entire tour bus was late. If you take a ship’s tour and it is late, they will hold the ship; however, if you take a tour on your own like we do and you are late, they leave and you have to make your own way to the next port – we have only been close once, in Venice.
Anyway, dinner was fun and we all sat around at our table talking after dinner because they did not have a show tonight. Finally we all left and we went to the casino and for the first night, we were both winners and left the casino before midnight.
Tomorrow we arrive in Alexandria, Egypt and we stay at that port for two days before setting sail for Rome and our final two days. Egypt should be fun and not as emotional as our last two days in Israel.
Night
1. Our guide and the first handoff outside Bethlehem.
2. The security wall between the Palestine side and the Israeli side.
3. The old city of Bethlehem.
4. Lunch.
5. The Wailing Wall.
When we looked out from our deck in the morning we saw 52 large tour busses parked at the side of the ship ready to take tour passengers on their tours. Were we glad we had booked a private tour. Being on a bus with 50 other tourists is not so bad, but it is when yo
u get off and try to hear the guide and try to stay together, that is when it is not fun and somebody always take too much time in the bathroom!!Anyway, the port of Ashford is Israel’s largest and is one of the oldest cities in the world.
Our guide for today was a former State Policeman for Israel and had also been a tour guide for 30 years.
We had only booked a tour of Jerusalem and asked our guide if he would take us to Bethlehem and cut out the shopping time in Jerusalem. He said he had to make some calls to set it up and if he could connect with everyone we could go to Bethlehem first.
Calls were made and we changed directions to go to Bethlehem. The problem that he had to solve was he was not allowed into Bethlehem because he was a citizen of Israel. So we stopped at the top of a hill at a really bad hotel and waited 15 minutes for this car to arrive fast and a great big guy got out and said that he would take us thru the Palestinian check-points and into Bethlehem.
Right at this point it looked like we were the central characters in a really bad movie and we were more than a little nervous but it all worked out. He took us to a gift shop where we transferred to a mini-bus with some more tourists and drove to the Church of the Nativity. The driver handed us off to another guide we took us into the Chur
ch. There was a 2 hour wait for the tour bus people but our new guide talked at length to a policeman and got us in the back way!The Church is build like a citadel over the cave where it’s believed that Jesus was born and it is one of the world’s oldest working churches. We were able to go down into the grotto to see the cave – what an experience.
We then got back on another mini-bus and back to the gift shop where we had been
told earlier we needed to buy about $30 or more in souvenirs as it was the gift shop owner who our original guide talked to that enabled us to get into Bethlehem. We bought “stuff” and were taken in another car back out of the Palestinian area across the checkpoints and to our original guide. All told, there were 5 different “guides” who got us in and out of Bethlehem.Yesterday the Syrian, Jordan border with barbed wire and landmines and then today with people showing up and saying get in the car, driving like crazy and being transferred from an Israelite to a Palestinian citizen, we are ready to just ride camels tomorrow!!
We drove to the Mount of Olives and then traveled along the Kidron Valley to view the Garden of Gethsemane and the walls of the city.
We entered the 500 year old city and parked the car. For the next three hours we walked the city. First we went to the site of the crucifixion, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is actually the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the building is shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements. Google the Church to read all about it – it was an absolute maze of rooms and churches within a church.
Then we went into the bazaar to a local place to eat. They only served one dish and had about 10 seats in the “restaurant”. The dish was chickpea humus. They had taken the chickpeas and pureed them and mixed some spices and gave us bread to go along with it. My words to describe it – “interesting”.
We then walked the Stations of the Cross and ended up at the Wailing Wall – what a site. Barb and I each placed prayers into the wall. We then walked back to the car through the Jewish section of the old city.
After getting into the car we went to the Children’s Holocaust display and I cannot describe it to you in writing but suffice to say it was moving, very moving.
Back to the car and 1 ½ hours later we were back at the port and watched a lot of the busses unload their exhausted passengers.
We had to wait for 1 hour to leave the port because one entire tour bus was late. If you take a ship’s tour and it is late, they will hold the ship; however, if you take a tour on your own like we do and you are late, they leave and you have to make your own way to the next port – we have only been close once, in Venice.
Anyway, dinner was fun and we all sat around at our table talking after dinner because they did not have a show tonight. Finally we all left and we went to the casino and for the first night, we were both winners and left the casino before midnight.
Tomorrow we arrive in Alexandria, Egypt and we stay at that port for two days before setting sail for Rome and our final two days. Egypt should be fun and not as emotional as our last two days in Israel.
Night
