Day Eight: Farewell Jerusalem!!

Our final day in Jerusalem, we are so sad to be leaving this hotel, mostly because we have to pack!!

Day eight began fairly early, with a 7am departure to the Old City. In order to see the Dome of the Rock, you have to wait in line for security, and the later you arrive, the longer you wait. Not sure why the security to enter this site is so much more intense than others, but it is. Finally after 45 minutes in line, we walked into the Dome of the Rock complex in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City which sits on the Temple Mount. The mosque itself is beautiful, and it was fascinating to see the people that congregate here. Women were in little study groups of Koran, men in their own private study sessions. And children, lots of children. Spent a while there talking and then proceeded to walk through the Arab section to the Wailing Wall. Everything is so close together, you wouldn't know how much animosity there is in this country (except there are soldiers and security  everywhere).

After the wall visit, we went on the Western Wall Heritage Tour, which is a tour of the west wall tunnel underneath the Arab Quarter, the rest of the wall that has been buried underground and excavated and restored. There are actually places that women pray (men too, but we had to go in the women's entrance) that is nearer to the holiest  of holy places, the site where Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son Isaac. This is also where the Muslim faith believes is their holiest of spots, hence the Dome of the Rock.

We ate lunch in the Armenian section (I think, we covered a lot) but it was definitely Arab-esque, in an outdoor cafe where our lunch choices were A. Chicken Shwarma B. Falafel or C. Pizza. I had the Falafel, some delicious fresh squeezed pomegranate juice, and a Cappuccino! It was good!!! The restaurant is actually in a church courtyard, and is stop 3 and 4 of Jesus' trek to his final resting place (you KNOW that is not what it's called!) We saw religious groups follow the route, one group was actually bearing a cross!!

The underground tour actually spits out in the Armenian/Coptic/Greek Orthodox/Ethiopian, too many to mention section. We walked through 2 Ethiopian churches to get the the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where some kind of sword split some kind of rock, then downstairs to where the body of Jesus was washed and prepared for burial. At this spot, believers were piling little items to be blessed (we suppose). It was fascinating to watch, they had rags that they were symbolically cleaning the blood off of this platform. The actual spot where Jesus is purported to be buried was a little too crowded for my liking, so I ducked out of the church and sat in the courtyard until everyone was ready for the next stop!

We walked some more and ended up in the Arab market (for Jodi and I, we were back in the Arab market, and oddly enough, the merchandise hadn't changed!).

We then walked to the Jewish quarter, and the difference is palatable......it is cleaner, feels newer and just more taken care of than the rest of the Old City. We were given a little history, and then set free to shop in the Cardo (the Jewish market where no haggling occurs!)

It was a long day in the Old City, and Wendy said she had a surprise for us.

We hadn't been on the bus for the whole day, but we piled on happy but tired. We were told that Wendy has wanted to take a group to this "special place", that Kfir (our driver who I call Phil because I am certain that is what he told me on our first day) had confirmed that we can go. It was totally worth it.

We drive up this very scary road outside the city, to a monument erected for the 911 fallen, and we were informed that it is the ONLY monument erected outside of the US. It is a beautiful structure, resembling and American flag, with a piece of the debris from Ground Zero displayed in the base, and on a wall surrounding the structure is plaques with ALL the names of those who perished on 911! Very moving. A JNF group came in behind, and they came to say Kadish, so we all said Kadish together. It was an amazing experience. (on an aside, we caught two old men peeing at the entrance of the memorial, and they weren't even trying to hide what they were doing! It was disgusting, and disrespectful)

We came back to the hotel through the Orthodox section of Jerusalem called Mea Shearim and the streets were teaming with colorful people wearing black hats, long coats, pius: the real deal!!

Jodi and I packed (going to miss this place!) and went downstairs for a glass of wine and dinner. After dinner, a shower, a blog, and good night!!