After breakfast we joined our tour to old city Jerusalem. The 20 minute ride through the Israeli country was very informative. There is a plethora of agriculture in what was previously desert. Water is precious, so there is no overhead irrigation. Instead it is computer controlled drip irrigation. We arrived at Jerusalem along with thousands of other tourists. It is very interesting with 5000 years of history. In 1917 the Brits passed a law that all buildings must be of stone. They have never repealed it so all buildings have no other sidings., We visited Mt. Olive with a great view of the area. We then went to the old city (us and 10s of thousands of Jews, Christians, Moslems, and others.) We first visited the wailing wall. The entry was through metal detectors so it was pretty slow. It was a bar mitzvah day too so here were groups of families going through singing and rejoicing. To get to the wall itself, men had to go to the left and women to the right. There were thousands of people by the wall praying, putting their wishes in and just touching the wall in reverence. Then we walked along Via Dolorosa. (the path Christ took carrying the cross). Narrow tiny streets every inch covered with tourists and vendors. One endless flea market. At the end we got to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was even more crowded than other sites. We made our way through the final stations of via Dolorosa which are inside the church and then visited the most important parts of the church, including the Armenian chapel.
The whole tours was going through 3000 years of history in 5 hours. Over whelming. Then we drove towards Bethlehem to the border with the Palestinian Authority. We saw the huge wall and the checkpoints. We drove back for some time on a shared road with the fence on one side and the guide pointed out the Palestinian villages.
Right after we got back to the harbor we got into a taxi and went to Tel Aviv, which is only 40 km away. Our Jerusalem guide, Eli, suggested we get off at an old clock tower in Jaffa and then walk along the Esplanade to Tel Aviv and that’s what we did. The old port of Jaffa is a complete contrast to the very modern city of Tel Aviv. The view of the city from the coastline and the beaches is breath taking. We walked through the center and some very cool small neighborhoods such as the Yemenite quarter and the upscale Neve Tzedek (suggested by a tourist information person.) We had lunch of delicious hummus and a huge salad in a beach café. Israel is relatively expensive compared to US prices, but their veggies and fruits are amazing. It’s said to be vegetarian’s paradise. Then we walked back to old Jaffa and picked up a cab back. This time the cab driver was very talkative. He was a Yemenite and told us about Tel Aviv, Israeli life and drove us along the coast for as long as possible so we could see other coastal towns. Back on the ship, we went to the nicest bar on deck 14 and celebrated Al’s birthday with a few drinks as the ship was leaving the harbor for Haifa.
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