23.03.27 Post 12 – Jerusalem, Israel

The first time Ingrid and I visited Jerusalem it was a religious experience as we went with our church group from Our Lady of Loreto and every day started with mass. This time it was about as crowded and secular an experience as you could imagine. Israel was in the midst of riots, but was still amazingly crowded. We took the tour bus from our port of Ashdod to Jerusalem in about an hour and when we arrived at the old city walls we were immediately engulfed in people. Not rioters, but just a swarm of people and we could hardly hear the guide because of the “celebrations” that were taking place all around. We finally got to the wailing wall, but again because of so many people and celebrations we could hardly hear anything but music and drums. I’m fairly sure the celebrants were having a nice time, but it sure made visiting the wall a downer of an experience. Our guide proceeded to take us through the narrow streets towards the Holy Sepulcher, but again the crowds were so amazing that it was all we could do not to be left behind. Upon arriving at the small square just outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher we literally had to push our way in just to enter. After a short while inside we once again pushed our way just to exit. This dramatically distracted from all the holy sites that we saw and took pictures of. The chaotic nature of the crowds in addition to the already heightened awareness we felt since we had heard of the riots, made the whole experience one we were ready to have over. Our winding path to the Jaffe gate, past many of the Stations of the Cross that our guide pointed out, were interesting, but frenzied.

If you do ever get the opportunity to visit Jerusalem, which I would strongly recommend, try to do it on a private tour or “pilgrimage” so as to decrease the bedlam. I am so glad that Ingrid and I had already gotten to see the sites in a much more organized and reverent manner.

Our return to the ship was by another route because our driver had already heard that one of the main roads had been closed. The 2.5 hour return trip, through back roads, was successful and was just in time to hear that Israel was closing ports due to the riots. Our 8:00 PM scheduled departure was delayed until after 10:00 PM as we heard stories that many of the tours were delayed for hours in traffic. Many watched as the last two mooring lines were cast off from a deserted dock and we hear that our Captain had to sneak out of town quickly before the port was completely closed! We were very glad to be on our way, as were many of our friends and family, who had texted and called during the day with reports of escalating troubles.