Israel Trip: December-January 2014-2015
At the David Citadel we had a nice room, with a fold-out twin bed for Marcus, a crib (bizarrely) for Samantha that, due to the novelty of it, both kids sparred over, and a comfy pair of twin beds (we basically never had an actual double bed in the entire country) for us. Everyone slept well, and then on Monday morning, Robert's birthday, we set out for the Old City properly in the daylight. We had an 11:00 reservation for a tunnel tour at the Kotel (Western Wall), but before that we bought tickets to walk the ramparts of the 500-year-old city walls, and walked the northern section (Jaffa Gate to Damascus Gate). Marcus loved all the ups and downs, and even Samantha was gleefully yelling "Arrow slot!" every time we passed one. We talked about all the relatives who would not be happy with these steps, narrow passageways, and uneven stones, and we had a great time.
At Damascus Gate we went down and Robert tried to find someone selling Arabic coffee the old-fashioned way, on their back, but I think he would have needed to go slightly further afield and we were in a bit of a time crunch. Some Muslim schoolgirls fawned over Samantha while he looked for coffee, and practiced their English, and then we quickly bought some pita and some knafah for the walk through the Muslim quarter to the Western Wall.
The tunnel tour was fantastic. Robert wore one of their complimentary yarmulkes, and Marcus was fascinated by the archaeologist guide's explanations. We walked through thousands of years old aquaducts and cisterns, and the guide explained (with models) all about the geography of the Old City, about Mount Moriah and Abraham and the foundation stone, and about the first and second temples and David, Solomon, and Herod. "Herod was mean, but interesting," Marcus noted, thinking about the story of the slaughter of the innocents in combination with the engineering feats of the palace at Masada and the great platform with arched passageways under it here in Jerusalem. At the point in the tunnels closest to the foundation stone, the guide asked the men in our party to keep walking straight through the tunnel, not to pause, and wait a little ways up. The women, he said, could pause to pray in a little chapel at that closest point, as the chapel was reserved for women only, who, if they had a special prayer request like a serious illness in the family, or some such thing, could apply for permission to come here to pray. The "chapel" was little more than a nook in the tunnel with a few folding chairs, but I did pause with Samantha to pray there. The guide said that in Judaism the prayers of women are believed to have special power, and praying together in a group is also believed to have special power, and so this site, with its group of women and straight line to the foundation stone, really was quite remarkable.
At the end of the tour, we emerged in the Muslim quarter of the Old City, and walked as a group back to the Western Wall entrance. There we wrote our prayer requests on tiny pieces of paper and rolled them up. Marcus wrote out his prayer/wish, I wrote mine, and Samantha very seriously scribbled on her paper and wrote an "S" on it. Then Robert took Marcus to the men's side of the wall, and I took Samantha to the women's side, and we put our papers in the wall.
We walked back through the Muslim quarter again to lunch at the Green Door Pizza place, where the owner and his thirteen-year-old grandson made pizzas ("Meat or no meat?" went the choices) with a delicious chewy beef pastrami and beaten eggs and a great yogurt-style cheese. The grandson came over with huge lollipops for the kids, and we gave a large 10-shekel tip at the end.
Next we walked the Southern section of the ramparts, in a bit of haste as it was getting late and we didn't want to still be on the ramparts when the sun finally set.
Samantha napped through this walk, but Marcus still thought it was pretty cool. You had great views from the different sections of the ramparts:
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Created: 1/11/15. Last Modified: 1/11/15.