Tag Archives: Souk

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

Next day was a free day; a Sunday.  We got a limo and a guide and a bunch of us headed to Jerusalem.  That morning there were several news stories about some problems in the Old City and so we had some trepidation.  Yet in the interest of massive curiosity and fear of the CNN factor getting the better of us, we pushed ahead. We are in the travel business after all.  This is what we do.  It made the day even more exciting than it already promised to be!

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a short journey of about 70 km or about 43 miles.  En route, we stopped to look at the settlements and take in the wall that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories.  A fascinating, albeit slightly strange, experience.  We drove up to Mount Olive for a view across the city.  The Dome of the Rock, the ancient Al-Aqsa Mosque, all sitting there in the distance.

Eventually we headed towards the inner city, lost the car, and walked the old town, the Souk (old market), and the Arab quarter.  We followed the Stations of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was allegedly crucified and where his body was laid to rest before wrapped in a shroud.  That shroud can now be found in Turin.

We stopped at the western wall and I touched it.  It was quite a magical feeling.  The guide, who actually was very good, managed to cover about 5,000 years in an hour and gave us the essential lowdown. There was just this sense that we were at this ancient vortex of civilization.  Arabs, Christians and Jews all played out in this incredible holy city.  It was sort of like Sunday school coming back to me as a field trip.  This holy place was loaded with stories and relics from the very beginning of civilization to the torturous modern history that still plays out in the streets every day.

Actually as a city, Jerusalem was lovely.  There were picturesque narrow winding streets, reminding me of a Turkish bazaar, nice people, and an intermingling of the old and the trendy.  Great food if you can adjust to hummus served all day long and pomegranate vendors squeezing fresh juice on every street corner.  Jerusalem was dramatic and iconic and left me with so many questions. I wondered how I had ever survived my religion class. Not to mention the politics in all of this which we started to touch on. But that would be another day and a walk through the modern twentieth century Israel.  Complicated doesn’t even get close.

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Pietro Place