We’d be warned. Visiting the old city can be overwhelming. It can be an emotional experience. Don’t be surprised if you are moved to tears we’d read.
So we set foot inside the old city with a degree of apprehension. How would we feel? For me, it wasn’t until I was sitting having a drink with my favourite person after our day in the old city that it hit me. I’d been in a very special place.
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A place I had to visit while in Jerusalem was Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial.
We were fortunate that we were able to schedule our visit for a Friday as this is the day when there is an English Tour Guide.
Nothing I can write describes what this memorial commemorates.
I have set out below five moments where I was almost moved to tears on our visit:
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We opted for the bus
Departing from our usual approach to Slow a Travel, we decided on taking a few tours in Israel. As much as anything this was because we wanted to see as much as possible in the time we had – so not really Slow Travel at all!
Rather than catching the train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem we used BeinHarim Tours to go to Bethlehem, thereby combining transit from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with sightseeing.
Overlooking Jerusalem from Mount Scopus
After stopping for a photo shot overlooking Jerusalem from Mount Scopus, we visited the cave where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It was touristy but as my favourite person said, we are tourists too. Our Bethlehem visit was conducted by a local Palestinian,apparently the requirement placed on Israeli tour companies for visits to the West Bank. As we walked around,the town.we were bombarded by locals wanting to sell us “stuff”. I succumbed after a rather uncomfortable moment with a local, buying quite possibly the most expensive fridge magnets ever!
Visiting Bethlehem requires you to look past the modern buildings and try to visualise what the place looked like in the year zero.
As we were sitting on the bus headed to our Jerusalem base we decided on a day tour to Masada and the Dead Sea for the next day using the same tour company.
As much as I like sorting out our own sightseeing, there is something to be said for a hotel pick-up and someone else sorting out the navigation and sights. This is particular so in a place such as Israel where there are so many places of significance.
Our trip took us past iconic Christian sights. Where the Good Samaritan performed his deed of service. As we crossed the Jordon River, we saw in the distance where’s Jesus was baptised and then where Moses had died. Continue reading
As I write this post sitting in a hotel in Jerusalem, I’ve finally worked out what to make of Tel Aviv!
Before we arrived I had done lots of reading about Israel. In my usual style, I’d googled travel sites and relied heavily on Douglas Duckett’s incredibly informative guidebook that I found via the Amateur Traveller podcast (episode 167).
We’d made some basic plans but I wasn’t sure. We booked a couple of tours ahead of time and put ourselves at the mercy of the hotel Concierge.
His first suggestion was that as its Shabbat, we should,do what most residents of Tel Aviv do and go to the beach. Continue reading
It’s just under three weeks until we embark on our next slow travel journey.
It has snuck up on us, as my favourite person has not been a hundred per cent, I’ve had a couple of health issues of my own, there has been my PhD and waiting for the EPL fixture list to come out. All have meant we could not settle our final plans.
However with the last unknown, the EPL season fixture out, our itinerary is complete.
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