16 April
Mitti took us this morning to the City of David, this is outside the walls of Old Jerusalem, but, in fact, was where the original city was located. Because of the two streams running in the valley below, the original city was down that slope towards the water.
Today was Hom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and at 11:00 am a siren sounded for one minute, and the whole of Israel stopped. We were on an open section above the excavations, looking across to the Mount of Olives, with the walls of the old city above us as the siren sounded. It was an emotional moment for Elly, where she could reflect on family history past and present.
Across to the Mount of Olives is the old Jewish cemetery on the lower slopes.
We looked at some of the extensive excavations which are still ongoing. This is called the City of David, because David attacked and defeated the city in 1010 BC, making it the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel.
Jerusalem was defendable on most sides, but the issue was water. All of us walked along a tunnel, which had been carved out of the rock, this tunnel was used by the inhabitants to walk through to the area outside the walls where they could collect water from the Gihon spring. This was a defence weakness, as the spring lay outside of the city walls.
Later, as a way of eliminating this problem, the spring was blocked and diverted to the Siloam Pool, which was actually inside the city walls, thus enabling the inhabitants to sustain themselves during any possible siege.
The brave ones among us commenced a walk through this diversion tunnel, which had water flowing through it to a depth of 70 cm. (crotch height), the tunnel is 500 metres long and is generally a little over one body width. I went barefoot, as I had no shoes which wouldn't be wrecked, and some had sandals or Crocs. This was an amazing experience, walking through this dark tunnel ( we had to use torches or headlights) flowing with water, for half a kilometre. Apparently this tunnel had been started at each end and met in the middle; how that was achieved in those days beggars the imagination. You can actually see in a few places where they had made a mistake, and sharply changed direction. You can also see the point at which the tunnels meet, because of the slight step in the ceiling height, and a slightly different width suddenly.
After the tunnel experience we made our way to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), which is a Herodian wall, considered to be closest to the site of the second Temple, and thus is the most sacred place for religious Jews, outside of the Temple Mount itself.
Following on we wandered through the Arab market back to the hotel. Nearly all restaurants were closed that night because of Holocaust Memorial Day so we stayed in the hotel and watched the events and speeches on tv in the guest lounge room.
17 April
Today we went to Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Israel, and is a very impressive establishment. Elly, being on the board of the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, had been having email communication with Yad Vashem before we left home, and had arranged for us to have a personal tour of the facility, however, when we arrived we found that our guide had called in sick, and they hadn't replaced her.
With much to - ing and fro - ing and negotiating by Elly, it was decided that we could join a small group of four, which had just started. The four people were gracious enough to have us dumped on them, and so our guide, Bernice, took care of us. She was an excellent guide, and obviously very knowledgeable, as you would expect in such a prestigious establishment.
We toured through the main section, which began with the story of Hitler's rise to power, right through to the terrible aftermath. We then visited the children's section, which is very dark and ethereal, with the names of the child victims sounding one after another in the darkness. This section is so overpowering that it remains pernamently engraved in our memory from over 20 years ago when we were last there.
Elly then wandered through the Jewish markets, while I stayed home.
How many varieties of halva are possible?
Happy hour at the Harmony Hotel was not to be missed. Food and wine was free flowing for 2 hours. Then out for another fantastic dinner.
18 April
Today was Christian day, as we drove to the Mount of Olives, and had a great view right across to Jerusalem and the Temple on the Mount. We started down the hill, which supposedly is the path Jesus took as he walked into Jerusalem to stir up a bit of trouble, being upset at all the corruption he had seen.
We passed the Church of Gethsemane, where he was later arrested. We then continued on through Lion's Gate into the city on what became the Via Dolorosa, which is the path Jesus took carrying the cross for his crucifixion, passing the twelve stations, which marked some event, such as Him falling, or meeting someone of significance, such as his mother, Mary.
This continued until we reached the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is supposedly the site of the crucifixion and burial. This church was absolutely packed with devotees prostrating themselves, in tears, as, obviously, this was a religious experience of a lifetime for them.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
It became almost impossible to move, so we withdrew.
That night after dinner we walked from the hotel to the Tower of David, which is nowhere near the City of David, but is, in fact, near the Jaffa Gate, to see a light show.
We entered into the Tower grounds, which are not really complete, but in relatively good shape, to find the whole environment lit with soft lighting, giving a really nice vibe. We walked around to our seats which faced on of the large stone walls. When the show began, it was a very clever depiction of the full history of Jerusalem, done with music, and video projection extending the full height and width of the wall, producing amazing effects by matching the characters, some human, and others cartoon, with the nooks and crannies in the wall itself, such as the image of people walking down steps, which basically matched the structure of the wall. It was a short show, about 45 minutes, but was very impressive, and a lovely way to finish the evening - alright, it wasn't quite finished - we managed a few wines afterwards.
19 April
T - Shirt Day
We drove East from Jerusalem, and as the country flattened out, we could see a hill which appeared to be flat at the top.
Herod had been a prolific builder, as we had seen all over the country, and on this occasion he had decided to build something for himself, and dedicate it to himself. What a man! In 40BC, he had to flee Jerusalem, being pursued by the Hasmonean ruler, Mattathias Antigonus. He caught up with Herod "sixty furlongs" from Jerusalem, and Herod barely escaped with his life.
After that he went to Rome, where the Senate crowned him King of Judea, and, in the third decade BC, he returned to the scene of the battle, and began to build Herodium.
This was what we could see as we approached, the remains of Herodium, which had consisted of an enormous combination of palaces and fortress, with administration areas, Royal theatre and an internal tunnel system and four water cisterns and several bath houses.
He also constructed his own funeral complex, and before he died he ordered the building of an artificial mountain around the structure. Herod's tomb wasn't discovered, in fact, until 2010, when the determined archaeologist, Ehud Netzer, who had devoted his life to finding the tomb, discovered it, and 5 days later, fell from part of the excavation structure, and died.
Tunnel to the water cisterns in Herodium
During the 66AD revolt of the Jews against the Romans, the rebels entrenched themselves in Herodium, and used it as a base for their operations, until they were defeated in 71AD.
We wondered as we left Herodium, how Herod had managed to build so many complexes during his life - they are everywhere. He did live till about 80, but even so, the time it would take to build all this, Jerusalem palace, Caesarea, Herodium, and many more would fill several lifetimes. We put this to Mitti, who suggested that Herod wouldn't necessarily have been " on site" for a lot of the building, but would command that they be built, and have his army of skilled workers do the job.
Leaving Herodium, we continued on to one of the West Bank settlements, Efat, which is where Mitti's father Ardie Geldman lives. He hopped on to the bus and gave us an overview of the place, as we drove around. It is a pleasant, green, leafy suburban area, and, according to Ardie, everyone lives peaceful lives, even though there is Arab owned land adjacent on each side, which is used for vines and olives.
Ardie invited us in to his house, which is very pleasant, and gave us a long, enthusiastic and impassioned talk about the history of, not only Efat, but the whole of Israel from well before it became Israel. He had maps and charts, documents, and even some advertising posters of pre Israel, such as one advertising Palestine Airways in Hebrew. " See! We were the Palestinians" he said.
Some of us had asked him questions, to give us some form of response to people in Australia who believe, as do I, that the continual expansion of building in the settlements is a provocation. He believes the word "settlement is a put down, the correct term being " community", since that is the word used for the Palestinian towns. I personally don't feel he gave any answers to those concerns, but maybe others did.
I have to admit it was an impressive lecture supported by solid research, but his approach didn't appear to offer much hope of a compromise to the ongoing dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians.
We asked Mitti somewhat later about her take of her Dad's viewpoint, and she said she agreed with all the facts and she believed that his research was genuine and factual, but when we pushed a bit more, she said she wished her father, and likeminded friends would be a little less "self righteous". All in all it was a very interesting visit, and good to get the views of someone who has lived in this situation for a long time.
Ardie's back garden
We continued on, and found ourselves back at our boutique hotel, Rothschild 71, in Tel Aviv, which didn't have a Happy Hour, as such, but often there was a bottle of wine and some nibbles, so of course we made good use of that!.
20 April
This morning we had signed up with a guide for a walking Graffiti Tour of Tel Aviv, or, more specifically, the area of Florentin, which is a slightly less than salubrious area inland ( East) of the port of Jaffa. Our guide was part of this underground world of street artists, and obviously knew a lot of them, taking us to the sites she deemed to be of good quality, and ignoring the junk, pointing out the signatures of a couple of "significant" players. One piece which has been preserved because of community support, was a depiction of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, a stylised version of a photograph which appeared in the newspapers at the time.
Street art version of Rabin's assassination
Afterwards she took us down into her "cave", a basement of the type you see in American homes where the doors are outside the house and are lifted and laid to the side to expose the stairway. This was an old house of the American Quarter, so I guess that explains it. Her cave had artworks on the walls, and she provided refreshments for us as well.
I personally am a bit ambivalent about graffiti, and the line between art and vandalism, but overall it was a fun morning.
Elly and I have done a similar walk through Melbourne, and although our guide said the Tel Aviv graffiti was up in the top few cities in the world, I believe Melbourne has much more of the high quality art in its streets and laneways.
We followed the graffiti tour with a continuation of the walk towards the old Port of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. This is a very old section of the city, full of cobbled pavements and narrow laneways. This port has been used for 7000 years, predations Muslims, Jews and Christians, and is today a predominantly Arab city.
Elly and I noted from the high ground, looking north along the coast to Tel Aviv how much construction has taken place since we saw it 20 years ago, to the point where there is no gap between the two, in fact, the two cities are now officially the one city of Tel Aviv - Yafo.
At the top of the high ground, we came across a white, doorway shaped sculpture commemorating, on one side, the Statue of Faith, Jacob's dream, on the other, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the top is the fall of Jerico. We took a team photo.
Winding our way down through the narrow alleyways we found ourselves down at the waterfront, where the port is still used for small boats. Back to the Clocktower, in northern Jaffa, to get our bearings, we walked all the way back to the hotel without getting lost once.
Jaffa Port
21 April
I had heard of Bauhaus previously, but had no idea what it meant, so it was good that this morning we were to do a Bauhaus Tour, with local guide Ilil. We started the tour at a beautifully made mosaic fountain, which was, as I recall, a point of interest, nothing to do with the Bauhaus. Another team photo!
The Bauhaus ( Build House) concept was thought up by a German architect, who decided it would be a much fairer system if everyone had the same features available to them in a block of apartments, such as light, space etc. so he came up with a design which had three levels, with all the windows in the same place, and the same size. A very socialist style of architecture. This style of house spread quickly, and one of the places In which it became prevalent was in Tel Aviv.
It was our job as we walked to identify Bauhaus designs, which is not so easy these days, because so much restoration and modification has gone on in recent times, some of the modified homes have been made into very attractive dwellings.
Some of the houses had small figures, which doubled as shutter holders, as well as, sometimes, according to the story, an indication of home or not home if an occupant was having an affair. The figure showed a male face when it was up, and a female face when it was down.
After the tour, Elly and some of the others headed off to the market, while I took some time off to put my feet up and write some blog before Happy Hour kicked in.
In the evening, we knew the hunt for a restaurant would be tough, because everything shuts down in the evening because it was Yom Hazikeron, Memorial Day for perished soldiers. The hotel guy, however, found us a place which was open, within walking distance, and he told us it was nice. We managed to find it, and it turned out to be really good. We noticed that there appeared to be a small film crew interviewing someone at a table behind us, and we wondered what was going on. Just then, a woman came to our table and told us that they were a TV crew doing a series on the 13 best restaurants in the world, and would we object to being in the background! We, of course, said no problem, but suddenly started to feel a bit under dressed, because today was a Team T- shirt day, and there we were in one of the best 13 restaurants in the world!
This was the evening of Memorial Day, on which the city, in fact, all of Israel stops for two minutes as sirens sound all over the country, in memory of the 23,000 people, both civilian and military who have died due to hostile action. It is really quite fascinating to see the whole country come together as one. After dinner we walked to Rabin Square where thousands of people gathered, listening to speeches and telecasts from families who have lost their loved ones. What a waste of life.
22 April
We went to an interesting place, on Sylvia's recommendation, called " Dialogue in the Dark". This had nothing to do with Israel necessarily, it could have been anywhere. The concept is to give you an idea what is involved in managing life if you are blind.
We were given a walking stick, and ushered into a room which had a dark passageway running off it, and we were summoned by a guy called Roy ( or a close Israeli version of it), to come in and follow his voice. We were asked to give our names and then told to follow him, it was completely dark by this stage.
We were told that we were in a cabin, and were to feel about to find any objects, which, eventually we did, things like a chair, a locked trunk, a table and so on. It was very weird trying to get a mental picture of the place, and I, personally couldn't do it. Roy was very good, he could work out where everyone was, and who needed a bit of help. He actually guided me at one stage, calling me by name! I thought this guy must have had night vision goggles. Next we were in a market, with associated sounds, and told to find our way around and to find any objects. We found carrots, onions, and other market stuff, before being summoned once again by Roy to follow his voice, and that wasn't too easy either. My stick was working hard, and sometimes hitting other sticks. There was a bit of unintentional groping going on, without knowing who it was.
Next we found ourselves on a boat, complete with rocking motion and water spray, before entering a canteen, where we were served by an invisible girl behind the counter; I ordered an orange juice and something else, and paid my money, received the items along with my change, very impressive. Finally we emerged into the bright light of day and then Roy emerged to have a chat. It turned out that he is severely sight impaired, as opposed to having night vision goggles, and his ability to organise us was achieved by his heightened use of his other senses.
All in all this was a humbling experience and well worth doing.
More to the point, and much to John's interest (for those who don't know, he is an architect), was the design of the building itself, with sweeping curved beams, which gave the place a different look depending on where you were standing. How they pre cut all those pieces with the accuracy required to fit them all together, makes you wonder. The computer age, I guess.
Declaration of Independence. This is a copy of the original
We visited the Independence Hall which is where the Declaration of Independence of Israel was signed in 1948.
In the evening, together with Elly's Israeli cousin Michael, we went to a restaurant in Jaffa called "Old Man and the Sea". It was a huge old barn like room with enormous meals including a table full of mezes.
24 April
We were picked up by Elly's cousin, Michael, and driven to Elkana, a town in the West Bank, where his sister in law, Vera and late brother have lived as some of the earliest settlers in the area.
Once again, a drive through the area showed a peaceful, leafy environment. We were invited for a light lunch, and some of Vera's children, with their children and friends were all there in the back yard, with about 12 kids all playing together and obviously were close. One of Vera's daughters lives downstairs in the house, and has four children and another on the way. It was a scenario which isn't one that we usually see, with such a large family of kids all living so close and all the youngsters playing and getting on so well.
On the way back, Michael took us to the old port of Tel Aviv, which has been revamped into an enormous open area with bars and restaurants. The massive decking is laid in a wavelike fashion, making it a really modern, family friendly place, and we just had to stop and have a beer to enjoy the environment.
25 April
Crossing the Jordan
In the morning, Geni, Peter, Elly and I ( by now the only ones left Aside from John and Bronia who stayed on a few more days ), loaded ourselves into our van and headed for the Sheikh Hussein crossing into Jordan. When we arrived we found the place nearly deserted, but soon the big buses started to arrive. We plodded our way through the Israeli passport control, and then hopped on a bus for all of 3 minutes, to get to the Jordanian side. Elly and Geni had paused in the duty free shop for a while, and Elly spent some time getting a tax refund for stuff she had bought, so we were losing the race against the bus loads, however, just as we were about to join the queue, Murad, our guide appeared out of nowhere, and told us to leave our bags and go with him.
Then followed a slightly embarrassing jumping of queues, saying "excuse me" as we pushed past people, and we were through before we knew it. The embarrassment only lasted a couple of minutes as we looked back at the lengthening queue.
Murad, and our new driver Achmed, took us in hand as we drove towards the town of Jurash, which, in itself isn't notable, however, it contains some of the most extensive Roman ruins in the world - the reason being that, instead of just leaving the ruins as, basically an area of rubble, they have elected to restore them, using both excavated material, and, where necessary, modern substitutes, to give an overall impression of what the old city looked like.
It isn't a complete replica by any means, but is restored enough to allow you to know what it looked like.
We entered through Hadrian's Gate, which has been partially restored. From there to the Forum, which is an oval colonnaded area, and from where you can see up the hill to the Temple of Zeus, and, at the other end on rising ground, the Temple of Artemis. As we walked towards the Temple of Artemis we could see the whole city, with the Cardo, the main north south road, lined with columns, and another road, running east west, also lined with columns, intersecting the Cardo. There is a theatre near the Temple of Zeus, and also a beautiful fountain beside the Cardo.
There are ruins here from various stages of history, not only those of the Roman Empire. It is a very impressive sight, and it is interesting to see it as an alternative way of preserving ruins by using modern materials and equipment without noticeably being a patch up job.
The Fountain along the Cardo
From Jerash we headed south for quite a long drive, stopping for lunch at a restaurant which offered some shade and food. At the outside entrance was the "Baker" standing in front of his open oven, which, I am sure, cooks him to well done on hot days. He kneaded a piece of dough, rolling it flat, putting holes in it with his fingers, then tossing it spinning into the air, catching it and slapping it onto a thick piece of heat proof fabric. From there he leant into the oven and slammed the bread against the inside where it stuck and cooked. We sampled some of his wares with our lunch, and it was pretty good.
After lunch as we were driving, and Murad asked us if we would like to visit his house, and his wife would make us coffee, and roast some chick peas for us. We were a little reluctant, and I being my cynical self, assumed that it was a ploy to make us feel obligated to give him a better tip. However, we said we would accept his offer, and so, we pulled into his drive and met his wife and four children.
His house was very nice, as were his wife and kids. Many houses built in Jordan have concrete poles extending through the roof, with reinforcement protruding through the top of the poles.
The theory is that when the children have children, they build a second floor, and the kids move in above the parents.
Murad didn't have that arrangement, although they had a side by side arrangement, so the parents live next door.
On we drove south towards Petra, and shortly before we arrived, we detoured a little to look across at a castle on a hill top, which was still fairly substantial. This was built by King Baldwin, the first king of Jerusalem, and was used to protect the camel trains which passed through this region.
Finally we arrived in Petra, which is a mid sized town, quite neat and tidy in appearance, then to our hotel, which was right across the street from the entrance to old Petra
26 April
Wow. What can you say about this place? Everyone told us that Petra was amazing, but this is mind boggling.
We entered(across the road), and started on a gentle down slope. Murad diverted us across to a shop, probably run by his brother, however, what we did see was a very skilled person working with sand in a small bottle. He did a demo for us, filling the small bottle with some of a couple of different colours of crushed rock, looking very much like sand, and proceeded to poke around in the bottle, finishing up with the shape of a camel. Very clever, particularly because, even if you shake the bottle, the sand doesn't move, it stays as he designed it. Also, if after a time the bottle drops and breaks, the crushed rock has solidified and remains intact the way it was made.
Continuing on we then entered the gorge. At this point we were assailed by offers of donkey rides and horse drawn carriage rides, for those who couldn't, or thought they couldn't make it on their own. To their credit, once we said no thanks, they left us alone.
We were very lucky, because this attraction is so popular, it is usually very crowded, but this morning it was almost deserted, sounding quite echoey ( how do you spell that?).
It was good for us, but, sadly the tourist trade here has fallen dramatically, primarily because of ISIS activity in Syria, making people uncertain about the whole area, and some of the large hotels are actually going to close down, which is a pity, given the magic of this place.
The gorge has been formed by earthquake activity, which has torn the rock apart, and left a path about 15 - 20 metres wide, completely engulfed by towering sheer cliffs about 300 metres high. In most places you can see that the opposing sides of the gorge match with each other, indicating how they were torn apart from each other.
The other striking thing are the colours of the rock, brilliant reds, blues, yellows all around. In some places you would swear that a great artist had somehow scrambled up the rock wall and painted a magnificent work, with swirling shapes and patterns, too brilliant to be by chance, but, no, it is all natural.
As we progressed further into the gorge, moving aside as the echoing clatter of donkey hooves came up behind us, we started to see man's intervention, in the form of tombs built into the rock face. These were for the wealthy, and had standard forms do decoration above them, usually a set of steps indicating the path to heaven, and below, the tomb itself cut into a man made cave. All robbed many years ago of course, but the precision of the rock cutting is amazing considering the tools they must have had available.
The Treasury
Around one corner, we caught a glimpse, and then a little further on, we saw the whole thing - the image everyone associates with Petra, the Treasury. This is a magnificent creation, carved into the sheer cliff face, originally built as a mausoleum, but misnamed the Treasury because of rumours that either pirates had stored treasure there, or it had been used as a treasury at some time. There are bullet holes in the facade, where, supposedly, the Bedouins used to fire their rifles at the wall hoping some of the treasure may fall out. Whatever, it is an exciting thing to see. It featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and was portrayed as the entrance to the resting place of the Holy Grail.
This, however, is not the end of Petra. We continued on past many tombs in the cliff face, all with the same general design features, until we exited the gorge.
This area was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom from the 6th century BC, and was subsequently taken over by the Romans in the first century, then the Byzantine Empire took control, and finally the Muslims took control, so there is evidence of all these civilisations here.
We walked along the remains of a Roman road towards another gate, similar to the one in Jurash, after which we headed towards the "Thousand Steps".
This sounded fairly daunting in the hot sun, but we were all anxious to do it, because it led to a monastery at the top of the climb. This was a structure almost identical to the Treasury, although a little less ornate. The climb was actually only about 900 steps (Peter counted them!), although when we arrived at the monastery there was another climb to do to reach a lookout point, from which we could see across to the west, and also down across the mountains of Petra.
The Monastry
There was actually a bit of competition, because there were two viewing areas, both with signs saying "Best View". We went to the highest one first ( and in my case, only - I had had enough sun without inviting more), then the others trooped across to the other viewing area while I hid under the shade of a large boulder.
Donkeys were everywhere, loaded up with tourists who didn't feel the need to climb 1000 steps, the poor things, they must do that climb several times a day, and cats! Cats are everywhere in Jordan, with, obviously no effort being made to control the problem.
On our return to the bottom, we walked back a short way, and I stopped for a beer, as my intrepid travelling partners decided to climb another 800 steps to the High Place of Sacrifice, where sacrificial offerings were made, and from where you could look down over the whole of Petra, and see, at the top, the stone on which the animals were killed, and the channel for the blood to drain away. ( what fun!)
Apparently the last few metres of the climb were a bit scary and dangerous, but you had to do it oath wise you wouldn't see anything. Peter had to come to the rescue of both the women to get them there. Shame on me for resting again in the shade!
Finally we made it back, through the gorge again, this time with afternoon light putting a different perspective on things.
The end of an amazing day, with such astonishing things, both natural and man made.
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