Day 10

Finally, this morning, we timed a last trip to the Holy Sepulchre right. Around 9:30am the Tomb was just being cleaned after the morning masses and the queue had not yet formed, so, after a few minutes, we got to actually spend some time in the inner shrine and take it in.

The main body of the church was also open for the first time on our visits and so we got to stand directly underneath the dome and appreciate it.

We spent the rest of the morning haggling away our last shekels in the souks and eating our last bowls of houmous and felafel.

We said goodbye to the old city with a quick trip to Christ Church at the Jaffa Gate. This Victorian Anglican Church was the first protestant church in Jerusalem and was designed to look like a synagogue to underline the Jewish roots of Christianity.

We then took a minibus taxi to Ben Gurion Airport where we are now waiting in the tasteful departure lounge, complete with water feature cascading from the ceiling.

Touch down at Heathrow should be about 11:30 tonight.

Day 9

Our last full day in Jerusalem, tomorrow we fly home, so also probably our last blog entry.

Got up insanely early (5:30am) in the hope of getting to the Tomb at the Holy Sepulchre before the crowds. Walking through the almost deserted streets of the Old City was eerie. Only the odd solider, monk or baker's boy were around.

It was great to find the Church largely empty, you could get a much better impression of the building. Sadly around 100 French Catholics had got up before we did and were packed round the tomb hoping to take part in the Mass being celebrated inside. Foiled again!

Met up with our tour minibus at the Jaffa Gate at 7am to head for the Dead Sea area. This is the lowest piece of dry land on earth. At the point where we passed below sea level there was a man offering camel rides. It was a very nice camel but we declined.

First stop was Qumran, the recently excavated site of the community who wrote the Dead Sea scrolls and the caves (pictured) where they hid them. The site is dominated by a number of large bathing pools, showing how important ritual washing was to them.

Next we travelled to Masada, the mountaintop fortress of Herod the Great. Although you can walk up in theory, it is over 400m high, and a very steep climb. The cable car is much better. Bet Herod would have liked one.

At the summit are the ruins of Herod's palace. It was also the site of the last stand, and mass suicide, of 1000 Jewish rebels besieged by the Roman Army in AD74. As their death marked the last gasp of an independent Jewish state for 1900 years, it is of great ideological importance to Israel today. You can even have your Bar Mitzvah there.

You also get incredible views across the desert and to the Dead Sea.

We now headed to the Kalia beach on the Dead Sea. Here the water is 30% salt and therefore tastes terrible. Floating on the water was a strange but fun experience.

Please note this photo is not to be viewed in the Parish of Wrexham.

The thick mud on the sea bed is said to have therapeutic properites due to the minerals it contains. Laura nearly got stuck in it.

Not only do people float in the water, we discovered, but 10 sh coins and locker keys do too. Then they disappear into the mud. A hammer, chisel and burly maintenance man later we were reunited with our stuff, which meant that we could take these pictures. Laura was properly covered in mud top to toe at one point, but it had washed off by the time we got the camera back.

Finally we got to have lunch. This was at the Mount of Temptation at Jericho, the site associated with the Temptation of Christ, but now the temptation to buy lots of tat at inflated prices. We resisted temptation and the all you can eat buffet cos it was $15 a head.

Jericho is the lowest inhabited town on earth, as well as the oldest continously inhabited place, having an 11,000 year history.

Its name means City of Palms, for reasons that are evident.

Hisham's Palace in Jericho, an Islamic building from the 8th century, was once the greatest of the Omayyid palaces. It was also controversial in its time for including statues of naked ladies, which was thought to be un-islamic and decadent.

Our return journey to Jerusalem stopped to take in a tree claimed to be the one that Zacchaeus the tax collector climbed to get a better view of Jesus in the Gospel story. A pinch of Dead Sea salt with this one we suspect.

Finally back to our appartment, fairly exhaused.

PS but also back to good news - Laura found out she has passed her OCR Level 5 Teaching Pupils with Learning Difficulties course, which was a relief after all her hard work and the hassle it has meant.

Day 8

Leisurely start to the day, then caught a couple of buses to the Israel Museum. Although most of the museum is currently being rebuilt, the parts we particularly wanted to see are still open.

The museum houses a huge 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem in its heyday in AD66. This is a picture of the 2nd Temple after Herod had finished his additions to it.

The Shrine of the Book is the centre piece of the Museum. It houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, found at Qumran (where we are going tomorrow). These are 2250-2000 years old and include a complete copy of Isaiah from 200BC as well as many other writings. As Richard spent a year studying these at University, he was particularly keen to see them.

The Shrine was built to look like the lid of one of the jars the scrolls were found in and the contrast between the black wall and white dome symbolises the battle between the Children of Light and Children of Darkness - a mythic battle described in the War Scroll.

Outside the Shrine of the Book is a sculpture garden containing famous pieces from round the world. This is Vertebrae by Moore. He was into bones apparently.

Below the museum is the 11th Century Georgian Monastery of the Cross. It is said to be on the site where the tree grew from which the cross of Christ was made. This is probably pushing it a bit in our opinion.

It looked like a long way down (and back up) in the heat so we settled for this view across the valley.

Back in modern West Jerusalem is the Italian Synagogue on Jaffa Street. It is called Italian because it was near Venice until the 1950's when its medieval interior was packed up and shipped over. It was the first non-Christian religious building we have been able to gain access to in the time we have been here.

Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside and it is hard to see from the road, so you will have to use your imaginations a bit on this one!

Finally we allowed ourselves a touristy site - the Time Elevator. This is a special-effects laden simulator ride through the violent bits of the city's 3000 year Jewish History hosted by Chaim Topol, the star of Fiddler on the Roof. Very cultural.

Quiet night in tonight in preparation for tomorrow's trip to Massada, Qumran, Jericho and the Dead Sea.

Day 7

The Dead Sea tour fell through for today, we will be going on Thursday instead, so we heading into the Old City for the last time, although the weather was so hot today it made doing anything an effort.

We began near our apartment by stumbling across Herod the Great's family tomb. Although nothing is made of it at the site, it is a fairly complete example of a high status tomb from the time and you can crawl around inside and explore.

Notice the huge stone that has been rolled away.

Outside the walls of the Old City is the City of David. This is the site of the city of Jebu, conquered by King David around 1000BC and occupied as Jerusalem until 586BC when the Babylonians destroyed it. It is now an archaeological site and museum with a 3D film about its history.

This tunnel allowed the Jebusites to fetch water from the Gihon Spring when under siege, but may also have been the route that David's soldiers crept through to capture the city. It was a long way down. It would have been a long way back up if we hadn't taken a bus.

Entering the Old City through the Dung Gate, the only gate we hadn't used, we explored the Jewish Quarter which centers on Hurva Square, a pleasant leafy square with plenty of cafes and a shop selling manna from heaven in the form of ice slush drinks.

The Jewish community have been trying to build the Hurva Synagogue for centuries, but one war or pogrom after another has seen it destroyed. This latest effort, due to be completed next year, is a multi-billion dollar project of the Israeli government.

The area beneath the new Jewish Quarter was once the priestly and upper class area of Second Temple Jerusalem. During the recent rebuilding, many of the remains of these houses have been excavated. One of the largest of these is the mansion preserved at the Wohl Archaeological Museum. The tables in this shot were the first pieces of furniture from this time ever discovered.

The Burnt House is just that - a house that was burned down in the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It is now a museum housing a dramatised multimedia reconstruction of the last days of the city and the Kathros family who lived there.

The presentation was in Hebrew but we had headphones tuned to the English version of events.

Next, an adventure! We went to St James Armenian Cathedral because we thought it was one of the very brief periods that it was open. However it was shut, being rarely used in the summer. When we asked at the gate about it we found ourselves being directed to follow a passing black robed priest and were led through the maze of the Armenian compound - a hidden city within the city. Eventually we came to the Church of the Archangel, where a service was taking place. We were allowed to be part of the service, being censed to the hilt and watching about 8 hooded, cloaked and robed priests performing ceremonies with much chanting, incense and candles. It was awesome.

After the service, a friendly Fr Gomidass Sherbetdjian, complete with hood and sunglasses, showed us round the church, including yet another prison of Christ and a tree he was allegedly tied to.

Following this we briefly returned to the Jewish Quarter to see the Cardo - once the Roman and Byzantine main street of the city. Today, the local children seem to love to play on the smooth flagstones beneath the ancient columns.

At the end of the afternoon we returned to our apartment via Mount Zion for a much needed rest.

This evening we went to the YMCA for dinner. The YMCA is not quite what you would expect it to be, being one of the best hotels in the city. No village people though.

Surprisingly we still ordered houmous even though there were other things on the menu - we must be getting a taste for it. (Laura still had chips though!)

Day 6

Excuse the extra long post today, we made up for yesterday and saw quite a lot!

Walked from our apartment to where we thought there was a cable car to Mt Zion across the valley. There was a cable car but it was an antique that could only be looked at not ridden in. So we walked.

Here is a view back from the slopes of Mt Zion to our apartment, the roof terrace of which is just visible in the bottom right, near the tall tree.

Our first stop was the Church of the Dormition,

marking the place where Mary is believed to

have lived and 'fallen into eternal sleep' in the years after the resurrection.

Below the church, in the crypt, is a statue of Mary at which many pilgrims come to pray.

A short distance away is the Tomb of King David, a very simple synagogue, but one of the holiest places in Judaism.

Above this is the Crusader built Hall of the Last Supper (pictured), which some traditions say is the place where Jesus shared his last meal with the disciples, although there is another contesting site (see below). At present this very simple room is not used as a religious building although the Vatican is in negotiations to acquire it.

Our final stop on Mount Zion was the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu. The current church, like the Dormition, is modern but on the site of much older Byzantine ruins. St Peter's site is also on 1st Century remains which are probably the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest at the time of the Crucifixion. Therefore the prison cells visible underneath St Peter's are thought to be where Jesus was taken after his arrest. The Church is therefore also associated with Peter's denial of Jesus as the cock crowed.

Also excavated at the site are the 1st Century steps leading from the Mount of Olives, via Caiaphas' house, to the old city. Jesus would have walked this way twice - once from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemene and once from the Garden to the cells after his arrest.

For this reason these are known as the Sacred Steps and many people take their shoes off to walk them. Our feet however had taken enough punishment already.

We then walked into the old city via the Zion Gate. The marks all over this gate are bullet holes as it was once the front line between Jewish and Arab controlled regions.

Hidden, well hidden, in the maze of the Armenian Quarter is the Syrian Church of St Mark. Here an elderly lady called Justiana enthusiastically showed us round and told us stories. The Syrians claim that a room beneath the church (pictured), which is from Jesus' time, is in fact the house of St Mark's mother and is both the true site of the Last Supper and the room in which the disciples met at Pentecost. This would make it the very first Christian church. The Church also houses an icon they claim was painted by St Luke with the Vigrin Mary posing as a live model!

Further north is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, a 19th Century church which is of interest for its tower, seen on the left of this picture.

177 steps later the tower offers wonderful views across the whole area as far as the desert. Here we got our first chance to see the true shape of the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, since the narrow streets hide it mostly from view on the ground.

And here are the Church of Mary Magdalene and The Dome of the Rock viewed from the tower.

Finally we visited the Citadel. This fortress started its life in 200BC and was rebuilt, extended and lived in by each ruler of Jerusalem, particularly Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, the Crusader Kings, Saladin and Suleyman the Magnificent. It is also where the British accepted the surrender of Jerusalem in 1917.

Tomorrow, we are going to explore the Dead Sea and desert regions.

Day 5

The Sabbath - a Day of (much needed) Rest.

Last night's seafood bonanza, as advertised in our guide book, like quite a few things in the guide book, was not happening. However the restaurant at the American Colony Hotel had a lovely leafy and romantic courtyard with fountains and candles and a great and varied menu. Had a top quality meal, but required the sale of a few major organs to pay for it.

This morning we attended the Communion service at St George's Cathedral - very moving, meant a lot, suprisingly much easier to connect to the Holy Land through a familiar Anglican setting than Orthodox or Catholic church, of which we have seen a lot.

Then transferred by taxi to our new apartment for the 2nd half of the trip.

The apartment is in the Yemin Moche area, to the South West of the Old City. This is a pretty, pedestrianised area (we had fun getting lost and pulling our suitcases up and down these steps). It seems to be a very quiet and 'arty' enclave.

Here is our street, Ma'havasar Street.

And this is our house, Avisar House. It goes down on three floors below the street and we have the top floor, through the door pictured here.

This is the inside of the apartment, taken from the kitchen and sitting area towards the bedroom.

After a trip to the local supermarket - 'Deal' - to stock up on humous, figs and chocolate to keep Laura happy, Richard spent the afternoon chilling out in here where it is nice and cool.

And this is the view from the roof terrace where Laura spent the afternoon working on her tan

and Sudoku.

Cooking for ourselves tonight and relaxing watching DVD's.

May take a walk this evening if it cools down. Very, very hot today.

Tomorrow, back to the streets!

Day 4

Began by taking a taxi back to the Mount of Olives to see the Russian Church of Mary Magdelene, since it was closed yesterday.

Then walked through the Lion (St Stephen's) Gate into the old city to explore the Via Delarosa without the crowds and with time to look at each station.

Here is a picture of the 'Prison of Christ', near the first stations - a set of prison cells from the 1st Century, deep underground below Pilate's palace.

We also stopped at the Orthodox birthplace of the Virgin Mary (the other side of the same cave as the Catholic one we saw the 1st day - and much more convincing since it was left in its orignial state).

Then along the Via Delarosa to the Church of St Veronica, the Coptic monastry of St Antony, the Greek Orthodox church of St Helena with a huge, natural underground cistern and a short cut through an Ethiopian Monastry to get to the Holy Sepulchre.

Just inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Rock of Unction, held to be the stone on which Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

This shrine, up a flight of stairs, surrounds the rock of Golgotha, the place longest associated with the crucifixion.

You can kneel to touch the rock through a hole below the altar.

The Tomb of Christ was a little disappointing as the crowds made it a very rushed visit after a 40 minute queue, with a monk shouting 'Quick, quick quick' all the time. We may try to go back when it is quieter.

The sunlight through the roof catching the incense smoke was beautiful though.

The whole church was very impressive, with features from many periods over 1500 years.

This rotunda is one of the most recent parts, dating from 1927 but the walls and ceiling are largely Crusader.

The dangers and perils of the old city:

This is what 4 days of pounding the streets (in sensible shoes) does to Laura's toe! So after a short walk on the Christian Quarter rooftops, with beautiful views, we returned to the hotel.

We are going for a seafood bonanza at the well regarded (and posh) American Colony Hotel tonight.