Ashdod, Israel: The Holy Land, Part 1

Before I type anything else, today would be my Grandma Ruscup's 92nd birthday and I miss her like crazy!  I would give up all the travel in the world just to have her here!

I've been to Israel before and did a tour through Jerusalem and the Old City. With the recent events in Egypt, where we were supposed to go today and tomorrow, we have altered our course and redirected to Ashdod and Haifa Israel. None of the other girls on the team had ever gone into these ports, but Martin, our manager, had and was trying to give us general overviews of the area (and for me, it was a MAJOR refresher because all the areas seem to run together). Lucky for us, Martin arranged that we would have a private car and guide to take us to all the sites that our guests see in one day.

Within seconds of our morning dispatch concluding, the Shore Ex girls met in the office ready for a day out in Ashdod and seeing the sites of Jerusalem and the Old City. Our guide, Avi, a local tour guide (and a wealth of knowledge) picked us up and started the hour and half (give or take a few) drive to Jerusalem. A quick photo stop to see a panoramic view of Jerusalem was about 20 minutes into the ride. The stop gave us perspective to see where we’d be going and how close everything was in the area. We took a few photos there of some catacombs and broad-view shots before getting back on the road to make it into Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, we ventured into the Old City to see as much as we could in such a limited amount of time. The room of the Last Supper was one of the first spots we stopped in. The room wasn't the actual room of the last supper, but the location where the Last Supper occurred and the land had since been built upon time and time again during the different time period. A few minutes’ walk and around the corner from the Last Supper spot was King David’s tomb. Now, King David’s body has never been found, so this is just a “temporary” spot until they body/Skeleton is found and laid to rest in a more permanent location.

            

Leaving King David’s tomb, we made our way through the old city underground that is wall to wall shops and is broken up into the religious blocks, the most obvious being the Muslim area and Temple Mount. Eventually, we came out at the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is the most prominent of locations in Jerusalem (at least for me) when it comes to the religious aspect. Within the Church (still owned by multiples churches within – the Orthodox is the most obvious to me when inside), the spot in the rock where the crucifix sat sits inside where people bow at the altar to catch a glimpse of what had once been there. Like herded sheep, you continue down the stairs to where the marble slab sits where Jesus’ body is said to have been anointed with oil after his crucifixion. Drones of people were taking freshly purchases rosaries and other religious trinkets and rubbing them on the stone to absorb its healing powers that the stone is said to carry.

From there, we continued around to a room which had some of the old catacombs on the outside, but in the center a very tiny shrine (I’m not sure what else to call it) that is built over the actual tomb of Jesus Christ. You can enter from two sides, but the first side has a massive line that wraps around the room for folks that want to see the tomb. If you enter from the opposite side, you can see the limestone of the tomb, but not the entire tomb. Because of the line and time constraints, we went just to the other side to see the chunk of limestone tucked underneath a small shrine of candles and other religious figurines, etc.

After our full tour through the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, we ventured down the Muslim quarter and over to the entrance of Temple Mount that has two large mosques situated on top: Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock. Unfortunately, only Muslims can enter Temple Mount (Haram Es Sharif) and the two mosques, so here’s a picture showing how close you can get if you aren't Muslim. We turned around after the guards tried to pose for our photo and headed towards the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall as some know it. Again, I had seen it before, but it was a great refresher. The Wailing Wall is where folks go to pray. It is still segregated into male and female sections, so we walked to the right and wrote our own personal prayers on sheets of paper and tucked them into the wall. I’m not sure of the significance, but many people would walk backwards away from the wall after placing their prayers on it. We all met up again at the entrance and set off for the long trip back to the ship, and a few more hours at the desk. I must admit, we were all exhausted, but it was really neat to see so much in one day without dealing with a huge group! Definitely another perk to the job!