20/7 Ashdod (Jerusalem)

Friday 20^th Ashdod (Jerusalem)

The broad plan was that the Americans would get their relative to drop us in Ashdod and get us onto the best bus heading for Jerusalem and arrange for us to catch the last bus back this evening. A whole bunch of her relatives are gathering to meet them. We were going to meet them at the gangway at 8.45 and they would be banging on the kids’ room from 8.00 to make sure they were awake.

That was the theory but we cruised in ahead of time so we went down early. Then there were 2 gangways and they didn’t emerge until after 9. We just hopped onto the shuttle bus that you are supposed to have tickets for and scored a free ride out of the port area. There we found the relatives waiting for us but their advice was that we should stay on the shuttle and just catch any bus from Ashdod.

At this moment in time we were suddenly adrift in a strange country with less idea of where we were or what there was to see or how to get around than we had ever had before. The shuttle dropped us in the middle of Ashdod and we drew some Israeli shekels from an ATM and found an information office where we were told to catch a 438 bus to Jerusalem and be back at the Jerusalem bus depot by 4.30 to catch the last bus of the day. The problem is that we have arrived on a Friday which is the Jewish Sabbath and everything closes and stops mid afternoon. The boat is here until 9pm for people who have been on the 11 hour bus trip.

We found the bus and enjoyed a pleasant 80 minute trip to Jerusalem. We were sitting next to a very nice young Mexican couple who helped us put together a plan of attack. They are very devout Catholics and were planning to stay overnight in Jerusalem so as to absorb more of the sacred sites and then catch the boat tomorrow in Haifa. We bought some baklava-like cakes and were told to catch a train to the Old City. This we managed and found ourselves inside the walls by 12 noon. We entered via the Jaffa Gate and headed for the Via Dolarosa, veering off when we realised that we were very close to the Western wall. As we said, we really had very little idea of where everything was.

Our first view of the city wall

The Wailing Wall is the only remaining part of the Second Temple of the Jews which was destroyed by the Romans about 90BC. It is the holiest site for Jews and they can be seen by the dozens praying and folding copies of their prayers into the cracks in the walls. There were a lot of the ultra conservative Chassidic Jews in their characteristic black overcoats and black hats, and long side whiskers. They seemed to congregate at the left part of the wall and we thought maybe the right hand side was for non-Jews. It was only when we had gone in there and were nearly at the wall that we realised that the actual arrangement was that it was men on the left!! I beat a hasty retreat.

Wailing wall

Our next target was the Via Dolarosa – the path Jesus took carrying the cross up the hill, his progress marked by the 14 stations of the cross from where he was sentenced to death until the place of the crucifixion and the tomb. We walked this from beginning to end, with the final 6 stations being inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. We saw the Mexicans with their guide a few times. We paid 5 shekels $1.25 for a little brochure that listed the stations of the cross with maps and pictures that helped us find them in the crowded warren of the Old City.

Via Delorosa

Prison of Christ (above & below)

2nd station

3rd station

4th station

5th station

6th station

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Marble stone that Jesus was laid out on

The Tomb entry

By the time we had finished it was 2pm and we had to be back at the bus station by 4.30 to catch the last bus. This was probably not enough to queue to get into the tomb, which in any case is described as “where the Church venerates a mystery of Christ’s life” and “a place sanctified by the prayers of the faithful”. So none of those locations is necessarily the authentic location of any of the events described by the Gospels. But it was obvious that a lot of the pilgrims were convinced that they were.

Another lotus

We retraced our path back to the bus depot, choosing to catch an earlier bus rather than access the internet or browse around. We again just hopped onto the Costa shuttle bus and were back at the boat by 5.30. There were very few people aboard and we had a quick slice of pizza and hopped into the spa (pretty cool water) with a couple of French ladies, with whom we discussed this and that in  a mix of French and English.

Dinner was delayed until 7pm and we had the table to ourselves – in fact our waiters had no other guests to serve. We were very satisfied with our day in Jerusalem – we had seen pretty much everything that was on the programme for the 99 Euro per head Costa outing and had spent less than $50 between us. It was slightly stressful to start with so little idea of the terrain and to be under threat of missing the boat. We were prepared to have stayed overnight if need be, but as it turned out we felt we had seen what we really wanted to see.