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 we start to plan our next trip I found myself immersed in travel books and searching the web for inspiration.
I love travel books, travel programs and just surfing the web about travel. I am watching Michael Portello’s train journeys at the moment. Even Escape to The Country and Escape to the Continent have provided useful travel trips. Travel books are fun, but more recently I have found that they are more useful to people planning their trips than to us!
So I thought I’d mention how we have used blogs and forums and some of the sources we have relied upon for inspiration and valuable information in our travel.
I found out about rail travel from the man in seat 61. Relying on Mark Smith’s advice I have graduated from having the travel agent book my train travel to being completely comfortable travelling through Europe, reading timetables and making my own bookings. Sure I have missed trains and misread timetables but that has led to some pretty amazing experiences like an unforgettable Bastille weekend in Paris when we should have been on the train to the Amalfi Coast!
As we plan our trips I type a country or place into the search engine and see what I can find. Continue reading