We will walk
across Jerusalem’s Old City. Based on the information we get the
previous day about what is closed at Yom Kippur we will leave the
opened places for today.
The “must-do” list for these two days is:
0- Lutheran Ghesthouse
1- Jaffa Gate, tower of David in citadel
2- Holy Sepulchre
3- Via Dolorosa
4- Damascus Gate
5- Notredamme (Holy Shroud exhibition)
6- Temple Mount
7- Zion Mount
8- Mount of olives
We guess opened spots are going to be Christian ones. So this
day we would visit: Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre and Zion Mount. We
will probably visit exhibition about Shroud of Turin in Notredamme as
well.
After
With all the sleep we got yesterday could be
expected to be ready very early, but we don’t. We ended tired and we go
out from hotel at 10:00.
We take a new path across the only quarter we
didn’t see yesterday: Armenian -which is also our quarter, where the
hotel is sited – until Zion Gate. It’s a very quiet neighborhood,
although being at Yom Kippur can make it look like this. We pass
through stone streets, without losing the view of the wall in order to
avoid missing the gate to Zion Mount. We can barely see other people in
our walk and we’re enjoying this loneliness in such a place.
We keep with the wall at our right, but Zion Gate
is not appearing. I’m starting to think we’ve missed it somewhere
before. The view of Mount of olives in front of us is a confirmation we
are beyond the gate, but I don’t understand how. A bit later we can see
the Dome of the Rock and we end in the same place than yesterday when
leaving from Willing Wall. I don’t know what happened but now we must
go out through Dung Gate and forget about our single visit on Zion
Mount: Cenacle The idea now is taking the advantage of Yom Kippur has
removed all vehicles from all the streets of the country to walk up to
Mount of olives, and then down to Lions’ Gate for beginning the Via Crucis.
Somehow, at the moment of crossing the gate a get the offer
from a taxi driver of taking us to the top of Mount of olives by 30
shekels. I ask him about driving in Yom Kippur day and he answers me he
is Palestinian and hates all these Jewish customary. This way, we’re at
the top, just in front of Church of the Ascension, in no time. In that
church they charge 5 shekels per person for watching a small stone
dome. The Pater Noster church is here too, but it is closed at this
moment.
Before that, the taxi driver, his friend, another man he
introduced to us as his brother and I don’t know how many more people
try to persuade me of taking us to Belem. I refuse all the offers and
go down a little bit until a sort of terrace with the most famous views
of this city. The TV reporters always come here to make their chronicle
in front of this Old City panorama. We also can find our first camel
here.
Sun is doing its job while we start our way down at the
shadow side of a narrow road where cars keep passing by every when and
then. We can tell Yom Kippur empty roads may be spectacular around the
country, but no in and around Jerusalem’s Old City. This road has
cemetery at our left and we can find some very steep slopes at some
parts of it. We’ve been lucky of going up by car!. A typically Arabian
dressed man announces “Mary’s taxi”. He is meaning his donkey with
these words. He charges 5 shekels (1€) to us for one photo with my
mother.
We find Dominus Flevit entrance, but it is closed
12:15 to 14:00. It’s
exactly 12:15h now, but we haven’t planned to visit it anyway. When we
arrive to Maria Magdalene, the Russian orthodox church with its typical
onion shaped domes on a very brilliant gold, an orthodox nun makes
comes to prevent the entrance to us and some other people. She tells it
closes at 12:00h all days.
Once down from the Mount, we have three spots we would like
to visit: Gethsemane garden and church and Mary’s tomb, all three are
closed 12:15 to 14:00. As it is 12:30 now we decide to going on with
our route: returning to Old City through Lions’ Gate and follow Via
Dolorosa until Holy Sepulchre, lunching somewhere in our way. We will
look for coming here after visiting Christ tomb, which is a with more
priority.
Lions’ Gate is up after a steep slope and once crossing it
there is no place to lunch or a terrace for resting taking something,
which is what our body is asking to do. So, we go on the street until
reaching flagellation and condemnation churches, which are together in
the place where Jesus Christ was whipped and condemned and correspond
to Stations of the Cross 1 and 2 of its total of 14 stations. This is
the place when is supposed to be sited Pontius Pilate palace. They’re
not big churches as the ones we use to know, but small chapels in honor
of the relevant facts of the last day of that religious icon Jesus of
Nazareth has become. At this moment, we find a priest going out from
the first church with his entourage of singers and percussionists and
followed by around thirty persons. This must be Via Crucis.
This street is full of holy spots: before arriving
to flagellation church we just saw a house announced as St. Mary’s
birth place. And now, after the first two Stations of the Cross we can
see, at our right, the place where Pontius Pilate pronounced his words
“Ecce Homo” and, at left, the prison of Christ. It doesn’t seem to be
allowed to enter in such places, though.
Via Dolorosa is not a straight street, it is doing zigzag
across muslim quarter until it reaches Christian quarter instead. At
the end of the first straight part of it we find finally a restaurant.
It’s full of people but we go inside without any second thoughts. We
take some lemon with mint drinks and they bring a lunch similar to
yesterday’s one, with all the dishes in the middle, it’s just, this
time, we’ve gone for the lamb ribs instead of those kebab chicken. The
ribs are a little more expensive (75 NIS per plate). We pay 300 shekels
for the whole lunch.
Only when going out from the restaurant I notice
the one we lunched yesterday is in front of us and it is, also, the
fourth Station of the Cross!. The third is just at its left. We go into
both of them, giving our greetings to the people of the restaurant, who
remember us perfectly.
 The next stations, except for the last five which are
inside Holy Sepulchre church, are in the middle of this bazaar maze
these streets really are. After walking the whole Old City we can say
it is more like a Moroccan market where its streets has no centimeters
free of objects to sell from one store. Here are the pictures of
stations 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
For ninth Station of the Cross we must go up a stairs until
the roofs, upon the bazaar and we have the chance of visiting the
coptic patriarchate. Copts are African Christian people and we could
add a new priest uniform at our long list here.
The way to Holy Sepulchre is signed, but in the
middle of all the stores is not difficult to lose the trace.
Church entrance is full of people and once inside
the first thing we meet is the flat stone where Jesus corpse is
supposedly was put to lay in the first place after the cross. This
church is sited in Golgotha – supposedly, again – where the cross was
set by the romans and it was a hill before know as Calvary as well. Or
maybe it is still a hill as we could noticed our way up lately in the
streets driving us to here.
There is a long queue to enter to the Holy Sepulchre itself,
where only can be three persons at once. There are some people crying
in front of the sepulcher as well and, here and there, we can find a
procession of Armenian priests singing continuously who stops in a
specific place for a while locking the access. They came when we are
just in front of the sepulchre and they stops at the entrance when we
want to exit from the church, making us waiting for they to move
somewhere else. The first video shows Holy Sepulchre entrance, with its
endless queue. The second video shows what is inside.
We’re short of time for recovering the missing
visits in Mount of Olives. The idea is going to Jaffa Gate, which is
the closest gate, and there is a taxi stop there, and taking one to
Gethsemane. But what we find is Yom Kippur: car access is closed on
this gate and we cannot see any vehicle around. Out of the Gate,
streets look deserted and even the traffic lights are off. We came back
to the hotel resigned to ending our visits at this point. We only go
out from it for some falafels before getting ready for leaving early
tomorrow morning. We must be at bus station at 8:30 to go to the
northern border to Jordan, called Shuk Hussein or Jordan Valley border.
Lions’ Gate for beginning the Via Crucis.
