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I had expected our tour here to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be one of the highlights of the trip. When we left in January this port was still questionable with the attacks from Gaza but as things have settled down we were able to make the port.
This has to be the most miserable shore excursion I’ve ever been on…most people I talked to agreed. For the second time we were on the bus with the screaming toddler and to add to that the mother lost her at one of the churches. Our guide was extremely poor; we had radios and earpieces so we could hear his explanations without him having to shout. Mostly he forgot to raise his microphone to his mouth when he was talking so we didn’t hear much… except one time when he was shouting “we must find the baby, we must find the baby”. He wouldn’t hold our group sign in the air so we could find him; since he was fairly short this was a real problem as everywhere we went was absolutely packed wall-to-wall with people. Occasionally, we would hear things like “ok, we are moving on, follow me” Except no one could see him to follow him. I don’t think I got any useable photos the entire day with everything so filled with people. Ok, I’ve bitched, now a little about what we saw…. Or tried to see.
.JPG)
From the port we traveled about an hour through the countryside and mountains. It was quite beautiful, green with farmlands throughout. As we got closer to Jerusalem we began to see more and more houses; all fairly new and much like those you find in the U.S. The houses became much more dense and then it turned into a big city with everything you would expect - big apartment complexes, businesses, government buildings and schools and universities.
.JPG)
Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives overlook where we could see the Old City - this is where we were headed. .JPG)
Then we stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was very small and had the ancient olive trees surrounded by flowers. Next to the garden was the Church of all Nations. Back to the bus for a short ride and then we were at the Western or Wailing Wall. Men and women had to enter the area in front of the wall via different portals. This is where you write your prayer on a slip of paper and put it into the wall. From here we entered the old city using the Jaffe gate; an arched tunnel. We then walked part of the Via Dolorosa passing three of the Stations of the Cross (V, VI, and VII). All along the way the sides of the walkway were lined with shops and vendors. It probably would have been fun to browse here a bit, but there was no time as we all had to continually make our way through the hoards of people. This walk was all up hill with many steps; at the top, most people were moving quite slowly. At the end of our walk was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is believed to be the site of Christ’s crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection. This church is shared by many different religions and denominations. There were a number of very steep stone steps that were difficult for many of the people in the group. It was impossible to get anywhere near the actual holy sites, but our guide did allow 10 minutes for anyone wanting to pray. Then we retraced our steps through all the shops (downhill this time) back to the bus for the short ride to lunch.
Lunch was a buffet in a very nice 5star hotel (neither of us can remember the name). It was a bit rushed as they were feeding all 12 bus-loads of us. Luckily for us our bus was one of the first ones which gave us a good head start on the food and for the restrooms. The women’s room had three stalls… let’s see, each bus had about 38 people - probably at least half of them women; times 12 buses… it was still a very long line when we were leaving.
.JPG)
After that we headed to Bethlehem. At the Palestine border our guide had to get off the bus as he isn’t allowed across the border. We went through 2 checkpoints and then another guide boarded the bus for our tour of the Church of the Nativity. This part of the trip was actually quite nice; there weren’t nearly the numbers of people. There was a service going on as we entered the church which made it even more interesting and all the lights were on… I may have gotten a couple good shots here. We went down steps in an area under the alter; .JPG)
a silver star in marble marks the place where it is believed Christ was born. Although this is a very small area and there were quite a few people, we were able to see this.
Back on the bus… then a 40 minute stop at a typical tourist trap for shopping. Finally, people finished buying their stuff and we headed back to the border… through 2 checkpoints again and our original guide got back on and we returned to the port.
This has to be the most miserable shore excursion I’ve ever been on…most people I talked to agreed. For the second time we were on the bus with the screaming toddler and to add to that the mother lost her at one of the churches. Our guide was extremely poor; we had radios and earpieces so we could hear his explanations without him having to shout. Mostly he forgot to raise his microphone to his mouth when he was talking so we didn’t hear much… except one time when he was shouting “we must find the baby, we must find the baby”. He wouldn’t hold our group sign in the air so we could find him; since he was fairly short this was a real problem as everywhere we went was absolutely packed wall-to-wall with people. Occasionally, we would hear things like “ok, we are moving on, follow me” Except no one could see him to follow him. I don’t think I got any useable photos the entire day with everything so filled with people. Ok, I’ve bitched, now a little about what we saw…. Or tried to see.
.JPG)
From the port we traveled about an hour through the countryside and mountains. It was quite beautiful, green with farmlands throughout. As we got closer to Jerusalem we began to see more and more houses; all fairly new and much like those you find in the U.S. The houses became much more dense and then it turned into a big city with everything you would expect - big apartment complexes, businesses, government buildings and schools and universities..JPG)
Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives overlook where we could see the Old City - this is where we were headed. .JPG)
Then we stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was very small and had the ancient olive trees surrounded by flowers. Next to the garden was the Church of all Nations. Back to the bus for a short ride and then we were at the Western or Wailing Wall. Men and women had to enter the area in front of the wall via different portals. This is where you write your prayer on a slip of paper and put it into the wall. From here we entered the old city using the Jaffe gate; an arched tunnel. We then walked part of the Via Dolorosa passing three of the Stations of the Cross (V, VI, and VII). All along the way the sides of the walkway were lined with shops and vendors. It probably would have been fun to browse here a bit, but there was no time as we all had to continually make our way through the hoards of people. This walk was all up hill with many steps; at the top, most people were moving quite slowly. At the end of our walk was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is believed to be the site of Christ’s crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection. This church is shared by many different religions and denominations. There were a number of very steep stone steps that were difficult for many of the people in the group. It was impossible to get anywhere near the actual holy sites, but our guide did allow 10 minutes for anyone wanting to pray. Then we retraced our steps through all the shops (downhill this time) back to the bus for the short ride to lunch.Lunch was a buffet in a very nice 5star hotel (neither of us can remember the name). It was a bit rushed as they were feeding all 12 bus-loads of us. Luckily for us our bus was one of the first ones which gave us a good head start on the food and for the restrooms. The women’s room had three stalls… let’s see, each bus had about 38 people - probably at least half of them women; times 12 buses… it was still a very long line when we were leaving.
.JPG)
After that we headed to Bethlehem. At the Palestine border our guide had to get off the bus as he isn’t allowed across the border. We went through 2 checkpoints and then another guide boarded the bus for our tour of the Church of the Nativity. This part of the trip was actually quite nice; there weren’t nearly the numbers of people. There was a service going on as we entered the church which made it even more interesting and all the lights were on… I may have gotten a couple good shots here. We went down steps in an area under the alter; .JPG)
a silver star in marble marks the place where it is believed Christ was born. Although this is a very small area and there were quite a few people, we were able to see this.Back on the bus… then a 40 minute stop at a typical tourist trap for shopping. Finally, people finished buying their stuff and we headed back to the border… through 2 checkpoints again and our original guide got back on and we returned to the port.
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It's a shame about your tour, because those are all great places to visit at leisure. I enjoy reading the posts of your World Cruise. Thanks for posting them so the rest of us can experience it vicariously.
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