Before coming to Israel, I naively thought Tel Aviv was the capital of Israel but when we arrived there, you can see how Jerusalem is a more well maintained city. This city has significance to every Abrahamic religion but yet so many people asked us why we were interested in coming to Israel. We did a day tour of the main sites in Jerusalem although we had a very biased guide who was just Ok. If I could do it again, I would have chosen to go on the Sandeman tour or Green Olive Tour of Jerusalem.
Our Old City of Jerusalem tour included visits to the Western/whaling Wall where Jews write a wish/note to God on a small piece of paper and insert it between the ancient stones of the wall. Men and women go to separate areas split by a partition. It is also the largest open air synagogue in the world. We also saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is significant to Christains as its where Jesus was crucified and his tomb is said to be there as well.
The highlight for us of course was to see the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which is stunning. They are one of the top 3 Islamic sites of importance to Muslims only behind Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia and it is mentioned in the Quran. These sites are on the Temple Mount which you have to clear security before you can even go up to it and then at several points we had to prove we were Muslim. The Temple Mount is also very significant in Judaism. On another tour we found out the reason why non-Muslims aren't allowed to enter these sites anymore. Apparently an Australian lit an important structure in the dome on fire with a lighter and in general, the Jew vs Muslim tension is so high, that they don't want to take a chance of any damage by an extremist Jew. There is a sign put up by Israelis that it against Torah Law to go the the Temple Mount area. While we were there, we did see a group of Jews surrounded by a boat loads of security and video cameras who apparently come up to the a Temple Mount daily as they apparently want to tear the Dome of The Rock down to build a synagogue - although that could be just what the Muslim security guard told us. They were only there for less than 5 min as we could tell as there was a lot of commotion to get them off the property. We video taped it and were worried about a situation erupting as it so commonly does. The day after we visited, there was a French tourist that came to the Temple Mount and waved an Israeli Flag and caused some ruckus so that blocked off access to the area. Although you hear about the tensions between the two sides, we really didn't get it until we took a day trip to Hebron in the West Bank/Palestine (see the next post).
At both the Muslim and Jewish sites, you have to be very covered up, which makes it even hotter! I wish I brought more maxi dresses for the trip!
The security is insane everywhere in Israel and especially so in Jerusalem. You get searched and asked for your passport at various points even walking through the old city itself.
We stayed at the City Centre Suites which we chose based on reviews, location and price. There were super nice hotels such as the Waldorf Astoria, King David, Mammila hotel etc but again the starting was $500/night for those hotels. Good for our purposes but nothing special.
There are a lot of good restaurants and generally very good food in Israel but as I've mentioned, very expensive. For example, a shwarma for the two of us without a drink sometimes is $30 CDN at a street food type of restaurant. The Makende Yakuda Market was a cool place to visit with some yummy food options. At least the food quality is good unlike spending a lot in Brazil and being constantly disappointed with your meals. We always find that the restaurants that are recommended by friends are always better than some of the top restaurants that we find on tripadvisor as it depends so much on where people are from and what they are used to. I will add to this post later with our food recommendations.
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