Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (among other things)

My co-workers were right. The rocket fire from Gaza has settled down, and things seem to be back to “normal” here in Israel.

President Obama received some attention this week for his meant-to-be-private exchange with French President Sarkozy (here for details) regarding Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu. When I asked my talkative cube-mate what his thoughts were, he replied, “He’s right – Netanyahu is a liar”.

Other notable headlines included this one announcing Israel’s plan to equip airliners with anti-missile systems, as Libyan anti-aircraft weaponry has apparently been smuggled into Gaza of late. I’m curious as to how soon it will be before Orbitz.com lets users filter their flight searches by this new criteria. If you plan on visiting, be sure to pick a well-equipped flight!

I also came across this story which theorizes that the “Mossad” (Israel’s version of the CIA) is responsible for the recent explosion at an Iranian missile base. With this, and talk amongst Presidential candidates of “covert action” at this week’s Republican debate (details here), Nicki commented that maybe the Bourne Identity series isn’t fiction after all.

On a less-scary note, Israelis were disappointed to find out that the Dead Sea lost its bid for inclusion into the new seven natural wonders of the world. This is in spite of a comprehensive PR plan to encourage Israeli’s to cast their vote. You can read about the PR campaign here, which included the establishment of a “Dad Sea Song”, a fashion show, and placement of a large clock on one of Tel-Aviv’s skyscrapers (which I drive by daily) counting down until the voting deadline.

And in our little circle of life, newsworthy events included Sammy eating his first solid food, haggling over a parking spot at the Carmel Market, and a stolen bike.

But first, I must catch up on a half-day trip to Jerusalem sometime in the last month. We slept in on a Friday and then watched a World Series game on delay. Finally, at 11:30, we were off to Jerusalem.

Then nice thing about Jerusalem is that it is so close, so we can do a ½ day trip without feeling like we’re not making the most of a day. It was Friday, and we had planned to start with the “Ramparts Walk”—a walking route up on the old walls from which you can peer into the Old City.  We quickly realized that we were victims of our own lack of planning. The north section of the Ramparts Walk is closed on Friday’s due to Muslim prayers (it’s their holy day), and it closes altogether after 2pm. The City of David was closed. The Temple Mount was closed. So, we decided to wander over to the Garden Tomb and then potentially sneak in the Mount of Olives if we had time (we didn’t).

The Garden Tomb, just outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City walls of Jerusalem, was definitely worth the visit.

Here is the Damascus Gate—not only does it serve as an entrance to the Muslim Quarter, it also seems to be being used as a market.



At the Garden Tomb, we were greeted by friendly British volunteers who told us that Sammy was their youngest visitor of the day--though we later met another 5 month old. We were quickly ushered into a tour led by another Brit (they had tours for a variety of languages) who gave us some insight into why this might well be the location where Jesus was crucified, buried, and where He rose again.  

Here’s a picture of the hill thought to be the “place of the skull”—Golgotha (Aramaic), or Calvary (Latin) as mentioned in Mark 15:22. Today, it’s a parking lot for buses.

Our guide mentioned that the hill used to better-resemble a skull, and showed us this picture from 100 years ago. Apparently there has been some erosion since then. Who knows what it looked like 2000 years ago.

The guide pointed out that this location was indeed outside of the original city walls of Jerusalem, which fits the Biblical description. He also corrected a common misconception—telling us that the three crosses (those of Jesus and the two criminals who were crucified on either side of Him) were likely not perched atop of Golgotha, but rather at the base of the hill. Check your Bible—references to the crosses being on top of the hill are not there. Apparently the Romans would typically place crosses near roads, so that passersby could see those being crucified. This brings up another point – the road to Damascus was nearby, so it was a “good” (visible) location for the crosses.

An unfinished (and empty) family tomb was also found nearby. Here it is. The round stone was added for effect—such a stone was not found at the site.

Our guide began to choke up a bit as he recounted the story of Jesus. It was neat to listen to someone who was so sincere, and to think about what may have happened here—quite a contrast to the atmosphere we’d seen on an earlier trip while visiting Via Dolorosa. Actually, another aspect of the Garden Tomb we found appealing was that our guide did not try to “sell” us on the fact that the events happened here. His focus was on the fact that Jesus’ death and resurrection DID happen—and the associated implications.

Our guide simply offered the Garden Tomb as a hypothetical location for the events, not as fact. On a side note, I may have also gotten a bit emotional if it weren’t for Sammy having a little accident on my lap right in the middle of the story.

Speaking of Sammy…here he is eating some carrots…his first ever bite!

And here is his name written in Hebrew (the word on the left, but read from right to left), and Arabic for that matter. Samuel is pronounced “Shmu-el”. We spotted this street sign while in Jerusalem.

And then there was the parking lot negotiation. Nicki and I went to check out the Carmel Market here in Tel Aviv. We found a parking lot and pulled in. The attendant approached and handed me an official looking slip of paper with 30 shekels printed on it. Thinking that $10 USD was a bit expensive for an hour or so of parking, I walked back towards him to question the price. He didn’t speak English, but got the hint and offered a price of 20 shekels. I then asked a woman who had just received her official slip of paper what he was charging her, and she replied “He wants 30 from you”, and then discreetly flashed her ticket, on which was printed 15 shekels. After some additional bargaining, we got a 15 shekel ticket and were on our way.

Walking by the parking attendant’s shelter, I noticed several stacks of “receipts”—he essentially had a stack for every multiple of 5 shekels…presumably hand-selected based on visual & audible inspection (having “Hertz” on the side of our car and speaking English likely didn’t help us). We wondered how this would go down in the States—were we discriminated against? Were our rights violated? Could we win a settlement? Should we protest?

Here is a random Israeili Hummus shop at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv.

And the bike...Nicki needed the car in order to take Sammy to the clinic, so I decided to try riding my bike to the train station where I catch the shuttle to work. When I say “my” bike, I actually mean a bike that an Israeli friend had given me. He had picked it up during his assignment in Portland for $60 and recommended for me to take it to Israel as a commuter since bike theft is a problem here. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the route was fairly bike-friendly (a rarity here), and it only took me about 15 minutes. Thinking “I can get used to this”, I was already plotting more bike commutes—thinking that 2-3x per week would be about right.

After being dropped off back at the train station, I quickly found the spot where I thought I had locked up the bike, but didn’t see it. Soon I found not only my cut lock, but another one nearby. They stole my little commuter the very first time I used it! My co-workers have since filled me in on the golden rule for bikes in Tel Aviv—you need a bike that is worth LESS than your lock. A good lock and a junky bike…that is the ticket. I’ve got my eyes open, but have yet to find any used bikes for sale that are junky enough.

And finally, “winter” appears to be setting in. Who knew that skies could be something other than sunny here? Here’s a shot of a gray sky here in Tel Aviv. It poured rain for about 5 hours shortly thereafter--and there has been much rain since. Oh, and I wore long sleeves to work yesterday for the first time while in Israel. Bummer.

I also included some additional pictures below from our 1/2 day in Jerusalem, if you're interested.

We couldn't help but visiting the Western (aka Wailing) Wall again. Many Jews were lining up as Shabbat was about to set in on this Friday afternoon.

Just another Shabbat at the Wailing Wall - many faces...

Some type of rally was happening in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City as we walked through...the only word we understood chanted in Arabic was "Allah".