Breakfast now feels pretty routine, even the Nescafe they offer when you ask for coffee has become part of the new normal. I have taken to adding some of the dill pickles to my breakfast because they are so good. I am no longer fooled by their buttermilk disguised as yogurt. We have spent the last few mornings with people on our same tour but who are assigned to other buses. It is interesting to talk to them about their thoughts about the very same things we are all seeing.
We have the drill down so well now that we all are on our buses without a lot of urging. We pull away from our hotel and into the early dawn in a quieter Jerusalem. We make our way through the city and now catch sight of the Temple mount as we make our way through the Kidron Valley. On our right is the Mount of Olives, our first destination of the day. The hillside is literally covered with thousands and thousands of above ground graves, in fact, both sides of the Kidron Valley are covered with these graves. Some Jewish, some Islamic and some Christian.
We cross the bottom of the Kidron and head up the steep side of the Mount of Olives heralded by the whine of the diesel engines as they labor to pull our weight up the hill. Soon we are on top and what a view opens to us! This is obviously the spot that the picture I see of Jerusalem most often must have been taken from.
Our buses pull into the only slots available on top of the Mt. of Olives. The road here is extremely busy with traffic. Buses and cars are zooming back and forth and it is wise to keep your eyes wide open for cars zipping around the corner. We are warned not to stray off alone in this area. This is a Palestinian controlled area and has been known to be a trouble spot at times. Ominously an official looking blue car cruises by with "Tourist Police" printed on the door. Hmmm...I hope they are here to protect us, not arrest us.
Once out of the bus we are instantly set upon by hawkers. Do we wish to buy a panoramic picture of Jerusalem (the one I have most often seen all my life) for $10 US? A hand carved olive wood cross? A shawl with braided ends? a ride on the camel? and on and on.
We are told to meet at one of several neat little amphitheaters that descend just below street level and offer inspiring uninterrupted views of Jerusalem. I find a great spot and wait for the morning devotional to begin with Dr. Wood.
We see the Temple Mount in all of its morning glory, the Church of the Lord's Agony, Dominus Flevit, The Church of Mary Magdelene, The Eastern Gate, The City of David and all the way to the pool of Siloam. The sun is rising quickly behind us illuminating Jerusalem in front of us as we are yet in the shadow side of the valley. It is beautiful.
Indiana Jolie arrives to sit next to me and informs me that she and one of our friends want a camel ride before we leave this area. Ha! I think to myself.
Dr. Wood makes his way to the center of the space and begins to speak on the Olivet Discourse. It was somewhere on this very hillside that Jesus spoke to the crowds. Dr. Wood summarizes the passage with three points: 1. Be prepared to leave suddenly. 2. Be prepared to leave soon. 3. Be prepared to live a lifetime.
At the end, we are told that we will take the time to gather in our tour group for a picture with Jerusalem in the background. That sounds pretty neat! So we climb up the stairs to head towards a little area that is just off the traffic of the street. Wow, the world has awakened since we first arrived. The traffic has doubled, tripled? The hawkers are out in force! Sure enough, Indiana Jolie and her friend head right to the old looking camel with an even older looking owner. This is a one hump camel so I thought only one could ride at a time. They actually put them both on the one camel and it stands up and gives them a ride as the owner leads it through the traffic as it whizzes by and in between the buses that weave through the throngs of people, camels and more traffic. It is a wonder of a cacophony of noise, movement and humor. I attempt to take video of Indiana Jolie on the camel and nearly get thumped by a bus as I take by eyes off the street for a moment to find her in the little screen on my camera.
The bus slides by almost silently by inches away from my lens which makes me miss capturing half of the camel ride.
It takes a significant amount of time to gather everyone in the same place, make them all look directly into the sun for as long as it takes to get an open space in the traffic long enough to take a picture of the whole group from across the street which is high enough and far away enough to get the group in one picture. From where I stand, I see a public restroom that is very not busy at the moment. I alert Indiana Jolie to this and she gets there just before the crowd is alerted to the restrooms. The traffic jam is instant. We will now be on foot for some time as there is much to see on the Mt. of Olives. It is a good idea to take the pit stop now as we do not know when the next one will be.
Once everyone is refreshed, we like a herd of turtles move as a group down a very steep set of stairs to a somewhat winding brick-paved path and heads down the Mt. of Olives.
It is very narrow, lined with walls and the herd of us clogs the entire pathway, except we discover it is not a pathway, it is an actual street! Two direction street! We scurry for the little bit of sidewalks that line each side as cars barely slow down for us tourist types. We also hug the walls of this street as a large group of Nigerian pilgrims make their way uphill as we descend. I am happy our tour is heading downhill.
About half way down this narrow brick road we are turning right through a narrow gate into a beautiful garden area which surrounds a beautiful chapel designed by the architect Antonio Barluzzi in the 1950's. It is called Dominus Flevit, or "The Tears of Christ".
The chapel is busy when we arrive as more Nigerians are in the chapel before us. Some of them seem to be wearing Jesus pajamas. They sing and the sound is heavenly.
Our turn comes and we all squeeze ourselves into the small chapel. A friar stands guard at the door.
It would certainly be "high attendance Sunday" with all of us in there. We sing some Resurrection hymns together in this beautiful place. The sound resonates off the stone walls and rises to the high ceiling above. The acoustics are exquisite. It is a beautiful moment.
The chapel is busy when we arrive as more Nigerians are in the chapel before us. Some of them seem to be wearing Jesus pajamas. They sing and the sound is heavenly.
This garden / chapel is one of two places that commemorate the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem before his "triumphal entry" in the last week of his life. It is amazing how calm and peaceful it is in this garden. Just outside the wall the commotion continues, but it is a wonderful moment just being here.
We are instructed to cross the street and enter the next narrow gate which leads to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Cathedral. I make my way toward the little gate to cross the street when I notice a man with bottles of water cooling in a bucket. Are they for sale? I ask. Yes, $1 US. I buy two and keep one for Indiana Jolie. I cross the street after looking both ways.
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