Week 18 June to 24 June
Our flight to Athens took us through Frankfurt, and upon
arriving at Athens, we were instantly hit by the heat. Our hotel was in close
proximity to the Acropolis, so we went early in the morning before the heat set
in, to walk up the hill, observing the sites on the way. Many repairs were
being made to the various structures with modern machinery. It is truly amazing how people of that time
managed to do what they did without the machinery of today.
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| Theatre of Dionysos |
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| The Erechtheion |
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| Getting a better perspective |
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| The Parthenon |
We were
particularly impressed at the amount of dedicated man hours that people must
have put in to make a dream become a reality for their gods. When the time came
for our descent, the sweltering heat had already set in. (9am) We retired to
our air-conditioned room until later in the afternoon. Either it is global
warming or it’s our age!!
The election had taken place just the day before we arrived.
Since there had been some political unrest in Athens in recent times, we were somewhat
apprehensive about what we might strike there. Our fears were completely
unfounded, apart from a little graffiti designed to incite rebellion, there was
no other real evidence of any unrest. From
the media we were told that a lot of the turmoil in Greece has been created by
a tax avoidance culture. In our short stay we befriended one of the local café owners,
and observed evidence at first hand of this claim.
From Athens we flew to Tel Aviv through Istanbul, tasting
first-hand the wonderful hospitality of Turkish Airlines. This would have to be
the best airline we have flown on so far. They could not do enough to
help. Upon arriving in Israel, we took
the Sherut (a shared minivan taxi) to Jerusalem. It was awe inspiring to
realise the amount of change that this nation must have experienced in the last
60 years. The infra-structure is incredible.
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| View of road from Sherut |
There was a joy in our hearts
travelling through the countryside, seeing the names of places of Biblical
fame. The Sherut brought us to our hostel just outside Damascus Gate of the Old
City, and the joy rapidly dissipated. The first exposure to the dishonesty was recognising after the Sherut had taken off that we had been overcharged –
unfamiliar currency.
We had booked a room with air-conditioning, an ensuite, and
linen. Our hearts sank when we saw the sign indicating the hostel entrance. But
more shocks were to come. Going through the sleazy entrance, we lugged our bags
up the stairs and made our way into the dark office. Here we were met by a
charming smiling man who welcomed us in. We gave our names. “Did we want
air-conditioning?” he asked. He then proceeded to get out his calculator, and
presented us with the bill for our 6 nights’ in advance accommodation. But hey – the room we had booked was
advertised as having air-conditioning, but now we were being told that there
was an added charge (50 shekels per night) to be able to use the
air-conditioning. When we later figured out the actual charge in NZ$, after
paying in advance up front for 6 nights’ accommodation, it was almost double
the advertised charge, and included other “add-ons” that were either deceptive,
or outright illegal ….. We should have taken note of the notice behind the
proprietor’s desk which read, “No refunds.” The proprietor then tried to negotiate an exorbitant
trip package, and got quite belligerent when we refused. We were taken to our
room, only to find that the large sliding door onto an outside patio, extremely
accessible to any of Jerusalem’s diverse inhabitants, did not lock. Our host
assured us it was totally safe, but by this time we realised we were dealing
with someone who could not be trusted at all, and we asked for a room change.
As for the ensuite – later we discovered that there was no
hot water in the “shower”, if it could be called such, consisting of a hose hanging
down with a shower head, located in the toilet area, to drain out of a hole in
the toilet floor.
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| The "Ensuite" |
And the linen? We were
supplied with smelly towels, and pillows reeking of stale sweat, no sheets or
pillow cases. Welcome to Jerusalem!!
The hostel was very close to the Old City, so we set out to
the information centre to get maps etc.
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| Outside the Old City Wall |
The streets in the Old City are narrow,
and lined with merchants, ready to lure you into their dens and haggle over the
price of items. Fortunately we needed to buy very little so observed as we
passed by.
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| Hustle and Bustle inside the Old City |
The first day saw a visit to the Wailing wall followed by a walk
around the Western side of the city overlooking the Kidron Valley.
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| Declaration of the Future |
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| The Wailing Wall |
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| Excavations outside of the Old City Wall |
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| Looking Across the Kidron Valley to Mount of Olives |
We also met up with a German man and his daughter (both
Christians) staying in the hostel, and we commiserated together about the
lodging. They blessed us by taking us to the Yad Vashem holocaust museum, quite
an experience for them as Germans. We were greatly impacted by the 5 hours that
we spent there, looking at the film footage, listening to testimonies, seeing
the artefacts and the photos. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos
there.
The Garden Tomb was very close to the hostel, and the
atmosphere there was completely different – it would seem that this attraction
is actually run by Christians, and would have to be one of the highlights of
the things to see.
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| Golgotha, the Place of the Skull |
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| The Garden Tomb |
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| The Reason Why We can Live |
Another must see is the Temple Institute, a trust that is
preparing for the building of the third temple. This trust is currently making
the vessels and articles to be used in the new temple, and it was interesting
having it explained to us what the various articles were and what they
represented. Again we were not allowed to take photos there.
