五月九日 下午
从伯利恒回来后俺们回旅店睡了个午觉。醒来时已经快四点了。想起来圣母安息教堂和它旁边的大卫王的墓(最后晚餐地点)和橄榄山还没去于是决定去看这几样。昨天走错了,实际上出了锡安门就是。这两天在这里溜达的地形已经很熟悉了。
看了圣母安息堂,大卫王墓俺们就在路边拦了个出租车去橄榄山上。其实走路更好,但是这几天走的有些多,开始不想动腿儿了!司机是个巴勒斯坦人,是从约旦阿喀巴那边来的,英语还凑合,人也不错,在山上时正好是落日在圣殿山金顶的后面,拍照片有些难度,尤其是拍人像。结果司机自告奋勇带俺们去了另一个地方避开落日的背景,还没多收钱。俺问他260谢克尔去机场算不算贵,因为旅店跟俺们说要这么多。他先说一般都要300。到后来送俺们回旅店时他说260他也送。然后还说如果明天俺们去杰里科的话他可以带俺们去。
后来跟他说好明晚九点送机场,俺们的航班是凌晨四点多的。以色列要求提前三小时到机场。俺们还没有想好去不去杰里科,一是这几天已经看得有些审美疲劳了,二是去杰里科木有直达的公交车。做出租虽然方便但是没啥情趣,不如做公交车能多看到当地的“新鲜”事儿。后来跟他说如果决定明天去再给他电话。
俺们明天还有个更重要的项目,圣殿山。那个地方的开放时间不稳定。俺记得是早七点半到十点,下午一点半到三点。但是以色列安全人员可以随时停止开放,不用解释任何原因。这次又不知是啥原因前两天都不开放,明天是俺们唯一的机会。晚上吃完饭又到圣墓教堂去例行“检查”了一下。
圣母安息堂离最后晚餐的地点很近,传说圣母就是在这个地方过世的。但是俺木有搞清楚这个圣母安息堂和对面橄榄山那边的那个圣母墓教堂是啥关系。俺印象里对面那个是个希腊东正教,这个貌似天主教。这个教堂看完之后旁边就是大卫王墓。在里面照相时被告知不许拍照,有个犹太老大爷还很不高兴的样子,要跟俺急眼。可,可,可是的确木有不许拍照的标示啊!俺真的是遵纪守法的良民啊!回网上一问,人家说了,平时是可以拍照的,但是周六是犹太人的个神马说法,然后就不许拍照了。。。最后的晚餐屋子里空空如也。
橄榄山正好在老城和圣殿山对面,对着圣殿山的被封起来的金门。耶稣复活后上他大弟子彼得哪儿打了个招呼带上干粮啥的就从橄榄山升天了。上去时还跟施瓦辛格一样很酷的来了句:i'll
be back!。。。扯远了。
传说上帝/耶稣/弥赛亚再次降临人间时就从这里登陆,埋在橄榄山上的犹太人都将要被首批复活,然后上帝会从金门进入耶路撒冷。这也就是为啥穆斯林在圣殿山上建了金顶和清真寺后把这个金门给封上了。金门底下和附近的山坡上全部都是穆斯林的墓,俺的猜想是为了抵御上帝的到来。可,可,可他们不是供的同一个上帝吗?百思不得其解!这橄榄上倒是个看风景的好地方,耶路撒冷老城一览无余!
圣母安息堂
你们家里有犹太人“内线”的帮俺问问门上这个斜贴的小装饰是干嘛的?
或是有什么意义?在好几个地方都看见了,有一家旅店房间门上也有,不过没有这个精致。先谢了。
大卫王之墓
最后晚餐的房间
大卫王的雕像
锡安门上的弹孔
远处山上的隔离墙
圣殿山金顶
犹太人的墓 上面放的小石头代表来看望过的人数 - 犹太人习俗,来上坟时就王墓上放个小石头
通往圣殿山的金门,周围都是穆斯林的墓
满山遍野的墓,祝他们愿望早日实现
安全部队
换个角度看圣殿山
穆斯林区的店铺
圣墓教堂,上面这个梯子可是有讲究的。圣墓教堂里面有六个教堂(教派?)里面地盘划分的很严纷争也很厉害,公元二世纪初他们这六派为地盘闹得很厉害,结果当时的行政长官给他们调停了一下:从某年某月某日某时起,所有在那一刻归纳一派的地盘物件都必须永远的保持不变,从此不允许再有纷争。结果这个梯子在那里忘了拿下来也就被永远的架在了那个地方。
这几个老兄在准备收摊关门儿了,在门口聊大天儿。
俺们就在台阶上坐着看热闹,一直看到圣墓关门儿。这些人来晚了,导游在门口一通胡咧咧。
亚法门附近的夜景
5/9/2015 jerusalem bethlehem
armed with knowledge i gained at this forum i hurried my two team members to
get up early today for we were going to take the famous bus 21 to bethlehem this
morning!
around 7:30am we were at the damascus gate. right out of the gate the bus
station weren't immidiately there, not as some described here "right outside the
damascus gate". i guess i took the words too seriously. the bus station,
however, was located about 300 meters to your front left if you just stepped out
of the gate.
we got there at the right time - there was a bus 21 full of people and ready
to go. we got on and checked with the driver if this was for bethlehem and got a
confirmation. the tickets are like 8.5nis for adult and 6.5 for a child. so
round trip we spend 45nis on transportation. much cheaper and easier than i
thought. it wasn a pleasant ride taking about 40 minutes to the last stop. you
won't miss it because everybody had to get off there!
we were approached by a couple of taxi drivers offering 10nis taking us to
the manger square. we wanted to walk so we didn't take their offers and they
weren't pushing hard, either. with the help of my phone gps (off line map again)
we arrived at the church of nativity without trouble. the walk is little more
than 1km judging by the scale of the map - a pleasant walk taking you through
shops and neighborhoods.
the manger square was not very obvious. we got there and almost walked past
it, partially because there were a stage being set up and a large tent sitting
in the middle of it for some kind of commerical promotions. we witnessed that
later on while we had lunch at a restaurant by the square.
we went into the church and only found out that there were like three masses
on-going, to see the silver star we would have to come back in more than an
hour. so we just took a little tour of the adjacent st catherine's church. nice
little church. afterwards we wondered over to the milk grotto. there was a group
of believers from india on site. took them a little while to go through their
prayings and singings. we saw many groups like this from india at other places,
too. i never knew there were that many christians in that part of the world.
after the indians left we sat there to rest and comtemplate a little bit. very
nice!
we then came back to the church of nativity again and only found out the
masses were still in session. so we decided to have lunch first althought it was
a bit early. but, we didn't have breakfast, it was just fine. we settled with a
restaurant by the square by the name of, well, the square restaurant. it turned
out rather nice. i had a palestinan sampler. and the real bonus is that i, for
the first time, had a taste of the taybeh beer (golden) - the best beer i had on
this trip. later on i got the permission from wife to give it a go on the smoke
pipe. but the waiter told me it was just regular tabaco smoked through a pipe,
not really worth for an experience.
our waiter is a palestinian young man (sadly i started to call people young
man more frequently a few years ago), born in haifa, his mother has an israeli
passport and father without it. he has 9 siblings - all live in the states
except him. by his own words, he did want to live in the states becuase he would
be like "fish without water". said he has many israeli friends but resent what
their government does. had a nice time chatting with him.
after lunch we went back to the church. by now there was a huge line waiting
to get to the basement. we were approached by a tour guide offering us 20usd to
go through a "family line". we felt pretty bad to cut the line but if we didn't
we would be spend at least the next three hours or longer in the queue. so we
went with him. but we didn't feel very good. it was very crowded in the basement
and the line moved very slow. we ran into the indian group here, again. i
understand the importance of this spot for the belivers and tourists alike. i
just hope there's a better way to let everybody see this spot. the whole thing
was kind of rushed. i did see the star, but i didn't get a chance to give the
silver star a good stare because i felt i was interrupting the faithfuls waiting
in line.
after that was done. we took a taxi and asked him to take us to the other bus
station, bus 124 (?), coming back from a different route with a stop at the
separation wall. but the cab driver pulled a fast one on us. he took us straight
to the stop for bus 21. upon our protesting he laughed and drove us to a section
of the wall and took some pictures, and took us back to bus 21. we still paid
him 20nis. but if you are looking for the experience to walk through that check
point seen on many videos you will have to insist on what you pay for.
on our way to bethlem noboday had to get off at the checkpoint. but on the
way back all the palestinians had to get off the bus and be checked before
getting back on. our passports got looked at by an israeli soildier, no
questions asked.
back to jerusalem, we took a nap and headed out again to check out the
dormition abbey and david's tomb, which went very successful this time. i was
told not to take photos at david's tomb where no signs could be found. one guy
was pretty intense seeing me carring a camera.
we hailed a cab on the street to take us up to the viewing point on the mount
of olives. he told us that one way would be 45-50nis, round trip 120 with half
an hour waiting. we finally agreed on 110nis. since the sun was against us we
couldn't get a good family photo taken he took us to another spot and got us a
good family photo. to reward his nice act we told him that we would take his
ride to the airport tomorrow night.
i am getting tired of saying this by now: this turned out to be another nice
and successful day!