A
visit to the Holy Land had always been on our wish list, and we finally got
there – plus a quick jaunt in Jordan – in April/May 2014. Io be honest, it took a lot of work to figure out the best way to travel as independent visitors, so hopefully the following account of the
wonders and warts from our 16 night adventure will be a useful resource.
Jerusalem highlights
Ah,
the home of religion – for Christians, Jews and Muslims. We had a few days
exploring the city, old and new, taking in:
- A free walking tour of the Old City with New Jerusalem Tours (do pay a tip though!):
highly recommended as a way to get your bearings and learn plenty, like why
there is an Armenian Quarter, that most Armenian surnames end in ‘ian’ – think
the Kardashians, and why Armenian monks wear peaked hoods. I don’t know why the
facts that stayed with us were about the Armenians quarter rather than the
Jewish, Muslim or Christian quarters?
- A visit to Temple Mount, the site of Muhammad’s
ascent to heaven (for Muslims), the site where Abraham was prepared to
sacrifice his son Isaac (for Jews), and the home of the famous golden ‘Dome of
the Rock’ mosque. It’s only open for a
couple of hours a day to non-Muslims – check the times before heading there.
The queue got pretty long after we arrived, but we think everyone got through
security (we were told by our tour guide not to wear jewellery with eg a cross
or Star of David, so Lou had tucked hers away, but no one seemed to be looking
for them). Blokes need to wear long trousers. Non-muslims can’t enter the
mosques but there’s a beautiful view over the Mount of Olives and it’s a lovely
peaceful place to walk around and take in the stunning colours of the Dome of
the Rock.
- A wander down the Mount of Olives, taking in the Chapel of
the Ascension (complete with Jesus’ ‘footprint’ in a rock), Dominus Flevit
church and the Garden of
Gethsemane.
Lou’s highlight was the spacious, modern Church of all Nations at the bottom,
and Dean’s was St Mary’s tomb which was pretty dark and dingy to be honest.
 |
| 2000-year old olive trees, possibly in the Garden of Gethsemane |
- Plenty of time getting lost in the alleyways, playing football with the local kids, walking the footsteps of Jesus along Via Dolorosa, and nipping in to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the apparent site where Jesus was crucified and buried, and is sadly in a poor state of repair.
- A tour from Jerusalem to the West Bank (Palestine) with Abraham Tours: absolutely fascinating and very sad. In a day, we covered the reputed
baptism site of Jesus on the Jordan river (which is about 5 metres wide with
Jordan on the other side); the ruins of the ancient city of Jericho (the ruins
show there was no wall that would have come a’tumblin’ down though!); Bethlehem,
including the Church of the Nativity and a section of the dividing wall between
Palestine and Israel; The field where shepherds watched their flocks by night;
and Ramallah, the capital city, including a wander through the market and a
stop at Yassar Arafat’s tomb. Worth doing a tour as most car hire companies
won’t let you take a car into this area.
 |
| The 'baptism site' of Jesus, complete with tour buses |
 |
| Even shepherds need to eat |
- The famous food market, Mehane Yehuda.
It’s amazing. We stuffed our gobs twice on these pastry things filled with
hummus and veg and falafel, and scoffed incredible fish and chips for dinner.
 |
| Sampling the local cuisine |
- A few hours at Yad Vashem holocaust museum. It’s at the end of the light rail route so is easy
to get to, and free to enter. It’s set in big grounds so would take ages to get
around everything, but we took in the main museum, a few of the memorial
sculptures and gardens, and the gorgeous, haunting Children’s memorial.
Jerusalem top tips:
- Be prepared for extensive, seemingly unrelated, and somewhat rude
questions when you arrive and want to leave the airport. I was asked the
origins of my (German) surname when we arrived, our itinerary was put under a
microscope, and we were grilled on who we’d visited and where we’d stayed in
Jordan as we tried to leave.
- It’s very easy to grab a sheirut (shared taxi) from Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem, just
follow the signs to taxis/buses, and there are plenty of guys touting their
mini-vans. Cost was 64 shekels pp and they took to our accommodation after a
few other drop offs.
- The website for
inter-city buses is in Hebrew only, so it’s tough to book from the UK. Instead,
we asked at the information centre just inside the Jaffa gate, and they booked
the bus we wanted online for us.
- Tala Hummus was a
bit of a gem of a find, just up by the Jaffa gate, delicious and cheap and no
problems spending an hour or so playing cards out of the heat eating hummus and
lemon and mint drinks.
- Traffic to get in,
out, and around the city can be mental. Leave plenty of time.
- Everything closed over Passover. We mean everything
including public transport. Except for restaurants in the Muslim quarter of the
old city, a few crummy little supermarkets, and a kosher McDonalds we had to
visit with a handful of other forlorn tourists out of desperation one night. We
thought things may be busy due to Easter, but completely missed the memo about
how to survive as a visitor during Passover.
- To get to the
Mount of Olives, get a public bus (check with the info centre which one, from
the Damascus Gate) to the top, and wander down the path. You’ll need a decent
guide book to know where to go and what you’re looking at. The Church of Mary
Magdalene was closed the day we visited so check that too if you’re desperate
to see one in particular.
 |
Halva at the markets
Galilee/Nazareth/Haifa/Akko
highlights
From Jerusalem, we hired a
car and braved the crazy (and I mean crazy, selfish, aggressive, dangerous)
traffic for a couple of hours north to explore Galilee and Nazareth. The areas
around the Sea of Galilee are beautiful, especially if you’re interested in
Christian history like us. We enjoyed a fish lunch on the waterfront at
Tiberius (not much else to see there), visited the ‘Jesus Boat’ on the shores of
the Sea of Galilee which was interesting, and the church on the Mt of
Beatitudes (the site of ‘blessed are etc etc’) which had spectacular gardens
and view.
|
 |
| Loaves and fishes garden |
Nazareth itself doesn’t have
an awful lot to see, but this was our base for the north and we spent a couple
of hours looking around the Church of the Annunciation – the site where the
Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary – and the church of St Joseph next door, the
site of St Joseph’s carpentry shop and Jesus’ childhood home. The courtyard of
the Church of the Annunciation was a highlight, with gorgeous murals and
mosaics of Mary and Child from around the world. This was the only church on
our visit where Lou’s knee-length shorts were too short, but they had wrap
skirts to borrow for the information centre. While in Nazareth was ate at Al
Amir (sign’s in Hebrew only, it’s by St Mary’s well) – some of the best kebabs
and hummus we had all holiday. We stayed at Fauzi Azar Inn which was pretty,
but very expensive for how basic it was (and houses a mixture of hostel and
hotel guests and prices, meaning we were kept awake by budget travellers while
we tried to get our £100 a night worth of sleep).
 |
| Images of St Mary and child from around the world |
We spent a day from Nazareth
driving to Haifa and Akko on the coast. An easy drive, so well worth doing if
you’re up that way. In Haifa we visited the Ba’hai gardens, most of which were
closed on the day we were there (Wednesday). So if you’re really interested in
exploring them in full – only allowed with a guide – don’t go on a Wednesday! We
also stopped at Elijah’s cave in Haifa, but there’s not much to see now apart
from a slightly dingy Jewish shrine in a cave. Dean loves a walled city, so we spent a great
hot and windy couple of hours walking around Akko on the coast, one of the few Mediterranean cities
whose surrounding walls have remained intact.
Eilat to Jordan
There are a number of border
crossings between Israel and Jordan, each with pros and cons – like location,
who ‘owns’ the crossing, variations in visa requirements and costs, and who’s
allowed to use it. We decided to cross from Israel to Jordan via Eilat, right
down at the south, as it was reported to be an easy crossing and got us closest
to Petra, our first stop in Jordan. It was an easy five-hour bus ride from
Jerusalem (a few run each day, you must book in advance. You get allocated
seats and free wifi). It was a bit of a rude scrum to get on the bus – which is
stupid since everyone has an allocated seat – and the bus stopped for food etc
after about 3-4 hours so was a fairly comfy trip with great views of the Dead
Sea as the sun went down. Eilat itself was a fairly tacky sea side town, but we
spent one night there at the dodgy-looking, basic Corrinne hostel before taking
a 10 minute taxi (30 shekels) to the border with Jordan the next day. This
border was super easy to manage, we just walked from one country to the other
in 20 minutes around mid-day. We’d read that you weren’t allowed to take any
food or drink across but we weren’t asked. We also didn’t have to pay for a
visa and were greeted on the other side with a warm handshake from Jordanian
officials. Rather a different welcome from that in Israel!
 |
| Amazing colours in the stone, Petra |
Jordan – Petra and the
Dead Sea
We had arranged through our
hotel in Petra for a car to take us the two hours from the border to Petra (45
JD). The ancient ‘Rose City’ of Petra is amazing. We stayed at the excellent
Cleopetra Hotel where we were warmly
welcomed by Mosleh, the legendary front-of-house/can-sort-anything-for-you man. Everyone we met was friendly and up for a chat, here's a taste of the fun spirit of the local Jordanian kids putting Dean through his paces:
Two nights was a good amount of time to visit so long as you’re happy to get up
early to get in to Petra, it was magic to wander in before 7am while it was
empty and quiet (and not overrun with tourist buses).
 |
| The Monastery, Petra |
We covered pretty much all of
Petra (or so it felt), including the High Place of sacrifice, a trek to the Monastery
up steep steps complete with souvenir sellers charmingly sweeping the dust from
the steps made of dirt, and tourists on donkeys looking absolutely petrified.
We also took in a number of the Royal Tombs. Petra was, of course, scorching
hot and there was no cover, so wear a hat and take plenty of water (you can buy
water and snacks inside too).
Back up near the hotel, we
ate twice at Al Arabi which had the general kebabs etc (delicious) and a huge
range of salads etc and paid a visit to a local bakery for its huge range of
baklava and other yummy and cheap sweeties.
 |
| Dean and his mates at Shobak castle |
From Petra, we organised a
car (through our mate Mosleh) to take us to the Dead Sea which cost 75 JD and
took about 3.5-4 hours with a quick stop to explore the remains of Shobak
castle, and chat to the locals in Sala-al-Din fancy dress. We stayed at the
Holiday Inn Resort which was new, plenty of pools and space, and lovely big
rooms – we were upgraded. The best bit was the free mini-bar with soft drinks,
chocolate milk and crisps. Lucky, as the food wasn’t all that great at the
hotel, we just wanted a nibble one evening so ordered pizzas at the pool-side
bar – they were frozen, heated in a microwave. Much more promising was Shrak
restaurant, serving Jordanian fare. The resorts along the Dead Sea really are
in the middle of nowhere so you’re stuck with the food wherever you stay. Take
snacks!
As well as quality time
poolside and in the pool, we took a couple of dips (or rather, bobs) in the
Dead Sea and slathered ourselves with the magic black gloopy mud.
 |
| Pool-side drinks at the Dead Sea |
 |
| Bobbing around |
Israel – Jordan King
Hussain/Allenby Bridge
We used the Allenby Bridge
crossing back to Israel, knowing it was the worst in terms of how long it would
take and treatment of those crossing, but it was still much closer than heading
all the way south again, then trekking back North in Israel. We arrived at 8am
just as it opened, were marshalled through a couple of Visa desks – one to pay
a departure tax and one to hand over our passports. Yes, hand them over. As in,
leave them with the Visa guys out of blind trust that we’d receive them back
once on the bus to the border itself. Hey, we had no choice and everyone else
was doing it, but it was a relief to get them back 30 minutes later. The whole
crossing took about four hours, with much of that spent in the hot sun in
jostling, queue-jumping crowds. The
actual ‘visa’ part was quick and easy, it was more the queues to get your
baggage x-rayed and through the doors. This border is so bad because it’s the
only one Palestinians can use to get in or out of the West Bank so it’s chock
full at the best of times. We think there was a big Hajj returning too, judging
by the 10L containers of holy water going through – this added to the queue
pressure. Our advice: get there at or before 8am, have some food and water and
patience. Once through, get a sheirut again from just outside the hall into
Jerusalem for 42 shekels each.
Tel Aviv
We ended our trip in Tel
Aviv, jumping on a bus from Jerusalem (no need to book, they go a few times
each hour). We were pretty tired by this stage, so we spent our final days
mostly in relaxation mode, with every evening on the beach sunning ourselves
and watching the sun go down.
When we felt active, we:
- Visited the
Hagana and IDF museums, both focused on Israel’s military history. Both fairly
interesting if you’re in to military stuff, take your passport and be prepared
to be grilled at the IDF museum, with Lou asked why she’d visited Egypt five
years earlier – a question no one at the border asked, but which, apparently,
is important if you want to look at old tanks.
- Did a free
walking tour of Jaffa with Abraham tours
– very hot but well worth it, and we learnt why the kiwi sweet, the Jaffa
(orange chocolate flavour) is so-called, as Jaffa used to be focused on
producing oranges
- Hired bikes a
few times (like London’s Boris bikes), visiting Yarkon
park which was beautiful and worth
exploring with a river running down the middle.
 |
| Cooling off with Watermelon, Yarkon park |
- We ended our trip
with the most amazing meal at La Shuk
restaurant off Dizengorf St eating an incredible, unique seafood dish – too
hard to even describe but it was a taste to remember.
Tel Aviv is very
much a late-night party city. All restaurants seemed to be open until the wee
hours of the morning, and were open on Friday (Shabat) when everything in
Jerusalem would be closed.
That’s the big adventure done
for 2014, we’ll stick to a few easier, and closer to home options for the
remaining months to try to get some relaxation in.
