Visiting the Garden Tomb

On our last day, Ryan reserved a taxi via Gett (similar to Uber) for noon, so we rose bright and early to visit The Garden Tomb. It is the site where many believe Jesus was buried and where He was resurrected three days later. From our apartment, we walked about ten minutes to reach the garden. There is no fee to enter, and the organization in charge, The Garden Tomb Association, provides a guide to point out different areas in the garden. 

Even though we could hear traffic outside the walls, we sensed a quiet and peaceful atmosphere. Our guide, Steve, took us to the edge of the garden and showed us what they believe to be The Skull of the Rock, or the place where Jesus may have been crucified. He then showed us the winepress and cistern, both pieces of evidence to suggest that the garden was a working garden, similar to gardens of the day when Jesus lived.

Steve then pointed out the tomb, and we proceeded down the stone steps and found ourselves at the entrance. It was rather small, compared to how I imagined it. The tomb was supposed to be large enough for an entire family, with three resting places, presumably a father, a mother, and a child. On the door inside hangs a post saying, "He is not here for He is risen." True today as it was back then!

After purchasing souvenirs from the gift shop, we exited and walked toward the Damascus gate. Since it was close to noon, we went back to our apartment, packed what we had left, and waited for our ride. Within an hour we were back at Ben Gurion Airport. Using the kiosk, we printed our tickets and headed for security, which wasn’t as bad as our Larnaca Airport experience. As we flew out of Israel, I prayed that next year Zach and I would be able to make it back!

Old City of Jerusalem

After our Dead Sea excursion, we took the bus back to Jerusalem. We walked back to our hotel to clean up, so we could visit the Old City for the rest of the day. It was about a 10-minute walk from our apartment to the Jaffa Gate. We stopped and visited some tourist shops. One young gentleman asked my mom how many camels she wanted for me, and when mom told him I was already taken, he asked Ryan how much for Elsa! Let's just say it was an awkward conversation, and we ran out of his shop as soon as we purchased our souvenirs!

As we made our way through the stone-paved streets, we followed signs to the Room of the Last Supper and King David's Tomb. Growing up in Sunday school, I learned and read about the upper room where Jesus and his disciples partook of the Passover meal before His crucifixion.  This is the supposed site of the upper room, and I couldn’t help but imagine Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper unfolding before my eyes. We then visited David's Tomb, but there were so many people praying that we did not want to disturb anyone, so we left to visit the Western Wall. The Wall is also known as the Kotel and is a very important site to the Jewish people. It is especially important, as it is believed to have been the closest to the Holy of Holies in the temple. People from around the world come to visit, pray, or leave a message to God and place it in the wall. 

We then made our way through the Muslim quarter to get to the Mount of Olives. As it was getting later, we noticed there were fewer tourists. At one point, an Israeli police officer called out to us and asked us who we were and where we were from. Ryan answered that we were visiting from Texas. The officer told us that we could not go any further as the area was closed at that time. So, we turned around and detoured down another street (which happened at least twice) and exited the Old City. 

We had intended on walking up through the Mount of Olives to catch a panoramic view of the Old City, but a taxi driver stopped us before we started and told us it was a long, steep walk. He only charged 5 NIS per person, so we didn’t argue since we had been walking all day. (They may have worn sandals over 2,000 years ago, but a non-slip shoe might have worked out better!) We arrived at the top in time to see the sun setting behind the Dome of the Rock. It was beautiful. 

Exhausted from our day, we let the same taxi driver take us back to our apartment, and ended the evening with dinner at McDonalds and made a few souvenir stops. Ryan reserved a taxi using a service called Gett (similar to Uber) for our transportation to the airport the following afternoon. But our trip wasn’t over yet…we still had the whole morning the next day, and we were not about to pass up the opportunity to do some more sightseeing!

Getting to Israel

Zach didn't go with us on our short trip to Israel, but we had breakfast together that morning. We had plenty of time because our flight didn't leave until 4:15 p.m. Normally getting our tickets and going through security at the airport in Larnaca takes us less than 30 minutes. Not so going to Israel, and I should have known better.

 The whole process felt like complete chaos! After standing in line for a while, an employee told us that check in closed in 10 minutes, and that we had to go to a kiosk to print out our tickets. Elsa and I had trouble printing our tickets and I was starting to panic just a little. Leaving mom in line to watch our bags, Ryan tried to print our tickets while I asked an employee what else I could do. Fortunately, they were able to print them out and we waited in line for a while longer before we were questioned by security...before we got to the actual airport security. They asked us numerous questions about our trip. After giving us the OK, they let us go through airport security and customs. We made it to our plane and within an hour, we arrived at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. 

 Before entering Israel, we were again asked several questions by customs officials. Afterwards, we were given a temporary visa to enter into the Holy Land. The currency is the New Israel Shekel (NIS). At that time, the exchange rate came to about .26 US dollars. We pulled out some money from the ATM before finding a shared taxi to take us to our residence. 

A taxi ride from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem is about 275 NIS. We decided to take a shared taxi, which came out to 65 NIS per person. While this was slightly cheaper than a taxi, you can wait up to 45 minutes for a shared taxi to fill up with passengers which was, unfortunately, what we had to do. We were lucky to be dropped off first! 

We got to the apartment Elsa booked on TripAdvisor a little after 10 p.m. It was a two-bedroom apartment with one bathroom and kitchen area. There were double beds in each room and a full size sleeper couch. It was perfect for our short, two-night stay. There was a burger joint next door called Burgers Bar and several convenience stores nearby. It's not a far walk to McDonalds or other little places to eat (which are all still open, even at 10 p.m.). We ate our dinner that evening at the burger joint, and I don't know if I was just really hungry, but it was delicious! Mom and I shared a burger because they were just so big. 

We planned on visiting the Dead Sea the next day and tried to figure out the best way to get there. Our two options were to take a bus or taxi. We opted for the bus, ensuring quite a fun story to tell!