Walking and cooking through Jerusalem

Tuesday, September 17

Lots of walking this morning in Old Jerusalem but it’s the only way to get around in the old city. Some things didn’t work out because of the election happening today, but our guide skated around them like he was Canadian. We were dropped off by our bus driver Mo (short for Mohammed) at the Dung Gate, yes that is its unfortunate name and then walked our 10,000 steps for the day.

We started at the Temple Mount to get there during the time that non-Muslims are allowed in that area, after stopping for pictures along an elevated walkway over the Western Wall, appropriately named since it is the western side of the wall that supports the platform that the Muslims built to house their mosque over top of the Roman foundations. It was great to be able to see the plaza on the Western Wall from that vantage point. The men and women were separated for prayer and we were able to see two Bar Mitzvahs underway on the men’s side with the women and girls watching over the barrier between them.

The Dome of the Rock is pretty spectacular and is apparently even more so now than it used to be. It was renovated in 1992 at a cost of $7 million dollars ($1.4 million for the roof alone) rumoured to have been paid for by King Hussein of Jordon when he sold his London Palace. We were not allowed to go inside the mosque, but we appreciated the structure and the tile work from the plaza outside.

Then it was over to the Via Dolorosa to see the Stations of the Cross, various spots where things happened to Christ on the day of his crucifixion. The path today is not the actual one that Christ would have taken because building has been constructed on top of the structures of those times, but they are approximately where various events happened along his path. We saw the last 5 Stations of the Cross in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre last evening including the tomb where Christ is buried, but today started at the first one where Jesus is condemned to death and followed them through to the 9th station. No one in our group is very devote so we didn’t spend a lot of time at each one but it still took us some time to navigate the narrow streets with hundreds of other groups doing the same things we were. We were really glad that we were only 15 in our group and that our guide had suggested we visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchure last night because it was chaos this morning and would have taken us 2 hours to see what we did in 30 minutes last night.

We were unable to enter a synagogue that is usually the next part of the tour because of the election, but Jalal took us to another synagogue and asked one of the men there to come and speak with us about his faith. Turns out he was from Montreal and moved to Jerusalem 20 years ago to concentrate on his religious studies. He was an interesting character with a wicked sense of humour and he seemed to be on a mission to bring lightness into the world. Something we can surely use. It was distressing to hear from him that he felt it was not safe to live as a Jew in Montreal and that was part of the reason for his move, although he did admit to liking the winters a lot better in Jerusalem.

We stopped for lunch and decided bagels with cream cheese and lox was an appropriate lunch while visiting in Jerusalem. The bagels were excellent, as was the olive cream cheese and lox.

Our final stop in the old city was at the Western Wall which, like everything else in Jerusalem by law, is made of limestone. It is as close in proximity to the Foundation Rock under the Temple Mount as Jewish people can get. After the 1967 Six Day War, the Israelis dug down some layers in the area west of the Temple Mount to create this plaza and today it was busy with women on our side praying and reading their Torah, I’m assuming, since they were not in English. We watched as many women were moved to tears as they prayed there. The practise is for people to write notes of prayer and slip them into cracks in the wall and many of our group did that.

We had an hour and a half back at the hotel to rest and I grabbed a swim in the outdoor pool. It was a little on the warm side so wasn’t as refreshing as I would have liked, but it did bring my core temperature down after the heat of the Western Wall plaza.

This evening we ventured into the largest market in Israel, Machne Yehuda Market with Chef Udi Shlomi. It was crazy busy today because people have to be given time off work to vote, and so I presume after voting they headed out to do some shopping and enjoy their free time. We saw people campaigning in the market and we were told that the Prime Minister was in the market place a bit earlier. Leave the country during the election and I still can’t get away from it!

We met Chef Udi at his kitchen in the market and then he took us around to a few of the stalls to show us some products unique to this market. The businesses were all 3rd generation family owned and they were only 3 among the hundreds in the market. I’m sure you could buy anything there. We were on sensory overload between the sounds, sights, smells and tastes. Seems to be a common thread on this trip.

The first stop was a juice company that also makes beauty products from fruit and veggies. The second was a spice company that sold all sorts of spices and also dried fruit and combinations thereof for all sorts of cooking. And the third was a Halvah manufacturer. We were able to try samples of each of them and Chef Udi introduced us to some new flavours.

Then we headed back to his kitchen where we were divided up into groups and assigned dishes to make. He supervised and demonstrated and was extremely patient with us. And the dishes all turned out great! Especially the focaccia bread while I literally had a hand in.

We had Moroccan Fish, Taboulah, Focaccia, Rice with Lentils, egg plant with Tahini and Baklava. Chef Udi adds Halvah to his Baklava recipe and it was excellent.