Israel...Part 2...Day 11

March 16, 2019

Day 11: We didn't have a whole lot of direction today, we knew that we mostly just wanted to do a tour of the ramparts of the Old City walls and see Oskar Schindler's grave. So we tried to sleep in (failed), ate a good breakfast, packed our lunch and took off toward the Jaffa gate.

Yesterday we ended being pleasantly surprised by the weather. Today we had no such luck. It POURED and high winds blew right through us. I realize that it was completely my fault; I actually attempted to do my hair today. Silly me.

Walking down the middle of the tracks because nothing is running today anyway

Going up to the ramparts

We didn't expect to see a big green field in the Old City

The rain miraculously slowed way down while we walked along the walls over the Old City. It was a bird's eye view that included the best and worst that the Old City had to offer. Sweeping views over the New City and surrounding areas, as well as piles of trash thrown onto neglected rooftops. We started our journey over the south wall, starting at the Jaffa Gate and walked around the south side of the city, past Mt Zion, where it dumped us off at the Dung Gate (pun entirely intended). From there we visited the grave of Oskar Schindler, which was in the middle of a very unkempt cemetery on Mt Zion.

Mount of Olives

Armenian cemetery

Oskar Schindler's grave

This is outside the Holocaust Cellar, which was closed today, but is apparently the first Holocaust Museum. We're hoping to get in tomorrow.

Afterward, we decided to visit the northern ramparts, which took us past the Christian Quarter and dropped us down at Herod's Gate, deep within the Muslim Quarter. It was there that things took a turn from normal fun to stupid hilarious.

Okay okay, I guess we won't go up there.

Golgotha? Some stories say so. Deep inside the Muslim part of town, it actually feels like this might be the real deal.

We had come to the end of the ramparts - at least the part where they would let us walk. There's a steep stone staircase that leads down to a street, but to get to the street you need to exit through a one-way metal turnstile. So Joanie and I go through the turnstile only to find the exit is blocked by a giant iron gate and there is no way to get back through the turnstile. There are iron bars on all sides of us and we are locked in. Claustrophobia is setting in and we are beginning to panic. We're trying to tell people on the street that we're locked in but they're clearly not grasping the gravity of the situation and are laughing at us...only a couple from New Mexico is seeing that we have a legit issue and are trying to help us out.

I'm looking all over for some way to escape when Joanie gets a wild and crazy idea to squeeze through a tiny opening near the railing. She somehow maneuvered herself through that impossible opening and she was free! So I decided to give it a go and by some kind of miracle I managed to squeeze through as well. Imagine our relief!!! Just then a couple local school girls bounce past us, ignoring our warnings, and push through the turnstile. They give that iron gate a hard push and it opens right up. By then everyone is laughing hysterically and we giggled our way back to the Jaffa Gate, as the sky opened up above us and rain poured down.

We squeezed through this opening by her feet

We scrapped our plans for a peaceful picnic lunch, and hustled back to our hostel, stopping periodically to take shelter from the wind and rain. By the time we arrived back we looked like a few drowned rats! We decided to eat a late lunch in the lounge and ran into a couple friends who we have met during our travels.

Hoping for better weather tomorrow!!