Jerusalem's Western Wall and The Way of The Cross

Thursday 3 October 2013. In the last entry I described the trip to Jerusalem, our descent from the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations.

We now leave the coach at the old city walls and enter the large courtyard before the Western or Wailing Wall. The first thing we do is dash for a toilet, knowing that we have a 2-hour walk before us. I came out the wrong way and had passed through a turnstile before I realised so there was a brief "Oh heck.." moment before I found I could nip quickly through a shop and back to the courtyard. Except it wasn't a shop, it was some sort of security place with a scanning doorway like you find at airports and a couple of armed guards on duty... I strode through trying to look bewildered (it wasn't hard...) and nobody thought me worth stopping.

As you can see by the golden Dome of the Rock behind the wall, we are very close to the Temple Rock.

In fact the lower bits of the wall are the original external wall of the Second Temple, raised by King Herod. It is tradition for Jews to pray at this wall, rocking themselves back and forth and also by placing prayer messages in the cracks between the stones of the wall. They consider this place the very foundation of the world.

This was a public holiday and the place was packed with happy family crowds celebrating Barmitzvahs. The photo was taken by dodging lots of cheering women, who were cheering their son, nephew, grandson, who was taking his place at the wall.

We gathered back as a group and followed our guide through a gateway and into a series of narrows streets. I would almost say passages - some were roofed by slats of wood, some by buildings that were built over the street. As narrow as they were, every now and then we had to press to the side to allow a car through.

We stopped at a small bakery. The shops seemed to be set into the walls, the counter was the sill of a large open window. After some negotiation our guide had the baker take a freshly baked pitta bread from the oven and passed it amongst us.

Miss Franny is waiting for a bit of pitta bread to make its way around to us. To the right of the photo was a vegetable shop. Actually no shop, just vegetables set in baskets on the paving of the street with the owner crouched down beside them.

We joined the Way of the Cross - Via Dolorosa means the Road of Sorrows. When the Romans chose Christianity to be their main religion, Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, sent his mother, Helena to Jerusalem to discover the sites associated with Jesus. This was in the fourth century, 326-328, so around 300 years after the events she sought news of. She presumably had to judge whether she heard tales handed down through generations or whether she heard someone hoping for payment... See Wikipedia for details of the relics she found.

The Fifth Station of the Cross. Jesus, exhausted, rested His hand against the wall for support. Centuries of people placing their hands in the same place has imprinted a deep indentation in the wall. Here Simon of Cyrene (now part of Libya) was ordered to carry the cross for Jesus. There is a sharp right turn here and the Way starts to climb up towards Golgotha via a series of steps.

Climbing up past Station Six, the House of Veronica on the left. Veronica (later St Veronica) had previously been healed by Jesus and came out of her house as He passed and wiped His face free of the sweat and blood with a veil she removed from her person. She bundled the veil and returned to her house and when she looked again at the veil, the image of Jesus' face was left on the cloth.

Her name was really Bernice. "Veronica" comes from the latin vera, (true) and the greek icon, (image) and refers to the veil which bore the true image. Her veil is one of the treasures kept at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

We climb up past Station Seven, which was the extent of the city at the time. Here Jesus' crimes were proclaimed or read out.

Part of the later city. As we walked towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we pass the arches which lead into the area known as the Muristan. The Muristan was the site of a very early hospital catering for Christian pilgrims. A later hospital on the site was built and run by the Knights Templars of St John, who were part of the conquering Crusaders and who became known as the Knights Hospitallers. These are the same as those who built the fortifications we saw earlier in the week at Rhodes and who were evicted themselves by the Ottomans, becoming the Knights of Malta.

We passed under a narrow doorway and came directly to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, covering both the site of the Crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus. We shall see this in the next entry.

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The Mount of Olives and The Garden of Gethsemane

Thursday 3 October 2013. We had sailed throughout the previous day from Rhodes and now wake in Isreal. We are docked in the port of Ashdod. Due to strict immigration procedures we are up at 5:00am in order that everyone onboard, passengers and crew, whether disembarking the ship or not can sit individually before an immigration official to have their face compared to their passport.

The port area is seemingly the place where cars are planted and grown. There were many thousands of cars of all makes. Apparently this is where East meets West and western cars are unloaded here for onward transport eastwards and Japanese and other eastern makes are unloaded here for onward transportation westwards. There are acres of them, all standing in ranks and lines like a vast metallic sea. Despite the security we saw several with lifted bonnets and boots, no doubt missing a few bits...

The above shot was taken once we were up on deck - must have been all of 6:00am... The coaches for all the excursions to the Holy Land were arriving and lining up on the quayside. When we had been for breakfast and had our immigration checks - a very smooth procedure by the way - there were around 25 coaches lined up waiting for us. We were allocated to coach No.12 and settled down for the trip to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is seen here from the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives stands between Jerusalem to the west and the Judean Desert to the east. It is mentioned many times in the Bible. It was the site of the Ascension, it was the site of the raising of Lazarus, the home of Simon the Leper and at the foot of the Mount is the Garden of Gethsemane, which we shall see later.

From the same spot but with a tweak of the zoom control we can now pick out some of the important buildings in Jerusalem before us. The golden dome of the Dome of the Rock is on the left. The mosque was built in 691-692 AD with the dome directly over the rock believed to be where Muhammad ascended to Heaven. Long before, this was the most holy of places.

This is believed to be the site of Abraham's intended sacrifice of his son, Isaac. Above the altar was raised the Temple of Soloman in the tenth century BC. The invading Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC and following their own defeat by Persia almost 50 years later, the Jews were allowed to return and built the Second Temple on the site, dedicating it in 515 BC.

This would have still been standing during the time of Jesus. However it was a much extended and decorated temple by then as King Herod the Great refurbished and added to it to create a building of immense beauty and grandeur. It lasted only until the year 70 AD when the Romans burnt it along with much of the city to end a Jewish revolt. The Romans raised a temple to Jupiter over the site and banned Jews from the city. Once Christianity became the accepted Roman religion the Rock was left bare as Jesus had predicted it would be.

The Rock now has both the Dome of the Rock and the El Aqsa mosque which is just out of shot in the photo. The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099 and converted all buildings on the Rock to Christianity, but were themselves defeated in 1187 and since then the buildings have been dedicated as Muslim holy places.

Our coach takes us down the Mount of Olives to the walls of Jerusalem. The photograph shows the blocked East Gate of Jerusalem. Jesus entered the city this way from the Mount of Olives and prophecy says that with the Second Coming, he shall descend with His angels to the Mount of Olives and walk through this gate again. In 1517 the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent conquered Jerusalem. The East Gate (or Golden Gate) is the oldest in Jerusalem's walls. It gave access to Temple Mount. Suleiman was told of the Second Coming through this gate and took this to mean a holy but military force was imminent. He blocked the gate and created a Muslim cemetery in front of it, convinced that no Christian holy man would walk through such an obstacle. In doing so, he fulfilled an age old prophecy.

The Garden of Gethsemane. According to the Gospels of both Luke and John, Jesus came here regularly with His Disciples. It was here He told them that they would betray or deny Him and it was to here that Judas led those who arrested Him. The garden today is protected by a fence, around which a path is laid for visitors and pilgrims.

Adjacent to the garden is the Church of All Nations, with a wonderful large mosaic on the facade. This was covered in scaffolding however when we visited. We were given some free time to go inside the church and around the perimeter of the garden.

Inside a service was going on so it was not possible to take lots of photos. In front of the altar is the Rock of Agony, the rock upon which Jesus prayed and despaired. The interior is quite dark, the windows and lighting meant to simulate night and starlight. Digital cameras deal with low light these days, though not without a touch of camera shake here. I'll try harder next time.

We came out to where the guides from several coaches were chatting. A bit of banter was going on and our guide slapped another playfully with the numbered paddle from the ship which promptly snapped off and fell down a set of railed steps. He had to climb over to retrieve the paddle to the enjoyment of the other guides. It wasn't the only paddle to be broken that day...

We have not even got into Jerusalem proper yet, so I'll end this entry to the blog here at Gethsemane. To come is the Western or Wailing Wall, the Stations of the Cross, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, over the site of both the Crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus. After that we will be back onto the coach to pass through into the Palestine area to Bethlehem, visiting the site of the Nativity and then heading back to Ashdod with a brief but interesting stop at the site of David's fight with Goliath.

For now, here is another view of the ancient olive trees of Gethsemane. Olive trees do not die. The tree trunks age and hollow but the roots send forth new shoots which grow alongside and eventually surround the older growth. There are olive plantations where the trees are known to be four or five thousand years old. So these trees that you see in the Garden of Gethemane are the very same trees that Jesus and His Apostles sheltered under.

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Charity Night at Charnock Richard F.C.

Last Saturday night we headed out to Charnock Richard Football Club for a charity night in aid of Rainbow House and Chorley Lions.

The night was organised by our old friend Jack Gerrard who organises the steam fair at Heskin Hall every year. The next one will be on Saturday 31 May by the way! An excellent night with a huge raffle - there were so many prizes there was almost one for everybody, although one table right at the front managed to avoid winning everything, taking their lack of success good naturedly as others got up from their seats for a third time!

We managed to get slightly lost on the way there but found the venue in plenty of time. Many thanks to Jack and the lovely Josephine and to the rest of the audience who seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did!

Rhodes and a Lost Colossus

Ok yes, I know you've been waiting on tenterhooks. We shall see the site of the Colossus of Rhodes in just a minute.

It's the first of October and we are in Rhodes, having walked along the coast road and through the Gate of St Paul in a quest to find the spot where the giant statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World stood.

We are walking along the sea wall on the far side of the Mandraki harbour. We pass a short row of windmills, which you can't help but feel were well placed! This wasn't a gorgeously sunny and calm day! We reach a castle on the corner of the sea wall and there we are - at the site of the Colossus.

We return down the sea wall and walk round the inland end of the harbour and along the landward side, passing this large impressive market... What? You want to see the site of the Colossus? Oh...

Well ok, this is it. The photo from this side is much more impressive than the ones I took from the seaward side. Now the Colossus, as with another five of the Ancient Wonders, has totally disappeared. It was ancient as the title suggests. It predates photographs and everything... No one seems to have drawn the thing either, or at least, no contemporary drawings exist. There are lots of speculative drawings. Some say it stood over the harbour entrance with one foot on either side. If so then the two columns, sporting male and female deer, occupy the spots where the feet stood on top of huge base columns.

Others say this would have been beyond the technical capability of the time and the statue would have collapsed. Actually though, it did... Let's give a brief tale. The Rhodians were suffering one of their many sieges and were overjoyed when the cavalry arrived in the form of Ptolemy's naval ships in 304 BC. He expelled the besiegers and Rhodes melted down their abandoned weapons and built the Colossus in the form of their favourite god, Helios. He faced out to sea and held a torch, much akin to the Statue of Liberty. Ships sailed between his legs and those with tall masts made him anxious...

It stood for not much more than half a century and then Rhodes was hit by a massive earthquake in 226 BC. The statue fell (luckily) onto the land so the harbour could still be used. What to do with the remains was a problem. The statue had broken into pieces. They were so large that even broken and on the ground the Colossus drew sightseers. Pliny the Elder said that the thumb was so large most people could not wrap their arms around it.

It lay on the ground for 800 years. One story says that the Arab force which conquered Rhodes in 653 sold the remains to a Jewish trader who broke it up entirely and carried it off on the backs of 900 camels. We are dealing with very ancient history here. Most of the written sources come from a thousand or more years after the statue fell.

Around this spot a chap barged into me and apologised profusely. When I answered and he recognised a fellow Brit, he started talking to us. He had been working as a guide there for 6 months and was from Wythenshaw, Manchester. He warned us about some African women working along the harbour wall. They were offering to tell fortunes. One chap declined and had his hand grabbed and the woman was dragging him back as he tried to walk away. "They are not nice people..." said our new friend.

We entered the old city by the gate near the ruins of a temple to the goddess Aphrodite and walked along the narrow streets, enjoying the atmosphere and the bustle. "Look Fran, that's a mighty fine bustle over there..." [SMACK]

The shops are many and varied. There are a lot of jewellery shops and I spotted the little music shop where I bought some guitar picks on a previous cruise. It was still there with lutes, ukeleles and tambourines hanging outside.

We considered having lunch and exploring further but then my ultra weather-sensitive sensory system (bald head) felt a spot of rain and we made our way back to the harbour and the Thomson Celebration. By the time we reached it, it was going dark with threatening clouds and was spitting as a prelude to heavier rain.

We had some lunch and made our way up to the Horizons bar where I had a high vantage point view over the city. The sketch pad and pencil came out, though I ignored all the modern building and drew in vegetation where they intruded on the impressive presence of the forts and wall of the Knights Hospitallers.

The rain came and did so in such earnest that it was almost as if a mist came down, there was so much water in the air. People were scurrying from building to building along the harbour trying to get back to the ship. We had considered going out again. We changed our minds!

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Fortresses and Sieges in Rhodes

Tuesday 1 October 2013. We are making our way around the coast of Rhodes from our cruise ship Thomson Celebration. We are heading for the site of the famous Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

We have been walking outside the city walls but now come to a place where they cross the road to a small fortress on a point of the coast. We walk through this archway into the fortress.

This is our view immediately after walking into the fortress. The set of stairs on the right are the only way up to the fighting platform around the walls. Miss Franny likes railings with her stairs so stayed on the ground whilst I went up and around the fort on the platform.

This is the Gate of St Paul. The Apostle came to Rhodes on his third missionary journey, though this gate and fortress is a much later addition. Under the archway a beggar woman sits with her bowl.

The view from over the arch. Miss Franny in white and red is matching at least two other visitors so is definitely on trend today! She's the one leaning against the wall on the right. Over the walls the blue funnel of our ship can be seen behind a sailing ship.

I came back down and we walked through the Gate of St Paul and over a small bridge. Apparently there is a bas relief of the saint on the fortress wall somewhere round here but we didn't see it. At the time I didn't know of it, so we didn't look, to be honest. It may have been staring us in the face...

This view of the gate shows the bridge we walked over. There's a fair amount of damage evident on the external wall of the fortress and a plentiful supply of stone cannon balls littered about the place. The fortress dates from 14th to 16th century, the period when the Knights Hospitallers raised or repaired the many imposing defences which can still be seen in Rhodes. They bought the island in 1309 and defended it several times successfully. However after a six months siege they were forced to surrender to Suleiman the Magnificent on 29 December 1522. The Knights were evicted and were found a new home in Malta, becoming known as the Knights of Malta.

Some of the cannon balls left over presumably from the fighting. They bear the marks of the impact against the wall. Well either that or they were specially made to be set up along the sea road to stop cars from driving over the side of the road into the sea... Several have been used for just that purpose.

Well we didn't quite make it to the site of the Colossus yet, but we will see it for certain in the next entry!

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A Day in Rhodes

On 30 September we flew (on a brand new 787 no less!) to Marmaris, Turkey, to join the Thomson Celebration for a week on a cruise that had been re-jigged to avoid a planned two days in Egypt. I hope things soon settle down there.

Our cruise was now retitled Aegean and The Holy Land and we would visit Rhodes, Ashdod in Isreal, travelling to Jerusalem and then onto Bethlehem, Larnaca in Cyprus and Alanya in Turkey before returning to Marmaris at the end of the week. Or the beginning of this current week as I write...

It wasn't a particularly blazing hot day as we arrived in Rhodes and we had been warned that there could be rain during the afternoon. They were right as it turned out, but let's not jump too far ahead, we have a morning's exploration to do first. We have been to Rhodes twice before, both times being in 2010.

On both those occasions we walked off the ship and through the nearest gate into the old city, spending our time in the medieval city itself. Whilst this is undeniably an excellent way to spend a day, this time I wanted to do something a little different and we walked around the city walls on the outside, heading for a look at what would be our fourth site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes. You'll have to wait until at least the next entry to see it because:

1. I haven't done that many photos yet - we only got back last night
2. There are other things of interest that we passed on our way to it
3. It's good to instil a bit of excitement for things still to come!

This is the Marine Gate, the main entrance to the town from the harbour. It has twin towers, the northern one (to the right) having been restored in modern times following bomb damage in World War II. The three figures over the gate represent the Virgin Mary and Saints John and Peter.

Traffic was relentless. I waited for a bit, but finally had to admit to myself that there would not be a chance to take a photo without cars partly obscuring the gate. It was built in 1478 by the Knights Hospitallers who had taken over the city, building on the existing Byzantium walls in order to strengthen the city against possible (and eventual) attacks by the Ottomans. Turkey can be seen from the city, it is only around 18 miles away.

The harbour contains a number of ships kitted out as market stalls selling souvenirs and marine goods like this one. Sponges were six euros each, loofahs a mere five euros and, dear reader, you can scratch your back more easily with a loofah than a sponge! I think maybe the stall holders were missing a trick... True enough though, they had many more sponges than loofahs, so maybe they were just out to clean up... Loofahs are the fibre of a cucumber-like fruit, they don't grow in the sea like sponges. There's a wealth of unbelievably naive articles about them on t'Internet - including articles on how to use them(???) Obviously written by Americans and yes I did mean to add the "s" on the end. No less than 12 people had had a go at editing the article I saw. The Americans must either need - or believe that others need their - careful instruction on how to clean themselves. You start with a circular motion on the decolletage according to the article. Handily, this area is described so that users can find it without having to ask others to point it out. There's also loofah-use instructional videos on YouTube for those who find the article hard going... By heck, I put some research into these entries you know...

Another gate into the city, this is St Paul's Gate from the Mandraki Harbour. This harbour is the one where the Colossus of Rhodes stood, but no, you'll just have to let the suspense build up for a bit because we won't get that far just yet. St Paul visited Rhodes during his third missionary journey. In the next entry we'll see the little fortress corner that the Gate gives access to and look at some of the stone cannonballs still lying on the ground outside that tried to knock it down. We'll be moving closer to the site of the Colossus of Rhodes. Whether we get there or not depends on me resisting being led along ridiculous tangents like loofahs and stuff... Come to think of it, I didn't say nearly enough about sponges in this article...

Just to clear up any final doubts you may have about loofahs, the instructional article mentioned that you should tap them dry with a towel to remove excess water before hanging them up to dry. For readers in the UK and elsewhere I suggest rinsing them in the soup left after your bath and tossing them on the bath rack will suffice. Loofahs that get too stinky should be discarded as soon as you can visit Rhodes to buy another... Other skin cleansing products are available.

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Classic Car Rally at Fairhaven Lake

The other day Fran noticed an announcement in the local paper about a classic vehicle rally at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St Annes. I love any chance to wallow in a bit of nostalgia, so we shrugged at the weather and ignored the threatening low clouds and made our way in my own somewhat less than vintage Mazda to find a large display of cars, motorbikes and dolls prams. I'll concentrate on the cars...

The lovely Ford MkII Zephyr was amongst the first to catch my eye. I have a strong liking for Zephyrs as my Dad had three MkIVs and both my Grandad and I had a MkIII at various times. The Mk II was one of the Three Graces of Consul (basic model), Zephyr (mid range) and Zodiac (executive model). The name Consul got dropped from the MkIII and MkIV ranges, being instead applied to the MkI Cortina and the stylish Ford Consul Classic, the first British car I remember having twin headlamps. The name then disappeared until the Zephyr and Zodiacs were replaced by the first Ford Granada, which had a Consul as the basic model.

Oh and these are just lovely! The second half of the 1940s saw the Bentley MkVI in production as the first luxury car of the post-war period. I've never had one sadly, though I have driven one on very rare occasions as I spent six months in the early 1970s working in a photographic studio that had one for wedding work. The gear lever sat in the door well on the driver's right side and the steering wheel included levers for advancing or retarding the carburettor timing and also an early form of cruise control. A real head turner. A real pocket emptier... the one at the studio only did 8 miles per gallon!

Late 1950s or early 60s Ford Anglia. This was the two-door version of the Ford Prefect. There were few other external differences between the two cars, the rear light cluster was the only way of telling them apart, other than counting the doors! One of the first Fords to have flashing indicators fitted. They were worked from the tiny wing-like thumb switch on top of the steering wheel hub, which you pushed to either side to confuse fellow drivers, who up until then had been used to drivers either sticking their arms out of the window or using the semaphore-like trafficators which popped up from the side of the car between the front and rear doors of most cars.

This is an interior view of a Standard. The company became part of the Triumph company but this late 1950s car is unusual for having no clutch. Despite the standard (sorry!) gear lever, it had a semi-automatic gear system. In common with all cars of the time, the headlight dip switch is a toggle foot switch high up on the left of the driver's foot well under the instrument display. To the left of the single dial is the heater control - a single knob moving from top (hot) to bottom (cold).

The Riley 1.5 touring saloon has a mascot depicting a skier which would definitely do damage to any unfortunate who might be hit and thrown over the bonnet... Lots of older cars had these mascots. You could even buy other designs to fit your car. Later, laws came out that any mascots fitted by manufacturers had to be safe from causing injury. Rolls Royce have a mechanism that causes their mascots to fall away, Mercedes ring mascots with the three spokes are sprung so they would fold flat (but are handy as a sighting device...) but mascots such as the famous leaping jaguar on... er... Jaguars, have just about died out altogether. However the legislation (Type Approval) seems to be now defunct and I've seen advice that owners can retrospectively fit mascots, but in so doing lay themselves open to legal action if the mascots subsequently cause injury. Don't take my word for it - if you fancy fitting a mascot, check out the current law!

A trio of Morris Minors. These sold in huge numbers and are a much-loved car even now. The forerunner of the Mini, the dashboard arrangement and interior trim is instantly familiar to anyone who had an early Mini, the single large dial for the speedometer, open shelving to the side of it, leather straps rather than solid handles to close the door. Though this open-topped example does have door handles on the inside rather than the early Mini's "bit of string". (They had a chord that hung over the side map pockets in the doors and the door was opened by grabbing and pulling the chord.) The second example is a Morris Minor Traveller - commonly used by company representatives, who as a body were called commercial travellers in the 1950s and 60s. The woodwork suggests the old shooting brakes of earlier decades and are part of the transformation of that type of car to the more modern estate car.

A Triumph Herald. I used to like these cars as they were uniquely shaped. The bonnet and wings are a single piece - opening the bonnet is a matter of swinging the entire front of the car upwards. It is hinged at the front, not the rear, so when it is raised, it forms a wall at the extreme front of the car and you can lean in over the wheels because the wings are not in the way. The suspension is such that when the car was jacked up the wheels didn't remain vertical but sort of droop...

The Vauxhall Victor F, made from 1957 replacing the chunkier Wyvern model with a car that leaned heavily on America for its styling, yet was designed in-house in Gt Britain. It had a 3-speed gearbox with steering column mounted gear lever and front bench seat. Compare the rake of the windscreen with more modern cars!

The Ford Cortina Club had a collection of mainly MkV Cortinas. There was one MkI, one MkII and a MkIV. Elsewhere amongst the cars was a MkIII. Dad had had a couple of MkIs and I had one of each of the MkIII, MkIV and MkV. My favourite had to be the MkIII of the early 1970s, a beautiful car.