A Grand Tour

A Grand Tour, Part 12
FLORENCE

Florence was the home of Michelangelo, and it is full of artworks – and they aren’t all Michelangelo’s. But lots of them are, and probably the best-known of those in Florence is the statue of David. This is of course the David who slew Goliath in the Bible and later became King David. The original statue is located indoors, in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Here is what it looks like, still in the same good shape it was when it was sculpted in 1504:

http://www.cedcc.psu.edu/khanjan/eur.../009_david.jpg

Now Michelangelo was one of several artists in those days who dissected cadavers. He did it to understand the human body more thoroughly, so he could use that knowledge in his statues and in his paintings. This activity was highly illegal back then, and he did this at great risk to himself, but taking a look at David’s muscles in the statue, one could only conclude that he learned some valuable lessons by dissecting.

The statue is still in such good shape because it’s kept indoors, as mentioned above. When it was new, it was first set up outdoors, in the Piazza della Signoria, but the folks probably soon realized that it would be better preserved if it was sheltered from the weather. I am just guessing here because I’ve never really found out precisely why it was moved indoors. It just makes sense to me. Outdoor statues present lots more problems to sculpture preservationists than do indoor statues. For example, here’s what the Sphinx looks like these days near Cairo, even though Michelangelo had absolutely nothing to do with that one:

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/e...hinx/front.jpg

It was carving David that won Michelangelo the breakthrough notoriety that led to so much more work for him, including his painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as we discussed in a previous episode about Rome and the Vatican City. When they moved the statue of David indoors to the Galleria, they put up a copy in the outdoor Piazza. The copy was made in the 19th century, so it wasn’t by Michelangelo.

I learned about the two Davids – the one indoors and the other one outdoors – the first time I visited Florence, before any of the kids came along – before I even met the lady who would become my wife, in fact. Many years later, my older son David toured Italy. We were discussing his visit when he mentioned the indoor and outdoor Davids. Now I hope this isn’t as confusing to you as it is to me – here I was discussing with my son David the fact that there were two of Michelangelo’s Davids in Florence. That makes at least three Davids in the conversation. I had completely forgotten this until he said it – and actually it took me several minutes to recall that important fact. The outdoor copy seems more majestic because of its setting, so I’m guessing that most people remember it a little better than the original indoor statue.

The Ponte Vecchio (meaning the Old Bridge) is one of the city’s most revered sites. At first, I was surprised that they had the foresight to call it the Ponte Vecchio – how would they have known when they built it that it would be around for many hundreds of years? But I was even more dumbfounded when I learned that the current version replaced what was called the Ponte Più Vecchio (meaning the Even Older Bridge) in 1345.

This was my second visit to Florence – my first had been shortly after the 1966 flood that devastated so much of the city, and inflicted lots of damage to important artworks. I remember seeing the high-water marks on the shops which sit on top of the bridge, so the water really got up there. Here’s what the bridge looks like – it’s a walking bridge and there are shops lining its entire length:

http://www.longpassages.org/images/F...ial%20view.jpg

Most of them are jewelry shops so it was no big attraction to me – that’s a double whammy in my book – shopping is bad enough by itself, but shopping for jewelry is even worse. I convinced Adele that the bridge wasn’t really strong enough because of the flood, even though three years had passed, so we shouldn’t take the chance.

The Duomo is the name given to the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, because of its distinctive dome. It was begun in the 13th century and completed in the 15th. Here are a couple of exterior views of the Duomo, with the second view showing why it’s called that:

http://www.cord.edu/faculty/andersod/170505_duomo.jpg

http://www.nimbustier.net/photos/200...2-11-07-40.jpg

You can find a lot more views on the internet if you want to examine this beautiful building in more detail.

Palazzo Vecchio has absolutely nothing to do with the Ponte Vecchio that we discussed just a minute ago, but it does reinforce the fact that there are a lot of old things in Florence. This structure reflects at least three distinct building stages ranging from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It was the headquarters for the city council – remember that Italy remained a group of separate city-states until they were united in 1870 as we discussed earlier under Rome. The Palazzo Vecchio served as the seat of the first provisional Italian national government after the unification, and housed the Chamber of Deputies. It reverted back to a city government building shortly afterwards.

Here are a couple of views – one exterior and one interior.

http://www.uky.edu/~allaire/Florence..._Vecchio_2.jpg

http://www.uky.edu/~allaire/Florence...zo_Vecchio.jpg

Here’s a virtual tour of Florence if you want to explore it on your own – there are lots more sites of interest besides the few that I mentioned here:

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/florence/index.html

Next up – Milan.

A Grand Tour, Part 13
MILAN

The Last Supper was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1498 at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. I don’t know why he went to Milan to paint this, but that’s where he wound up doing it. The Last Supper is a fresco painted on a wall, and it has to be restored frequently because it was painted with oil rather than with the fast-drying stable watercolor technique that had been established many years before Leonardo came along as being the best for fresco applications.

We had heard beforehand that the actual painting scares people, because it always looks like it’s deteriorating and is going to vanish completely in about a week or two, so we were somewhat prepared for this. Still, it’s a shock to see it – even with all the warnings ahead of time. Here is something like what you see:

http://www.tickitaly.com/images/tick...nci-supper.jpg

Da Vinci also painted something that later inspired a Nat King Cole song, but I never saw this painting because it’s somewhere in Paris. I have never been there.

Just as Florence has its Duomo, so does Milan. The one in Milan doesn’t look anything like the one in Florence. In fact, I really don’t understand why they even call it Il Duomo di Milano, since there is no obvious dome anywhere to be seen, but maybe I just don’t understand Gothic architecture. Milan’s Duomo is one of the world’s largest churches. It is second in size within Italy only to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and is the second largest Gothic cathedral in the world, after one in Seville, Spain.

http://www.pianofab.com/images/duomodimilano.jpg

Milan is also home to the most famous opera house in the world, Teatro alla Scala, which is usually called La Scala just for short. It was built near the end of the 18th century, over the remains of the Church of Santa Maria della Scala.

Here’s what the outside looks like:

http://jonathan.rawle.org/pg/summer2...es/lascala.jpg

We didn’t make it to any performances at La Scala, but we were able to see an operetta at a theater near our hotel. I was attracted to the show because of the operetta’s name, which I overheard someone talking about in our hotel lobby. It was called The Pirates of Pens and Aunts, and being in the Navy, I always liked seafaring tales. And I just love fountain pens - I even collect them. On top of that, I certainly liked some of my aunts, and Adele liked some of hers, too. We each had an Aunt Mary as well as several others with different names. But I’m getting sidetracked again because you probably don’t care about the names of all my aunts, since my mother had five sisters and my father had six, so I should get back to the show.

Anyway, I never saw even one thing about either pens or aunts in the whole show. There was some guy claiming to be a “modern major general” but he was wearing a uniform just like what the British Army wore about 90 years before, so I don’t understand what his definition of modern was.

At least the show did have some great tunes. Most of the songs were in English, but there was one song where a bunch of policemen kept singing about Taranta-rah, which I never understood because I don’t even know what language that is, much less what it means. I know there’s a city in Italy called Taranto, and I also know that it’s on the water because my ship went there once, so maybe the policemen thought the pirates were going to make a port call at Taranto. I hadn’t bothered picking up one of those little books with the subtitles because the usher said the show was going to be in English, so I was totally lost on the Taranta-rah matter.

And the modern major general’s daughters were singing something about “Go ye heroes, go to glory” which they alternated with the policemen who were singing something about Taranta-rah, whatever that means. When the policemen would sing about Taranta-rah, I would tap my left foot, and when the modern major general’s daughters would sing about Go ye heroes ..., I would tap my right. Both songs were really great. For a while, they kept taking turns so it was easy to do my foot-tapping routine, but then they started singing both of their songs at the same time and I stepped on myself trying to keep up. It’s a good thing I wasn’t wearing cleats.

Here’s a virtual tour of Milan if you want to explore it on your own:

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/milan/index.html

Next up – Santa Margherita.

A Grand Tour, Part 14
SANTA MARGHERITA

We will have to step backward in time for a little background on how it came to pass that Adele and I included this town in our itinerary, since it’s somewhat off the beaten path - at least for American tourists. I hope it doesn’t put you to sleep.

On my first trip to Italy as a midshipman in the summer of 1963, I flew ‘space-available’ on a military transport flight out of Maguire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where you could sit and wait for a plane with an empty seat. Transport planes were constantly going all over the globe, and vacation travelers could get aboard if there was enough extra room for them. Since the flight was free, it was worth it to sit around waiting even though a few planes might leave without you because they had to put higher-priority passengers aboard and didn’t have any seats left for the lower-priority personnel on leave.

My first flight landed at an Air Force base near Madrid. I spent a couple of days touring Madrid and then went on, again on a free military flight to somewhere in France. From there I took a train to the Riviera town of Ventimiglia at the French-Italian border, and spent another couple of days there. Then I took a train to Imperia, the small town near Genoa where Mariagrazia lived with her family. Since you probably have no idea who Mariagrazia is, I should tell you. Then you won’t have to wonder anymore.

In our Italian classes at the Naval Academy, we were given the names of prospective pen pals from Italy with whom we could exchange letters. My two pen pals were Mariagrazia, who lived in a town called Imperia, which is not far from Genoa, and Paola, who was in Prato, a suburb of Florence. The idea was that we could then get some extra practice in Italian that would supplement our classroom lessons, and have fun doing it.

When I got to Imperia, I spent four days with Mariagrazia's family, living in an extra room they had, and eating like a pig because Mariagrazia’s mother was a fantastic cook. That was my introduction to pastasciutta al pesto, because I don’t think pesto was as popular here in the US then as it is now. I really liked her pastasciutta al pesto. Mariagrazia and I spoke only in Italian, even though she was studying English in school and insisted she wanted to practice her English just as I wanted to practice my Italian. We went to the beach several times, and she took me shopping in the town. But you already know I hate shopping.

Here’s what Imperia looks like:

http://www.liguriavacation.com/images/imperia.jpg

We also spent one day visiting nearby Sanremo, a resort town with a famous casino, but we didn’t try the casino. But here’s what the casino looked like:

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/pre...3/20188634.JPG

Well, you’re still probably wondering what all this has to do with Santa Margherita. So if you have the patience, I’ll try to tie all this discombobulated material together so it’s at least a little bit understandable. After I visited with Mariagrazia and her family for four days, I took off and explored several other small places in Italy, in addition to some major cities like Rome and Milan.

One of these other smaller places was Santa Margherita. It’s a beautiful and small town on the coast. Lots of yacht owners seem to like this place, as well as lots of Italians who don’t own yachts. Here’s what the harbor looks like:

http://www.valtaro.it/alpi/santa_margherita1.jpg

It had nice hotels, as it was a resort more for Italians than for foreigners like us. Most tourists from abroad went to the major cities that I mentioned earlier, plus Venice, which I never made it to. As a midshipman, I didn’t have enough money for a nice hotel, so what I would do in these small seaside towns was to leave my one suitcase at the train station, and go around to houses, knocking on doors to see if anybody had an extra room to rent out. I don’t remember if I was told about this technique, or if I figured it out myself. But it worked well, and I was always able to get a much cheaper room that way than if I went to even a fleabag hotel, and the rooms were always great.

I enjoyed Santa Margherita so much as a midshipman, that when Adele and I did our grand tour, we stayed there for three days in one of the nice hotels. We went to the beach a few times, and to one of the many dance halls they had there. It was a very relaxing pace compared to the hustle and bustle of the big cities. Sandwiched between Rome and Florence in our itinerary, it gave us a chance to recover before tackling the next big city.

One thing I wish I had paid more attention to was how some of the seafood restaurants were always feeding large bunches of stray cats. You see, these were the days long before I came to know the pleasures of cats, so I didn’t pay as much attention to this as I would if I saw the same thing today. At that time, I just found it interesting to see how about 40 or 50 cats would come up to the back door of a particular seafood restaurant at about 7 PM every evening, and how the cook would step out about three minutes after the cats arrived, and toss out onto the ground all the leftovers he had accumulated over the day. The cats were really well trained, and always got there at just the right time. There were several other restaurants in Santa Margherita that did this same thing.

We also visited the neighboring towns of Rapallo and Portofino, both of which are popular resorts among the Italians. The most memorable thing in Rapallo was what they call the funivia, a cable car suspended from above with a breathtaking view.

http://www.comune.rapallo.ge.it/Uplo...es/funivia.jpg

Both towns have great harbors - here’s the one in Portofino:

http://walking.about.com/library/gra...ortofino11.jpg

Next up – Copenhagen.

A Grand Tour, Part 15
COPENHAGEN

Hans Christian Andersen, the great writer of children’s stories, is probably the most well-known figure from Denmark. He was born the town of Odense in 1805, and moved to Copenhagen as a teenager. He wrote stories like The Emperor’s New Clothes that have delighted children ever since. He is honored in Copenhagen in several places. Here is a statue of him downtown. I have a photo that Adele took of me with my right foot placed alongside Mr. Andersen’s left foot, but my photo is not on the internet [remember that these pictures are all public domain and not pictures that I took]:

http://z.about.com/d/cruises/1/0/j/s...enhagen001.jpg

Another of his more popular stories was The Little Mermaid, about a young mermaid who was willing to give up all she had just to gain the love of a prince. Another statue honoring Andersen is the Little Mermaid, which sits at the edge of the city’s harbor.

http://hca.gilead.org.il/pics/Mermaid.jpg

At the time we were there, the statue’s head was missing, as a vandal had absconded with it. I think I heard that after a few years of waiting in vain for the original head to be found, the city’s administrators decided to have a copy made, because it didn’t really look too good to have a headless woman sitting in a prominent spot in the city. I don’t know why it would take more than a year to figure that out.

Adele was pregnant with our first child while we were on this tour. We didn’t know yet which of our children it would turn out to be – it turned out to be Rachel – but we didn’t get any of those tests that tell you things like that. Even though she was pregnant, it was just a little bit pregnant, and we enjoyed the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen.

Here’s the entrance to the park:

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/copenha...uilding_35.jpg

And here’s the roller coaster we rode there. It was a comparatively tame roller coaster – otherwise we wouldn’t have ridden it since we knew she was pregnant.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/europ...i/tivoli63.jpg

And here’s a shot of the beautiful nearby Tivoli Gardens:

http://www.cba.uri.edu/Faculty/Jarre...en,Tivoli1.jpg

While we were in Copenhagen, we looked at a lot of Royal Copenhagen china and learned a lot about their nice work, but we didn’t buy anything there. However, a few years later, I was able to put what I had learned to actual use. We were living in Acton, Massachusetts and I was still in the Navy. I helped Rebecca, our daughter who was born in 1972, to get her mother the Royal Copenhagen Mother’s Day Plate for 1973, because Rebecca was still too young to do it herself. Here is what that plate looks like, and Rebecca now has it among her treasured possessions in her own house:

http://www.skovsantik.dk/Royal_Copen...plate_1973.JPG

We were surprised to learn that there is an actual castle near Copenhagen that provided the background for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is called Kronborg Castle, and it’s near town of Elsinore. You might remember that Hamlet’s castle went by the name of Elsinore. Here is the Kronborg Castle. I wish I remembered more about the tour now, but I know we were given a thorough inside and outside view of the castle.

http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~jlu/tr...N/IMG_3664.JPG

The royal family of Denmark lives in the Amalienborg Palace, which has four major sections all linked together, around a statue of King Frederick V. It was very nice, but after Buckingham Palace, the Hermitage, and Petrodvorets, you can get very spoiled and decide that buildings that don’t match their grandeur are somehow not all that impressive.

http://www.eduspace.esa.int/backgrou.../amalie600.jpg

We had dinner one night in a very unusual restaurant. It had seven different rooms, each with a unique theme. I don’t remember what those themes were or how they varied from room to room, but it made for an interesting experience. I don’t usually remember specific restaurants that much, but this one stood out.

Next up – Greek Islands cruise.

A Grand Tour, Part 16
GREEK ISLANDS

We took a cruise on one of those ships that run around between the Greek islands. They had great food, and it seemed like we spent a lot of time in the dining room. Back then I could eat as much as I wanted and it didn’t seem to matter. When I later reached the glorious age of 30, I began learning that my metabolism wasn’t what it used to be and it really slowed down, so I couldn’t eat as much as I used to without dire consequences. But that has nothing to do with our grand tour.

Our first stop was the island of Delos, which was considered the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. What I remember best about this particular island is the Lions’ Terrace of Delos. This place originally had twelve snarling lions who were dedicated to Apollo. Here’s what it looks like now, which is pretty reasonable shape for statues on a beach exposed to sun, salt, wind, and sand for over 2,600 years, but I suspect that they've been restored a few times because of the harsh environment.

http://www.sailingissues.com/greekis...ns-terrace.jpg

Of course, I didn’t take this picture – I just found it on the internet (I have some of my own but none of them have a URL). So for all I know, this internet picture could have been taken 2,500 years ago when the lions weren’t terribly old yet and that could be why they still look so good. But I know that when we saw them in 1969, they looked just as good as they do in the picture.

We also stopped at Mykonos and at Santorini. I don’t remember anything in particular about Mykonos, so I’m just going to say that instead of trying to fabricate something from an internet blurb. Santorini I remember as being very scenic, as shown here:

http://www.greekhotel.com/cyclades/s...wp_20_1024.jpg

We just stayed at each island for a few hours – long enough for a quick tour and then back to the ship. We never spent even a single night ashore during the cruise.

We also stopped at the island of Rhodes, where the Colossus of Rhodes was once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That statue was the main point of interest about this island. Here’s one artist’s conception of it – it was almost 100 feet high, but it only lasted 65 years before being knocked down by an earthquake.

http://www.crystalinks.com/colossus.gif

Aside from discussion of the Colossus, the only other thing I remember was an extremely long climb up seemingly endless stairs to reach a point which gave a fantastic view of the harbor.

Actually, it was during our Greek islands cruise that Adele and I visited Crete, home of Knossos and the Minotaur. Since I described that visit in another story (The Cruise, about one of my Navy voyages that also stopped at Crete), I won’t repeat it here.

One night as the cruise was drawing to a close, we played a game of musical chairs on the ship. Now this was a no-children-allowed cruise, and at 27 years apiece, Adele and I were probably close to being the youngest couple on board. Even to us the game at first seemed somewhat childish, but it started growing on us after a few rounds and we managed to stay in the game, as we were always able to find a seat when the music stopped.

Finally, it came down to two couples remaining – the ship’s captain with his partner, and us. Well, I guess the captain figured it wouldn’t look all that kosher if he won, so sure enough, we did. I don’t even remember what our prize was.

Next up – sites in Israel other than Jerusalem. Two episodes of Jerusalem will follow that one.

A Grand Tour, Part 17
ISRAEL

This episode covers a few parts of Israel outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem itself will be discussed in two episodes to follow.

Hebron

The Cave of Machpelah is the world's most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people, after the Western Wall (sometimes called the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem. We’ll talk about the Western Wall when we get to Jerusalem.

In the Cave of Machpelah are the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, who are the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people. Rachel (the wife of Jacob) is the only one buried separately, near Bethlehem.

Hebron had just been taken over by Israel after the Six Days’ War in 1967, so it was a popular site to visit when we were there in 1969. Here’s the building that sits over the cave itself, which is the same cave as when we were there.

http://www.christiananswers.net/bibl...chpelah640.jpg

However, the individual tombs seem to have been spruced up in the intervening years. They are pretty elaborate now – they were anything but elaborate when we were there. So I’m not even going to show what they look like now. And I can’t find any pictures of what they looked like back then.

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is where Rachel’s Tomb is – she is the only one of the matriarchs not in Machpelah. Here’s what the tomb looked like when we were there:

http://www.poica.org/editor/case_stu...em-rachel2.jpg

It has changed somewhat since 1995 due to security concerns. The tomb itself is unchanged but there are added structures in the area, intended to control potential violence. This must have been pretty much what the tomb had been for hundreds of years, as here is an even earlier version:

http://www.bibleplaces.com/images/hv/114_Rachel's_Tomb_with_Bethlehem_beyondsr.jpg

The Church of the Nativity is also in Bethlehem, along with Manger Square. It was pretty peaceful when we were there in 1969, as the Israelis had just taken Bethlehem over during the 1967 Six Days’ War. But I hear that there have been frequent problems since then, often to the point that tourists won’t even go there, fearing for their safety.

Here is a view of the Church of the Nativity:

http://www.recoveredscience.com/Nati...hBethlehem.jpg

Manger Square is the center of Christmas celebrations which are performed three times a year. Western Christians celebrate on December 24, Eastern Orthodox on January 6, and Armenians on January 19. We missed them all because we were there in August.

You have to enter the church through what is called the Door of Humility, which you quickly understand as you pass through it. It’s like the entrance to a cave, and if you’re over three feet tall, you have to bend down to get through the door, which looks like this:

http://www.nativity-church.com/Nativi7.jpg

Jericho

Jericho is believed to be the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the world, as some believe it has had residents for over 19,000 years. Still, it’s probably even more famous for having the walls that Joshua knocked down by marching the Israelites around it and having them stamp their feet and blow their horns every day for a number of days. We took a tour that included this place, where we could look from a distance at the archaelogical dig that was going on there. The dig had probably been going on for years there, and it’s probably still going on today.

Here’s what Jericho probably looked like when Joshua arrived, just before the walls came tumbling down:

http://www.shechem.org/eshel/park/jericho.jpg

And what's left of one of those walls now:

http://howardbloom.net/jericho_wall_color.jpg

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a modern major city much like most other modern major cities in the world. Because of that, and because we were anxious to get on to Jerusalem, we booked only one night there. It turned out to be a very good thing that we were only there for that one night.

Our most vivid recollection of Tel Aviv started in the lobby of the Hotel Hilton, when we were checking in upon arrival. Now Adele wouldn’t have cared to do what I did when I was traveling alone in Europe, which was just to wing it and find lodging whenever I arrived. I always liked that approach because I could then expand or compress my stay depending on how I liked a particular place. But she was more concerned about having a place to stay than having flexibility in her schedule.

So we made all our arrangements carefully, well in advance, using a travel agent near home. Well, as we learned in the lobby of the Hilton, our travel agent forgot to tell us that a deposit was required to hold a room, so the room we thought would be anxiously awaiting us, was given to some total strangers, and there were no other rooms in the inn whatsoever! I was going to ask if they had a manger or something nearby, but I was in too bad a mood to be kidding around.

The desk clerk gave us the name and address of a small hotel a couple of blocks down the street, so we schlepped our bags down there, found out they had a few rooms available, and checked in. We made it upstairs to our assigned room, opened the door, and turned on the lights. What a mistake that was!!

Maybe you saw the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark in which Indiana Jones is lowered into a deep pit to do some of his exploring, and he finds that the floor is crawling with snakes. Well, the floor in our hotel room didn’t have any snakes, but it had just as many cockroaches as Indiana’s floor had snakes. And these weren’t ordinary cockroaches – they were monsters. We couldn’t even see the floor because the cockroaches had it pretty well covered.

Well, we didn’t hang around to see the end of that movie, and we were back in the lobby of the Hilton in record time (I never saw Adele move as fast as she did getting out of there), pleading with the desk clerk to come up with something in his own hotel. Nothing other than the Hilton was going to work out at this point. They couldn’t come up with a room, but since we had made our reservations with them, they allowed us to sleep in the their lobby. It wasn’t a restful sleep there in the Hilton lobby, but it sure beat sleeping with all those roaches. And it made for a much more memorable experience than just spending one night in a regular bedroom.

Next up – Jerusalem.

A Grand Tour, Part 18
JERUSALEM

It’s really hard for me to describe Jerusalem. It is a city that is unlike any other city I’ve ever seen, and there are no words I can come up with to adequately give an introductory overview.

Old Jerusalem is a maze of paths through ancient stone walls, and it contains some of the most historic religious spots on the face of the earth – for three major religions.

Even though it was the middle of August when we were there, and even though we always sweltered when we were outdoors anywhere in Israel, there was one exception. The stone walls in the Old City seemed to be better than any modern air conditioning system at keeping the place cool. I’m sure there’s some scientific explanation, like maybe the porous stones soak up water or something, but whatever the reason, it was remarkably cool in the Old City at any time of day even if the temperature outside the walls was over 100 degrees F, which it usually was in August.

You can see these walls in the following pictures of the Old City. The city is divided into four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian.

http://www.uri.edu/international/stu...m Old City.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1376/...g?v=1181228503

There are several gates in the wall surrounding Old Jerusalem. One morning, while Adele was still sleeping, because she never would have gone for this, I walked around the entire periphery to take pictures of each gate. The old city is pretty small, so this wasn’t really a mammoth undertaking. We’ll run through just a few of these gates now. Going through them all gets tedious.

The Damascus Gate gets its name because the road from Damascus goes through this gate. Jews call it the Shechem Gate, Shechem being the town where Joseph (of Egypt fame) is thought to be buried.

http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/2003070.jpg

The Lions’ Gate is also called Saint Stephen’s Gate. When we saw this gate, not that long after the 1967 Six Days War, it was heavily pockmarked by weapons fire from that war. It looks to me like they have repaired a lot of the damage since then.

http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/2003034.jpg

The British General Allenby led a procession through the Jaffa Gate into the Old City after the British defeated the Turks in 1917 during World War I.

http://www.thirdtemple.com/old-city-...ffa%20gate.jpg

The Zion Gate is also riddled with bullet holes, like the Lions’ Gate, but the Zion Gate’s bullets date back to the 1948 war. They don’t seem to have even tried to repair the bullet holes.

http://www.freestockphotos.com/ISRAEL/ZionGate.jpg

The Golden Gate faces the western slope of the Mount of Olives across the Kidron Valley, which separates the City from the Mount. Pay close attention to this picture of the Golden Gate, because it comes up again in the next episode. Notice how the wall rises up over the gate to be higher than the adjoining walls, and how the gate is sealed off with something like the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

http://zion.is/english/images/Jerusa...den%20Gate.jpg

What is believed to be the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, is now called either the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall. People pray here, and leave prayer notes on small pieces of paper in the cracks in the wall.

http://www.atpm.com/7.09/israel/imag...iling-wall.jpg

http://www.greatcommission.com/israe...ailingWall.jpg

An enterprising young man offered to rent me a tallit (prayer shawl) and t’fillin (religious objects that I won’t explain in detail because it’s too lengthy an explanation). I took him up on the deal, but I later wished I hadn’t. I felt quite hypocritical because I rarely wear a tallit and I had never before worn t’fillin. That time standing in front of the Wailing Wall remains the only time in my life that I have worn t’fillin.

Not far from the Wailing Wall are two mosques which are very important to Muslims. These are the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. The more impressive one in terms of appearance is the Dome of the Rock, with the rock under the center of the dome being the spot from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. We were fortunate enough to be able to see the interior as part of a tour back then – including the rock. Nowadays there are no more inside tours:

http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics...iv/domeock.jpg

The interior of the Dome of the Rock, which also shows the rock:

http://www.sacredsites.com/shop/imag...terior-750.jpg

And the interior of the dome itself:

http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/l/G...terior02-l.jpg

Here is the Al Aqsa Mosque:

http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/i..._aqsa_1986.jpg

Here’s an interesting shot which shows the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock in the same view:

http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/2003008.jpg

And here is a little map showing the three major items together - the Dome of the Rock is of course the one with the gold dome, the Al Aqsa with the silver, and you can see the Wailing Wall at the left edge between the two mosques:

http://www.atlastours.net/holyland/al_aqsa_mosque.jpg

Jerusalem is continued in the next episode.

A Grand Tour, Part 19
JERUSALEM (continued)

One night we went to a nice steakhouse in the newer part of Jerusalem. Adele ordered French fried potatoes to go with whatever steak she was having, and when they brought us our dinners, she asked for a bottle of catsup. The waiter went off in the direction of the kitchen, presumably to get a bottle of catsup. But the chef came to our table instead, and informed us that we really shouldn’t put catsup on our steaks because it would ruin them. Now this was the kind of thing that riled up Adele a great deal, and so she first patiently explained that she wanted the catsup for the French fries and not for the steak. Then she added that extra little tidbit which she always had to get in, regardless of the topic, informing the chef that if she had wanted to put catsup on her steak, it was her right to do so. We got our catsup and the chef left us alone after that. I think she considered putting some catsup on her steak just to tick off the chef, but I’m not sure. That was her way. I know she never would have actually put catsup on her steak – unless somebody advised her not to.

We walked the Via Dolorosa, or Stations of the Cross, which is the route that Jesus took on his way to the Crucifixion. Along the route, there are fourteen stations, each marked with a Roman numeral indicating the sequence, along with a small sketch showing what happened at each of the stations.

Here is the marker for the Sixth Station. You can see the numeral marker high on the wall, and for some of the stations there is also a picture. This station is where a woman named Veronica wiped the tears from the face of Jesus.

http://www.eriklove.com/photos/jerus...age2/sixth.jpg

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is located on the site where Jesus was laid in his tomb after the Crucifixion, so it is the Fourteenth Station. This of course is the tomb that was found empty on what later came to be known as Easter. The church is one of the holiest shrines in Christianity.

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefme...9/00179a7c.jpg

In the foreground is the Church of the Gethsemane, named for the Garden of Gethsemane which is adjacent to the church, on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the Old City. The church with the gold onion domes farther up the Mount is the Russian Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

http://www.padfield.com/israel/Jerus...lives,%202.jpg

Here is an overall perspective of Jerusalem, viewing the Old City from the Mount of Olives. See the wall in the foreground, surrounding the Old City. The wall is the structure with the teeth-like parapets on top.

http://www.greatcommission.com/israe...ntOfOlives.jpg

All the places of interest, to us at least, were in or near the Old City and within the confines of this wall. I’m pretty sure none of the high-rise buildings that you can see in the background were there at the time of our visit, or at least there were lots fewer of them.

The Mount of Olives was a revered burial spot for Jews long ago, but obvious space limitations have stopped that practice now, except for very high-placed individuals. The reasons why it is revered is that first of all, the view of the Old City is spectacular, as you noticed in the picture above. Secondly, Jews believe that when the Messiah arrives, he will enter the city through the Golden Gate, and will then later come out through that same gate, proceeding up to the Mount of Olives. This gate was mentioned in the last episode.

I can still see the city below us as clearly right now as we could see it that day, even though 38 years have passed.

Try to remember our run through several of the gates in the Old City wall in the previous episode, and then look closely at the right edge of the wall in the picture below – it’s the same view of the walled city from the Mount of Olives we looked at above – after you have read the next couple of sentences. At the right edge of the city wall, you should be able to make out the sealed off Golden Gate, where the wall rises up over the gate and its Ten Commandment-like tablets. There’s only one of the tablets visible – the other one is off the screen.

http://www.greatcommission.com/israe...ntOfOlives.jpg

We were sitting directly in front of the Golden Gate, 250 yards up the Mount of Olives. We were only 27 years old when we sat there together on the Mount of Olives looking down into the Old City. We had only been married a couple of years – we still had our entire lives ahead of us.

The morning sun was behind us, and it was shining so brightly on the Golden Gate that the gate really did look like gold. With this glorious sight in front of us, and from the way we felt about each other, it seemed to me we were about as close to sitting on top of the world as two young people could be.

THE END

I occasionally go through here and fix links to photos that have disappeared since I first put the story out, so I hope you'll check back later if you have trouble with any of the photos.

Also, I'd like to ask you to check out another story, called The Cruise, in which we visit Istanbul, Athens, and lots of other ports.
You can find it at:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=34476