Ouch, my aching head! 05h30 wake up call, on the road by about 07h00. Oh my Lord that’s early, but it paid off. We were at the West Wall (colloquially known as the Wailing Wall) by 08h00. On our way out, we got a look at how busy it was getting just a half hour later! But, I get ahead of myself; first, about our Israeli bus driver.
Bus Driver and Bus
Our Israeli bus driver was Talib, what an amazing driver! I could not believe how busy the streets of Jerusalem were, it was crazy! Picture a street the width of a side street (say Lanark for the sake of argument) with sidewalks right to the edge. Cars and trucks are parked on both sides, and buses pass each other in opposite directions all the time! Carefully, mind you. And, in parking lots, it gets even crazier, as the buses park at awkward angles, and parking lots themselves are pretty convoluted (imagine a country with 6,000 years of history, they use every square inch of space). Then some Mercedes Benz or BMW comes zooming in and parks in a dumb location. The buses somehow accommodate all this loony-ness, and pretty gracefully too. I didn’t see any collisions between buses and vehicles or anything, which was pretty amazing. That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen – my observation is that the front mirrors on every bus have scrape marks on them.
Well, to top it off, Talib has a Staples “Easy Button” strapped to the front of the bus. He periodically presses it at the zaniest times and it bellows, “That was easy!” Often when he does so, it’s after a gruelling drive, or when we finally got through the separation wall check point. His English was OK but not great, but his sense of humour was wonderful!
I mention this now because this morning was our last time riding with Talib. He was off late this morning to pick up a new group at the airport and start again at the Sea of Galilee. We’ll miss him. In his place, we’ll have different drivers and different buses.
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| Talib our bus driver, note the “Easy Button” on the far right. He was amazing! |
| The West Wall – ladies are segregated on the right, men on the left |
| There was a prominent “no cameras” sign so this was as close as I dared get. Others got closer pictures, but I wanted to honour the requests of the religious persons using the site. |
| Virgin Mary birthplace beneath the altar of Mary’s Church. |
| A woman’s view. |
| A man’s view from just outside the tomb area. |
| A man’s view from inside the tomb area. |
| A stone *like* the one used to originally seal the door. This one is a small example from another tomb. |
| The sign on the door says it all (sorry but it’s dark) – “He is not here. He is risen!” |