Off to the Promised Land we go...

Where we stayed - Alcazar Hotel



From Aqaba we took a taxi over to the Jordan/Isralei border. We'd heard that some people can be detained on the Israeli border for hours, so we were pleasantly surprised to waltz on through customs/immigration without any problem. We headed straight for the bus station, but unfortunately there were no seats on the next bus to Jerusalem, so we chose to take the next bust to Tel Aviv then connect from there to Jerusalem.

The Western Wall - Wailing Wall

What can you really say about Jerusalem? It's everything that you can possibly imagine one of the holiest places on earth to be like and more! Jerusalem is home to some of the most holy sights to 3 of the main religions in the world. First, it has the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the site known as Calvary or Golgotha (the place where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected), it also has the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall), the only remnant of Judaism's holiest of shrines and also the Temple Mount, which contains the Dome of the Rock which houses a slab of rock which Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven from and which Jews believe is the foundation stone of the world itself...

The Stone of Anoiting

Jesus' tomb inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

It seems like very where you turn in the Old City you'll find something of religious importance to someone. We visited numerous churches, including St Anne's which is thought to be the birth place of the Virgin Mary and we also walked along the path which Jesus is said to have had taken whilst carrying the cross.

Dome of the Rock

We also took a trip over to the West Bank to visit Bethlehem. We wandered around inside the Church of the Nativity before entering the underground Grotto of the Nativity, to view the spot where Jesus is said to have been born.The grotto was jammed packed full of pilgrims praying, singing and holding mass and it was quite surreal witnessing people becoming overwhelmed with emotion and openly weeping and kissing the spot where Jesus was born.

Dallas was pretty stoked to see all of the nativity scene figurines in the tourist shops and had fun playing with them, especially Baby Jeje...

By far the most important thing we did in Jerusalem was that we celebrated Dallas' 4th birthday... xxx

The spot where Jesus was born