William's Journey to the Holy Land Pt. 2

UNIGLOBE Geo Travel's Managing Partner & CEO William Hsu recently returned home from a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. William shares his experience with us in Part 2 of this entry:

April 29th

I was awakened at 4 am by the Islamic prayer broadcast from across the street but that still got me 4 hours of solid sleep. It was chilly last night, and I eventually got up at 6:30 and had breakfast at 7...... and as planned, we had mass at St. Ann's. The crusader's built church (in the basement with just the 4 of us, although a group tour walked by, which made me nervous cause I left my backpack by the bench only 8 ft away from the alter but that was when nobody was there...). This church is about a 15 min walk from our place through the old city. It’s right beside the healing pools or Bethzatha where Jesus healed a cripple man.

St. Anne’s Church is honoured as the site of the home of Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, and is thus considered to be the birthplace of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While there is little (if any) historical or archaeological evidence to back up that claim, there is very strong evidence that the Church was built on the site of the pool with 5 porticos where Jesus healed a paralyzed man (See John, chapter 5). The pools have been excavated, and we were able to climb down to an ancient cistern which fed the pools.

After that, we headed to the Mount of Olives, and visited the tomb of Mary, the Church of Dominus Flevit (“the Lord wept” -- site believed to be where Jesus was standing when he wept over the city of Jerusalem), and the Church of the Pater Noster (where the Our Father is posted in dozens of languages). After lunch in a cafe in the Old City, near the Damascus Gate, we took a bus and a cab to Bethlehem to visit the Basilica of the Nativity and the Grotto of the Milk. (That later spot is the site where an old story says that Mary spilled some milk while feeding the baby Jesus as she and Joseph began their flight into Egypt — some of the old stories honoured here are very earthy.)

After lunch, we went to Bethlehem and visited the church of Nativity where Jesus was born. Next to it the Franciscan church and the tomb for St. Jerome who lived here and translated the bible from Hebrew to Latin I think in the 4th century. (Everything that Fr. Tim had explained to me today is a blur right now).

We had an interesting souvenir shopping experience after our tour of the church (I bought some necklaces and rosaries from a couple called “Joseph and Mary” in Bethlethem … can’t believe that Fr. Tim didn’t tell me there names before I paid them), and an eye opener crossing the security check point from the Palestinian side back to the Israelis side. We had a two hour rest in the afternoon and went out for dinner .... at a Palestinian restaurant that serves dolphins soup ( I think its the name of the restaurant only and not real dolphins).

We had dinner in a nice restaurant in East Jerusalem, which is actually the area north of the Old City. Tomorrow we’re schedule to celebrate Mass at the Church of Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”) which is near (or at)_ the beginning of the Via Dolorosa (“Way of Sorrow,” the original Stations of the Cross).

- William