Nancy and Jim travel to Tel Aviv.
Assistance of United staff helped Nancy find how to get to Terminal 5 at O’Hare and reach the plane going to Istanbul. On the plane, she had the assistance of a Bosnian couple in knowing how to work the various technology at her seat. Had wanted to watch the movie “The Guernsey Literary…” and it was available for free on this flight.
In the Istanbul airport, Nancy had the assistance of a couple from Pakistan living in Indiana in knowing how to read the departure board and establish phone and wifi connection in the airport so she could rendezvous with Jim.
Istanbul at night, from the airplane.
As the travelers were entering Jerusalem, they were almost in an accident when the shuttle bus was squeezed between a bus and a bluff. The shuttle bus dropped the travelers off in Jerusalem at midnight- Damascus gate- about 10 minutes away from the hotel. The streets were dark and empty. Use of global app and phone flashlight enabled them to walk to the hotel in the Old City in the dark with their luggage. Nancy’s main suitcase was still to come.
Damascus gate.
Hotel doors.
Hotel interior.
A map of Jerusalem's old city.
Not having connected with the contact person, George Hintlian, the travelers explored the Old City on their own. Many of the things they saw were seen again in more detail on Monday and Tuesday with George.
Shop along the alleyways in Old City Jerusalem.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre - believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Currently occupied by several christian groups: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic, and to a lesser degree the Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.
Holy Sepulchre exterior.
Holy Sepulchre interior.
Holy Sepulchre dome.
Nancy and Jim enjoyed lunch, but they realized that they were gouged badly when the bill came.
They learned to look at a menu with prices before ordering.
Stands to hold prayer material.
Wailing Wall men's side.
Special area which is covered (men's side).
Wailing Wall women's side.
Nancy delivered a prayer from Tamia and left it in the wailing wall.
After viewing the Wailing Wall, the travelers walked back to the hotel to take a nap. Needed to recover after long trip from USA to Israel.
Monastery/seminary in the Armenian Quarter
Reminder of the genocide.
The Travelers ate dinner at Bulghourji Restaurant which served Armenian food.
Dinner.
Shops closed at the end of the day.
Monday morning, with help of hotel staff, Nancy's luggage was found. The day included times when the travelers were with George and times when they were on their own.
Sunrise from hotel rooftop.
The travelers visited the Dome of the Rock. Nancy had previously visited in 1969 (50 years prior).
Next to Bethesda ruins.
The travelers walked the rampart wall from Jaffa gate to Zion gate.
The travelers visited this museum, which describes the 21 layers of history in Jerusalem.
The travelers met with George Hintlian. Following are two audio recordings from that meeting.
The travelers looked more carefully with George for information about Miriam Torosian (n.e.e. Jerahian). They wanted to see if there are records that she was born or married in Jerusalem. They found no records.
George showed them St. James' Cathedral. Nancy shared the family's Armenian table grace with George, who was touched.
Besides exploring our data about Miriam Jerahian, George was also interested in their data about Grandpa’s property in Turkey. He read the English and Turkish papers
The travelers returned to the CHS with George. He included them in showing Canadian officials an area in the basement which had recently been studied by the National Geographic and was not open to the general public. Recent research affirms that this was the place of Jesus’ tomb. A YouTube video on this issue may be found here. This counters research (Talpoit tomb) which concluded that Jesus’ body and family tomb had been found about three miles away from the CHS.
Nancy’s luggage was finally delivered to the hotel by staff who had to walk to another hotel outside the wall to get it.
The travelers took a second walk on the wall. This time they walked from the Jaffa gate to the Damascus gate.
The travelers viewed the dead sea scrolls at the Israeli Museum, which is outside the Old City.
The afternoon before the travelers left Israel for Turkey, George shared that they should not take the original paperwork (English and Turkish) about Yesia’s inherited property to Turkey. He offered to keep it for them until he could get it to Jim via a trusted person. The travelers followed George’s advice and were glad they did. Because in Turkey they had three experiences which could have placed them in a position they did not intend to be in while there. First, when they met with the Hrant Dink staff in Istanbul, they wanted to know if Yesia had been a Turkish citizen when he left Turkey in 1900 because they had a law suit against Turkey showing that such citizens may have been entitled to property. Second, they had an unexpected interaction with a national Turkish politician in Erzindjan and a semi-expected interaction with a local Turkish official in Develi. Both wanted to know about possible property implications of their visit. For all three instances they were grateful that they did not have these papers with them.
They had a second dinner with George during which they had candid discussion of politics in Armenia, Israel and Turkey.
The travelers met a cab at the Jaffa gate with their luggage and drove to Tel Aviv. They drove through sections which showed the barriers between Palestine and Israel with long lines of people waiting to go to work on buses.