Results tagged “Jerusalem” from Intelligent Travel Blog

To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He's been guest-blogging about his experiences here on Intelligent Travel. Click here for recent posts.

What makes a place memorable? Often it's the people who live there, or did long ago: Think of Egypt, Mesa Verde, or Angkor Wat. It may even be a single person, as mind-body medicine pioneer Deepak Chopra discovered in Jerusalem. Here's part of his story from My Favorite Place on Earth:

"One day I walked down the Via Dolorosa, the street in the Old City where Jesus carried the cross. The stations of the cross are marked out, and I began my walk where he was sentenced, at Pontius Pilate's court. The second station is where Jesus was flagellated, the third where he fell and was helped up. And I ended at Calvary, the hill where he was crucified.

Israel is in the news nonstop this week, with the pope's visit making headlines and today being Israeli Independence Day. Inspired, IT Editor Janelle Nanos is revisiting some of her favorite holy sites from her recent trip.

I don't tend to do much heavy reading while on vacation, but I quickly learned that along with the numerous guidebooks I brought with me to Israel, it probably would not have been a bad idea to toss a Bible into my suitcase. Luckily, my tour guide, Ziv Cohen, had one with him at all times. The heavily dog-eared tome provided us with a handy, albeit ancient, reference point which underlined the significance of the sites we visited, and spurred a favorite quote from the trip: "In Israel, the Bible is our GPS."

Driving in the van between destinations, I'd grab the book and thumb through its thin, onion-skin-like pages. And like an onion, Israel's history enfolds layer-upon-layer, which explains the fact that sites like the tomb of David is housed in the same building where it is said the Last Supper took place. (The tomb is on the first floor, the "upper room" as it is known, is just upstairs). As you can see from the many tabs Ziv uses as a reference, Israel's role in the Bible can't be covered in a mere blog post. But after the jump, I share some travel highlights from the Biblical stops along my trip. 

There are a some things that you "must" do in any city. Kiss the Blarney Stone. Walk the Golden Gate Bridge. Get the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. But few of those musts are as contemplative as visiting Jerusalem and placing a prayer in a crack of the Western Wall.

We arrived in the city late on a Friday afternoon, and had just enough time to stroll through the cacophony of the marketplace before heading over to the wall. Known as the most holy site in the Jewish faith, its significance lies in the fact that it is the last remnant of the original retaining wall which surrounded the Second Temple, which was built over 2,000 years ago. After the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Jews were exiled from the city, and it became a place of pilgrimage where they would return to lament their loss (it was long known as the Wailing Wall for that reason). Now it is essentially an open-air synagogue, with divided sections for men and women to pray independently.

I've just returned from my visit to Israel, and since I finally have some time to actually blog, I'm going to be catching you up on many of my favorite experiences from the trip:

I already mentioned how fabulous the markets were in Tel Aviv, but there's something particularly interesting about arriving at the Mahane Yehuda street market on a Friday afternoon right before the start of Shabbat. To put it simply, it was frantic, as people throughout the city were doing their last-minute shopping before sundown (5:07 p.m. that day). In the midst of the madness, I was thrilled to find a moment of quiet, in the form of the Tower & Story Museum, a small gallery space that's tucked between market stalls. Photographer Yoram Amir has photographed scenes from around Jerusalem, and hung them in distressed window frames that are scattered throughout the apartment/gallery. But what's even better is that the second story balcony provides a great photo op of the market below. Check it out, along with other photos, after the jump.