Time to attack the Old City. Jerusalem has just installed light rail (about a month or so ago), so we thought we would try it.
It is as quiet and effecient, and we got to the walls and the Old City without incident. Our first stop was the Jaffa gate there are 8(?) gates. and the tour of King David's tower. It was a grand way to see where everything is, because lord knws there was no way we were going to see everything.
Although the pictures below don't seem like much, I was really moved - surprisingly so, given my lack of religeous sensitivities - to see the men and women praying at the Wailing Wall. There had been several arrests that moring - Women of the Wall are irritating the religous Jews by trying to pray at the wall with the paraphinelia of religeous men - but by the time we got there, there were three bar mitzvahs happily in progress, with women taking part by standing on chairs and peering over the barrier. It is, of course, a very different affair from he showing things we do in the US, but very lively, with singing and throwing of hard candies to celebrate the happy occasion. I was amazed at how much of the songs I remembered, and happily took part, encouraged to do so by te bar mitzvah boys' families, who had apparently come from all over Israel
Our joy was short lived, however, as we got hopelessly lost in the rabbit warrens of the underground bazaar,wandering the Jewish Quarter and the Muslim quarter, and finally getting to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
It took another few hours of wandering before we finally say daylight again. By this time, I was crazy with claustrophobia, not to mention tired of the vendors (the line of the day was "Show us how to spell Gramd Opening; we heard that at least 4 times. Hank had a mission - he was to buy rose resin in the bazaar - as did I - I was to buy a mezuzzah for Mariah. Luckily, we were woth successful, and weree, ultimately able to find an exit gate (was it the Dung Gate? I don't remember). There was no way I was walking one step further. Between the standing, the climbing, the uneven, narrow walkways (they couldn't be dignified by calling them sidewalks), I was beat, and I don't think Hank was very far behind.
And there was no way I was walking to a restaurant, so we decided to eat at the hotel. (What are a fe more shekels among friends.
I
The food was good, but I shouldn't have bothered - I was way too tired to eat, and left more than half the food on the plate.
Which brings me to today. I woke up stiff and sore, my back was killing me, and every cough was reverbating through my chest. I couldn't do any more touring today on a bet, and Hank was happy for a more leisurely day as well. I stayed by the pool and slept in the room; Hank eventually decided to take a tour to Bethlehem to see the church. (I didn' have the wherewithall to give him my camera, so no pictures, Right now, I am in the lobby waiting for the Sabbath dinner that starts at 7 P.M. Tomorrow is our last shot here, and we have a bus tour arranged to Massada and the Dead Sea. Hopefully, I will feel better tomorrow, and, luckily, they now have a cable car up to Massada. We will be checking out of the hotel in the morning, moving to a hotel near the airport for Saturday night, for an early morning start on Sunday, flying back to Cairo, for some "off the beaten track" touring with Ted. Hopefully, not on Sunday - I can't begin to tell you how awful I feel - I haven't had anything this bad since I had a compression fracture when David and I were on the wat to Guilin, when I spent the rest of the trip on my back!! Well, here's hoping for a better tomorrow!
It is as quiet and effecient, and we got to the walls and the Old City without incident. Our first stop was the Jaffa gate there are 8(?) gates. and the tour of King David's tower. It was a grand way to see where everything is, because lord knws there was no way we were going to see everything.
The King David Hotel seen from David's Tower, below
The well-known Dome of the Rock
Although the pictures below don't seem like much, I was really moved - surprisingly so, given my lack of religeous sensitivities - to see the men and women praying at the Wailing Wall. There had been several arrests that moring - Women of the Wall are irritating the religous Jews by trying to pray at the wall with the paraphinelia of religeous men - but by the time we got there, there were three bar mitzvahs happily in progress, with women taking part by standing on chairs and peering over the barrier. It is, of course, a very different affair from he showing things we do in the US, but very lively, with singing and throwing of hard candies to celebrate the happy occasion. I was amazed at how much of the songs I remembered, and happily took part, encouraged to do so by te bar mitzvah boys' families, who had apparently come from all over Israel
Our joy was short lived, however, as we got hopelessly lost in the rabbit warrens of the underground bazaar,wandering the Jewish Quarter and the Muslim quarter, and finally getting to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
And there was no way I was walking to a restaurant, so we decided to eat at the hotel. (What are a fe more shekels among friends.
I
Which brings me to today. I woke up stiff and sore, my back was killing me, and every cough was reverbating through my chest. I couldn't do any more touring today on a bet, and Hank was happy for a more leisurely day as well. I stayed by the pool and slept in the room; Hank eventually decided to take a tour to Bethlehem to see the church. (I didn' have the wherewithall to give him my camera, so no pictures, Right now, I am in the lobby waiting for the Sabbath dinner that starts at 7 P.M. Tomorrow is our last shot here, and we have a bus tour arranged to Massada and the Dead Sea. Hopefully, I will feel better tomorrow, and, luckily, they now have a cable car up to Massada. We will be checking out of the hotel in the morning, moving to a hotel near the airport for Saturday night, for an early morning start on Sunday, flying back to Cairo, for some "off the beaten track" touring with Ted. Hopefully, not on Sunday - I can't begin to tell you how awful I feel - I haven't had anything this bad since I had a compression fracture when David and I were on the wat to Guilin, when I spent the rest of the trip on my back!! Well, here's hoping for a better tomorrow!
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