Almost finished touring Israel

We have been going nonstop. My parents are telling me we need to slow down. There is just so much to see! We went to Jerusalem on Thursday after dropping Ken off at work. We made pretty good time and found a good parking spot. Dad was my navigator. Although this was my 4th visit, it's always helpful to have someone looking for the street signs which are not always visible. On our way to the old city we walked through an outdoor mall. Dad noticed some construction going on and became very curious. We spent the next 30 minutes looking at wiring (most of you know my Dad is an Electrician). He was fascinated. Right then I had to readjust my agenda for the day and let Mom and Dad see what they wanted to see.... even if it wasn't the typical tourist spots.

We entered the old city through the Jaffa Gate and walked through the Armenian Quarter which seems to be the quickest and least populated way to the Western Wall that I have found. At the wall there was quite a bit of commotion. I didn't realize that Thursday were also "Bar mitzvah" days. There were thousands of people there all singing, clapping, dancing around their sons as they carried the Torah. It's really quite a sight. We didn't get anywhere near the wall, I thought maybe we would come back later in the afternoon but we didn't make it. I'm sure we will see it on Monday when we go back.

We left through the Dung Gate and walked up to the top of Mt. Olives. We stopped at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary at the base of the hill. The Garden of Gethsemane had just closed for a 2 hour period so we went further up the hill to Sanctuary of Dominus Flevit. This place had also just closed but the guard felt compassion on us and told us we could take 2 minutes. He then proceeded to give us a 15 minute guided tour of this church which commemorates where Jesus wept for the city of Jerusalem. Further up the hill we came to the stunning view of the old city and all of the tombs on the hillside. Mom took lots of pictures. There was a camel there too waiting to give rides around the parking lot. The owner said he charged 20 shekels so Dad tried his hand at bartering down to 15 shekels. After a little bit of haggling he seemed to agree to Dad's discounted price. So Mom got on the camel and rode around the parking lot and we took a few pictures of course. When the ride was over, the owner said it would be another 15 shekels to let Mom off the camel. So Dad called his bluff and said okay...leave her on there! It was really funny. Don't worry we got Mom back safe and sound.

We headed down the hill and started thinking a ride would really be helpful. A taxi came by and Dad flagged them down. The man said it would cost 20 shekels for a ride to the bottom of the hill. I thought 20 shekels! Walking down hill is the easy part! So I said no thanks and kept walking. Dad kept talking to him though and somehow got us a FREE ride down the hill and up to the Lion's Gate of the old city (it wasn't quite a mile). At the end of the ride Dad did try and pay him something, but he wouldn't take any money. I was surprised. From the Lion's Gate we walked the Via Dolorosa. Mom thought it was hard to find the "stations" but I've walked it enough and seen other people at each station to find them. Half way through we took a side tour down one of the main streets which leads to our favorite shwarma stand. On the way, Dad found some interesting candy shops and mom found a few souvenirs. Mom got lots of pictures of the market streets. The shwarma was good. I put too many onions on it for Dad, but he ate a few bites that we deemed "safe".

Further into the Muslim Quarter we exited the old city through the Damascus gate and went to the Garden Tomb just outside the city wall. This is my favorite tourist spot. After enjoying this quiet, peaceful place, we headed back into the old city and back tracked to finish the tour of the Via Dolorosa which ends at the church of the Holy Sepulcher. Walking back through the streets we came to another construction site and tried to find someone who could answer Dad's questions. He's having a lot of fun looking at how they do wiring here. After that we were pretty much done with Jerusalem and headed back to the car. Driving home took over 3 hours. Uggh! We made it just in time to join our friends for dinner. We had a great time visiting and slept hard that night. It was a long day. Friday we decided to take it easy. Other than a few errands we just stayed around the house.

Today we went North to Akko. Ken and I had visited Akko the very first weekend we moved here. There had been some riots there over the holidays so we decided to wait a few days before we visited. It seemed pretty empty today. We enjoyed a really cool museum and a walk through the market out to the port wall. We went to the place we had lunch at back in June and ordered 2 Kebab with 8 different types of side salads (this time it came without the bugs in the salad :-). Both Mom and Dad seemed to like it pretty well. After walking on the port sea wall for a bit we concluded our tour and headed to Haifa for a little get together with friends. Fun and easy day.