Jerusalem - Day 8

Breakfast was the same and we still had live music. What a wonderful treat. This is also the first hotel that understands “hot” water for tea. In other hotels the water you get for tea is something my dad would refer to as “pisherts” (luke-warm).

The morning was cooler than yesterday, but I was comfortable with the synthetic long-sleeved shirt I brought just for the purpose. The weather fluctuates greatly during the day here; the mornings and evenings are much cooler than the day. But at this time of the year, it’s quite pleasant and not hot. I can’t imagine walking for 5 hours in the heat of July in Jerusalem.

Our first stop was Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed (actually, it’s the reproduction of the scrolls). The building itself was more interesting than the scrolls. I was very underwhelmed. There’s room that’s circular and photocopy of the scrolls in the middle. Ok. Now what? The grounds were very cool though. There are many statues and a model of how Jerusalem would have looked like in the time of the Second Temple. I wish we would have seen this model yesterday, before seeing the real Old City.

After the Scrolls we went to Mt. Herzl where Herzl is buried. Mt. Herzl also has the graves of dignitaries such as Golda Meir (our hometown girl and “the only one with balls” in the government, as the saying goes). I placed a rock on her grave. The black and white monuments are the graves of Leah and Yitzhak Rabin. This site is also the site of a military cemetery. Israelis refer to them as “youth cities” since so many young people have lost their lives in the fight for Israel.

Our next stop was Yad Vashem. It was absolutely gut-wrenching and I was glad I brought a lot of tissues. The personal effects of the victims - the shoes, the prayer books, the papers, the necklaces, etc. - as well as the personal testimonies that were taped and shown were so moving. It’s too horrible to believe that people are capable of such monstrosity, but it happened. And we must never forget. We must educate and remember and honor. We also visited the Children’s Hall which has 4 candles burning but with the mirrors, you see 1.2 million stars flickering in the near pitch-black building. While you’re walking through, the names of the children who were identified are being read. The name, family name, years of age at death, and where the child was born. Heart breaking. Absolutely gut-wrenching. I have no idea how people can refrain from bawling and I’m not moved to tears easily. But this was really hard.

Right after this, we had our “well-planned” lunch. Oy! Who could eat after this? I really didn’t think I could swallow a bite. But I guess after all that walking I was hungry enough to eat a bagel.

After lunch it was time for Bethlehem. Scary! Our tour guide and bus driver didn’t go with us. We had to switch buses and guides and cross into Palestinian territory. We went to the Church of the Nativity and it’s a pretty church. Lots of Russians were taking too long to move through, so we had to wait. Those Russians again. The church proved to be a very emotional experience for the Christian folks on the tour. After the church through which we had to hurry since there was some procession of the Armenian part of the church starting and we were driven to a local shop. There, it seems that we spent more time than at the church. Lots of people bought lots of stuff. I just don’t know where that money would go to and whom it would support, so I will be making purchases in areas that are not in Palestine. Just because Obama wants to give $900M to Hizzbolla doesn’t mean I want to support terrorism.
The tour guide even helped the "vendors" sell their stuff to us - he would bring it into the bus and ask if we wanted it and the price. I thought it was highly unprofessional, especially after spending about an hour in a shop. Oh, and while we were in the shop, the doors were kinda closed and locked, though the key was in the lock. I think it was more to keep others out and us from wandering off. We had people on the tour who were completely oblivious to everything and asked questions such as "who was Jesus", "why was a restaurant blown up in Tel-Aviv by suicide bombers" and "is Jerusalem in Israel". Hmmm.......

And yes, we saw the wall that separates Jerusalem. (The picture shows the wall from the Palestinian side. There was no graffiti on the Jerusalem side where we were. At least nothing that could be seen. I wonder what the Hebrew above the oil thing says.) It feels like 2 separate countries, truly. I wonder if that’s how East/West Berlin was. This didn’t feel like it was in the middle of Israel at all. And yes, we were asked for our passports on our way out. 2 people from the checkpoint carrying much weaponry (gun, semi-automatic rifle, or maybe it was automatic, I don’t know) came into the bus and asked for passports. It would have been good of our tour guide to let us know about this the day before! But I always carry my passport when I travel, so it was no issue. But they didn’t search us. The car in front of us was searched. The dog sniffed the car, the trunk was popped open, the underside was inspected.

Now, I’m just waiting for our evening excursion which includes dinner at a kibbutz. I hope it’s not falafel or schnitzel again. I’ve had enough of that. Not that I really miss my typical food, but I miss my typical food. I don’t want to eat typical stuff that I’d eat at home while I’m traveling, but there’s got to be more than a falafel or a schnitzel.

Dinner was quite typical here for the tour. A buffet. A HUGE buffet. They even had gefilte fish, but this was sweet. I'm not a big fan of sweet gefilte fish. It's not dessert. But the dinner was good and dessert awesome.