The trip continues. . . .

Day 40: The Jerusalem Zoo and meeting old friends. The Shapiro family loaded into a cab for the first time in Jerusalem and headed to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. WOW. The zoo was amazing, our only wish was that we had more time to stay at the zoo. Upon arrival we were greeted by some very talkative monkeys, we moved on to see parrots, turtles, rhinoceros, kangaroos, penguins and many, many more animals. We took lots of pictures of the animals for our photo album. We hailed a taxi and headed home for a visit with Reina Cohen, an old friend. We enjoyed a nice quiet lunch in and spent some time hearing from Reina about her new and exciting life in Israel. Reina’s husband joined us we walked Avi to a play date with his friend from Camp Ramah. The evening ended with some shopping and a refreshing dinner of frozen yogurt and ice cream.

Day 41: A full day tour of Jerusalem. We started the day by meeting our tour guide at the Mount of Olives. It is a very big cemetery in front of the Old City where people want to be buried because, tradition says, when the Messiah comes these people will all rise up together and be the first to follow the Messiah to God. From the top of Mount of Olives you have a great view of the Old City. We then walked all of the way down toward the Old City and saw the tombs of Absholom (King David’s oldest son) and Zacharia. These tombs were carved out of the rocks that make up the hillside. We then climbed up 174 stairs to reach the Dung Gate of the Old City, stopping along the way to taste a Jerusalem Bagel covered in zatar. We then watched a movie at the Davidson Center which taught us about the Second Temple (which was destroyed in 70 AD) and then walked around the area leading up to the Second Temple. We also saw the Lev, which was the market (Heart) of the Old City at the time of the Second Temple. At the Lev we saw the piles and piles of stones that the Romans pushed down off the Temple Mount from the Second Temple to prevent us from building a Third Temple.

From the Davidson Center we went to the Western Wall (or Kotel) and placed notes containing our wishes and prayers in the cracks of the Wall. From the Wall we went to lunch and had more great salads (with Avi, of course, having falafel). From lunch we walked through the Zion Gate, stopping to get pictures of Avi and Esti with soldiers, and ended up at King David’s tomb. There was a bris of twins going on at the tomb that made it hard to get in, but it was certainly a loud ceremony. We then went upstairs to the room where the Last Supper was to have taken place. We then walked up to the next floor to a room called the Second President’s Room. This is the room where the Israeli President from 1948 to 1967 would take visitors to show them the Western Wall from a distance and explain that this is the closest Jews could get to their holiest site. Following the Second President’s Room, we walked through the Shuk (Arab market) and thought about coming back another day to make some purchases. Our day ended with a light dinner in our apartment.

Day 42: A visit to the Kenesset and Western Wall Tunnel. We found out that the Kenesset (Israeli Parliament) tours are given in English on Thursdays at noon. With the morning free, Monica, Avi, and Esti walked to the supermarket for some basics, while Scott and Rebeka hung back, organized a bit, and wrote some of this blog. A quick cab ride later, we found ourselves at the Kenesset. While some aspects of the tour were quite nice, such as the viewing and explanation of the Chagall tapestries and mosaics, overall the experience was disappointing. The tour was confined to the main hallway and the Kenesset meeting room. The guide gave the talk in a manner that suggested it was word-for-word the same day in and day out. Finally, the content of the tour was unremarkable.

Following the tour we walked the streets of Jerusalem for a bit, stopped by the apartment for lunch, and then wound our way through the Old City for the Western Wall Tunnel Tour. In contrast to the Kenesset tour, this was time well spent. For those that don’t know, the Western Wall tunnel was excavated below the current neighborhood adjacent to the Western Wall, allowing visitors to walk at the street level that would have existed at the time of the Second Temple (over 2000 years ago). The excavations were carefully done so as to explain the history of the city, allowing the visitor to descend down through the different layers and cultures that lie beneath the Old City. Some of the highlights included a topographic model that the tour guide adds to and subtracts from to explain the changes made to the topography of the Old City and the amazing stones that constitute the foundation of the Western Wall. The tour was definitely one of the high points of the trip. After the tour we spent some time in the Shuk (market), ate a light dinner, and then headed out to Ben Yehuda Street where the kids had the chance to watch break-dancing and bongo drumming.