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Shalom from Jerusalem!!
We had a long day yesterday. After light breakfast we set out to the old city.
It took us a while since we were not familiar with the bus routes and all but made it to the Jaffa Gate entrance eventually.It was around noon and I wanted to be able to call home and let you know to log on the www.thekotel.org so you could see and hear us, but we have yet to figure out how to call out with our cel phones. Each time we try we get some recorded message in Hebrew that we cannot understand, so be patient, when we learn what that message is we might be able to call next time.
Visiting the old city was really interesting, it was quite hot and humid (I thought Israel was supposed to be dry) so it was hard to fully take in the experience.
I've observed mall the locals are carryinh BIG bottles of water, now I know why. I can't seem to drink enough to satisfy my thirst. I refill my little American sized bottle every chance I get.
Ice is not a common thing here as is Canada and Europe. It must be an American thing to have to have a lot of ice. Frozen sweet drinks are easy to find but are loaded with sugar. There are many fresh juice bars though which are nice.
We wound around the colorful stone paths that meander all throughout the Old City. The paths are so worn they are like polished marble and one needs to be careful not to slip!
The atmosfere of the Jewish quarter vs the Arab quarter is evident. Like others have told me before.
The Kotel looks exactly like it has on my computer those nights when I couldn't sleep and would log on to the kotel site.
I immediatly looked for the flag pole with it's microphone and camera location from which it broadcasts the live web cam to the world.
The experience of going up to the wall and touching it was one I will never forget.
As I waited for my turn to pray, I was wondering if I was going to be able to wait long enough, it was so hot in the sun. A spot opened right under one of the scraggely bushes growing out of the crack of the ancient blocks of stone, providing me with just enough shade for me. I reached up my hand to touch the wall and became overwelmed with emotion. Being one who never cries unless we are talking about my horse Dusty....I found myself weeping along with the women there. I cooling breeze came along to make the experience unforgettable.
We left the Kotel (it is traditional for women to walk backwards when leaving the wall) and after passing through the same sort of security as we went through at the airport, we headed up a covered wooden ramp to the Temple Mount.
The feeling up there was so different from where the wall is below. There were few people up on the mount, several groups of women in traditional dress with black head coverings and thier children where camped out on big rugs at various places around the mosque. They watched us with dark sunken eyes. I couldn't help but stop and make eye contact with one older woman, maybe my age, who knows...her eyes were void of life. She made me feel uncomfortable and I moved on.
We made our way back through the gate and through the Moslim area back to where we came in and caught a taxi back to the bus stop where we made our way to Ben Yahuda Street.
Needing some refreshment we got blended frozen fruit drinks (mine was date, halvah, pecan, peach and blueberry) and cruised the shops.
We stopped at a falafel stand where we ordered a platter of falafel balls and hummus,several salads and pickled veggies, they loaded our plates. We sat inside to eat in the tiny stall and just couldn't eat it all!! We asked for it to go, where the cute young man who waited on us just made us up a whole new plate in a to go container!! We said, no! Just give us our left overs, he said, no, he could not do that, "It would not be beautiful!"
We of course tipped him well!
This is a typical example of the kindness and generousity of the Israeli people.
Backpacks full of hummus and salad, we headed once more for the bus and back towards home to pick up some groceries for Shabbot.
For those of you unfamiliar with Sabbath in Jerusalem. All shops and transportation shuts down between 4 pm Friday through Saturday pm for the weekly sabbath.
We picked up fresh bread, veggies (the vegetables and fruit in Israel is the largest I've ever seen!!) and sea breem ( a kind of fish caught wild in Eliat, near Egypt) and more fruit and drinks.
Milk comes in baggies, there are about ten different kinds of yougurts and cottage cheese types and everything is Kosher.
Fruit here tastes like fruit is supposed to taste! It is all sweet, juicy and wonderful!
We hauled our goodies home and relaxed.
I don't know how many miles we walked but it was far more miles than I have walked in several years since I injured my foot.
My foot, btw is doing fine. I am wearing my tennis shoes, but not the AZ boot and I am fine. I forgot to take my pedometor with me yesterday, but I figure we could have walked as much as 4-5 miles. Concidering I haven't walked more than a 1/4 mile at a time in two years I'm amazed that I feel as good as I do!
OK, so I will attempt to upload a few pics from the last couple of days. If it doesn't work it will soon.
I love you all and wish I could call and chat, but we will have toi be content with emails and text messages. BTW, it's only 5 cents for me to recieve a txt message if you want to send one it's ok.
We are off to The Shrine of the Book today I think. I was up but 7:30, Susan slept in, so we are not out of the house as yet. Good time to get caught up with this blog.
I have identified 4 birds so far: laughing dove, sunbirds, Arabian Babbler one more I forgot the name.
Shalom,
Adrienne 😊
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Sharon R
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hidiho
Toooooo groovy..... I'm vicariously experiencing your adventures with you! I am at the wall, smelling the fruit, hearing the birds, traveling the ancient stones... shalom to all love, Sharon