I know, you didn't know Roger was away. He was with a neighbor who offered to rehab Roger as a good deed. I polled the neighborhood list serve looking to hire someone and got a volunteer instead. I live in a great neighborhood. I thought I had an old photo of Roger somewhere but couldn't locate one, so here is the after photo of Roger's return. He looks great! We've missed him.Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Roger's home from rehab
I know, you didn't know Roger was away. He was with a neighbor who offered to rehab Roger as a good deed. I polled the neighborhood list serve looking to hire someone and got a volunteer instead. I live in a great neighborhood. I thought I had an old photo of Roger somewhere but couldn't locate one, so here is the after photo of Roger's return. He looks great! We've missed him.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Next Up
A local trip! Cruising aboard the Belle of Washington along the inland waterways of
North Carolina's Albemarle region. In the past, the NC Transportation Museum trips have been by train so we are looking forward to branching out with them. This trip will be to celebrate our 33rd anniversay.
We're home
Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this. I had a lot of catching up to do. Here we go starting with the farewell dinner.
It was held as I said before off site from the hotel at Olive & Fish. The day before we left, a large group of 4 or 5 full buses arrived and it was VIP time. We were leaving the next day as they were heading out for the day. It was a logistical nightmare but we saw their bus signs were The Israel Experience with Governor Mike Huckabee. I think that explains why we left the hotel for our dinner as that group was having a massive buffet that night. That reminds me... I know this because as we were settling our hotel bill for express checkout in the morning, I saw a business center sign. I walked around to a small corner with some telephones, 2 computers and a printer. We were able to print our boarding passes. That was when I looked over the balcony railing and saw the massive buffet being set. We had a short bus ride to Olive & Fish and back so it was not inconvenient. They put us in a small private upstairs room at one long table with U-shaped sides. We were one one of the 2 sides. The room was overly hot which was the only downside. They served appetizers family style. They took orders for main courses of fish, beef, chicken or vegetarian. Dessert was local pastries served family style. There was water, lemonade, white wine, and red wine on the table for self service. They offered beer if anyone wanted it. Clay did and they came back and told him he was entitled to 2 beers. He just had the one. We got back to the hotel about 9pm. It was time for bed as bags are out at 7am.
We were at breakfast at opening of 6:30am. We put our bags out before hand. We sat at our first shared table this morning as another guest invited us to a table for 6.
We wound up helping one overwhelmed bellboy roll our group's cart of luggage across the street and uphill to where we finally found our bus today. As I said above, the Huckabee group was taking precedence. It was a good time for us to depart! It was about an hour and a half drive to TLV airport. There were 2 flight 85s to the US that morning. We had people on both flights, our Air Canada to Toronto and a United to Newark. Mick, our travel director, was on the bus with us but flying to Rome. The Newark flight was checking in when we arrived. It was a little early for ours so we had time to use the restrooms. We were ready when they let us check in 3 hours early. Our bags weighed 10 and 15 Kg. I think we were allowed over 20, so we were traveling light. We got new boarding passes for both flights and luggage receipts. Off we went to security. We went through passport control where we had to have our blue slips from arrival. Lucky we still had them! They gave us a red slip that we had to scan to move on. We got access to priority/VIP security as we were Premium Economy. There was no line and we moved right along. We were very early. We were in boarding group 2 and they called 1 and 2 together. So far we were happy with Premium Economy vs. Business. The Air Canada Dreamliner Premium Economy experience onboard was equal to domestic Business Class, so we still have no complaints. It was a nice experience. Since the 12 hour flight was all daylight, it seemed like they served a lot more food. It was good and at some point, they simulated night by darkening the windows and turning off the lights. Clay slept some. I tried but the woman sitting alone behind us had 2 seats to herself and that still wasn't enough space for her. She kept sticking her feet between the seats onto the armrest or between my seat and the wall on the armrest. She must have toed me 1000 times during the flight, when she wasn't drumming her heels on the back of my seat. I have to conclude that she had some kind of medical condition. If I thought otherwise, I'd have had to give her a tongue lashing. I saw her when we left the plane and she was at least 40 years old, so she had to know better. Food. They offered water or orange juice before take off. We declined. Shortly after take off they brought menus. Meal one was salad, chicken or vegetarian ravioli with chocolate mousse. They served wine and beer with it. Meal two was a cold sandwich. Choices were pita filled with feta or pita filled with tuna. We both had feta. I liked it. It was served with pretzels and a choice of beverages. Meal three was tabbouleh salad, chicken or vegetarian pasta with Lotus cookies and a choice of beverages. It was all good and it seemed like they were serving a meal every 2-3 hours. We definitely didn't feel like eating dinner in Toronto.
We arrived in Toronto at about 6pm. Our outbound flight was scheduled to depart at 8:55pm. Plenty of time. This would be our first time re-entering the US after obtaining Global Entry. Toronto is listed as an airport with Global Entry kiosks. That is true, we used the kiosks. That was the only benefit. We used the Global Entry lines and got kicked aside for special holding while our checked baggage was processed. Per the Global Entry FAQ: If the kiosk receipt has an "X" printed on it, you must report to a CBP officer at the nearest staffed CBP passport control booth. You do not have to get back in line. The CBP officer at the passport control booth will review your documents, determine the reason for the "X" and either release you from there or refer you to "secondary" for additional processing.The "X" can mean many different things: random inspection; your fingerprints may not have matched; or other issues. You must have the "X" cleared before proceeding to the exit control point or you will be directed back to passport control for processing. The kiosk receipt shows the CBP officer that you have successfully used the kiosk.
We had to go through full security screening again. This was more rigorous than the swabbing we experienced in Toronto on the way to Israel. Keep in mind we never left a secure area after we were screened in Tel Aviv! We had to separate our liquids and take out electronics, then I got yelled at for not removing my shoes. I guess Toronto does not have TSA pre check. We didn't take off our shoes leaving Israel! Clay's bin with tablets got kicked aside and he got a swabbing. It took the better part of an hour and was not the Global Entry experience we had imagined when we paid $100 each and jumped through the hoops. Better luck next time.
Some last thoughts on Israel. We really enjoyed it and the AHI Tour Israel Land of Cultural Treasures. We learned some Hebrew. What I remember is shalom which means peace, hello and goodbye and toda is thank you. I'm not a very good student! The other thing which kept coming up and which I never wrote about was a really old map that kept coming up and being referenced which showed Jerusalem as the center of the known world. I don't think I mentioned before that Jews believe the Foundation Stone is under the current Muslim Dome of the Rock structure and that it is where God started creating first the world and then Adam. Hence, Jerusalem would be the center of the world. It is a nice story and a nice image.
It was held as I said before off site from the hotel at Olive & Fish. The day before we left, a large group of 4 or 5 full buses arrived and it was VIP time. We were leaving the next day as they were heading out for the day. It was a logistical nightmare but we saw their bus signs were The Israel Experience with Governor Mike Huckabee. I think that explains why we left the hotel for our dinner as that group was having a massive buffet that night. That reminds me... I know this because as we were settling our hotel bill for express checkout in the morning, I saw a business center sign. I walked around to a small corner with some telephones, 2 computers and a printer. We were able to print our boarding passes. That was when I looked over the balcony railing and saw the massive buffet being set. We had a short bus ride to Olive & Fish and back so it was not inconvenient. They put us in a small private upstairs room at one long table with U-shaped sides. We were one one of the 2 sides. The room was overly hot which was the only downside. They served appetizers family style. They took orders for main courses of fish, beef, chicken or vegetarian. Dessert was local pastries served family style. There was water, lemonade, white wine, and red wine on the table for self service. They offered beer if anyone wanted it. Clay did and they came back and told him he was entitled to 2 beers. He just had the one. We got back to the hotel about 9pm. It was time for bed as bags are out at 7am.
We were at breakfast at opening of 6:30am. We put our bags out before hand. We sat at our first shared table this morning as another guest invited us to a table for 6.
We wound up helping one overwhelmed bellboy roll our group's cart of luggage across the street and uphill to where we finally found our bus today. As I said above, the Huckabee group was taking precedence. It was a good time for us to depart! It was about an hour and a half drive to TLV airport. There were 2 flight 85s to the US that morning. We had people on both flights, our Air Canada to Toronto and a United to Newark. Mick, our travel director, was on the bus with us but flying to Rome. The Newark flight was checking in when we arrived. It was a little early for ours so we had time to use the restrooms. We were ready when they let us check in 3 hours early. Our bags weighed 10 and 15 Kg. I think we were allowed over 20, so we were traveling light. We got new boarding passes for both flights and luggage receipts. Off we went to security. We went through passport control where we had to have our blue slips from arrival. Lucky we still had them! They gave us a red slip that we had to scan to move on. We got access to priority/VIP security as we were Premium Economy. There was no line and we moved right along. We were very early. We were in boarding group 2 and they called 1 and 2 together. So far we were happy with Premium Economy vs. Business. The Air Canada Dreamliner Premium Economy experience onboard was equal to domestic Business Class, so we still have no complaints. It was a nice experience. Since the 12 hour flight was all daylight, it seemed like they served a lot more food. It was good and at some point, they simulated night by darkening the windows and turning off the lights. Clay slept some. I tried but the woman sitting alone behind us had 2 seats to herself and that still wasn't enough space for her. She kept sticking her feet between the seats onto the armrest or between my seat and the wall on the armrest. She must have toed me 1000 times during the flight, when she wasn't drumming her heels on the back of my seat. I have to conclude that she had some kind of medical condition. If I thought otherwise, I'd have had to give her a tongue lashing. I saw her when we left the plane and she was at least 40 years old, so she had to know better. Food. They offered water or orange juice before take off. We declined. Shortly after take off they brought menus. Meal one was salad, chicken or vegetarian ravioli with chocolate mousse. They served wine and beer with it. Meal two was a cold sandwich. Choices were pita filled with feta or pita filled with tuna. We both had feta. I liked it. It was served with pretzels and a choice of beverages. Meal three was tabbouleh salad, chicken or vegetarian pasta with Lotus cookies and a choice of beverages. It was all good and it seemed like they were serving a meal every 2-3 hours. We definitely didn't feel like eating dinner in Toronto.
We arrived in Toronto at about 6pm. Our outbound flight was scheduled to depart at 8:55pm. Plenty of time. This would be our first time re-entering the US after obtaining Global Entry. Toronto is listed as an airport with Global Entry kiosks. That is true, we used the kiosks. That was the only benefit. We used the Global Entry lines and got kicked aside for special holding while our checked baggage was processed. Per the Global Entry FAQ: If the kiosk receipt has an "X" printed on it, you must report to a CBP officer at the nearest staffed CBP passport control booth. You do not have to get back in line. The CBP officer at the passport control booth will review your documents, determine the reason for the "X" and either release you from there or refer you to "secondary" for additional processing.The "X" can mean many different things: random inspection; your fingerprints may not have matched; or other issues. You must have the "X" cleared before proceeding to the exit control point or you will be directed back to passport control for processing. The kiosk receipt shows the CBP officer that you have successfully used the kiosk.
We had to go through full security screening again. This was more rigorous than the swabbing we experienced in Toronto on the way to Israel. Keep in mind we never left a secure area after we were screened in Tel Aviv! We had to separate our liquids and take out electronics, then I got yelled at for not removing my shoes. I guess Toronto does not have TSA pre check. We didn't take off our shoes leaving Israel! Clay's bin with tablets got kicked aside and he got a swabbing. It took the better part of an hour and was not the Global Entry experience we had imagined when we paid $100 each and jumped through the hoops. Better luck next time.
Some last thoughts on Israel. We really enjoyed it and the AHI Tour Israel Land of Cultural Treasures. We learned some Hebrew. What I remember is shalom which means peace, hello and goodbye and toda is thank you. I'm not a very good student! The other thing which kept coming up and which I never wrote about was a really old map that kept coming up and being referenced which showed Jerusalem as the center of the known world. I don't think I mentioned before that Jews believe the Foundation Stone is under the current Muslim Dome of the Rock structure and that it is where God started creating first the world and then Adam. Hence, Jerusalem would be the center of the world. It is a nice story and a nice image.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Last day in Jerusalem
We had a really short and relaxing day today. I don't know why when looking at the itinerary I didn't notice the almost 4 hour gap this afternoon. We are mostly packed up anyway so didn't need the time for that. We can't find that there is any printing facility in the hotel, so we'll be asking for boarding passes at TLV airport when we check our bags.
We learned that the farewell dinner tonight at 7pm will be at a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. It will be at Olive & fish.That doesn't sound too promising for me. I have been able to easily avoid fish and seafood all trip without any help. In the good news category, we never ate the nabs or apple we had stockpiled for Shabbat. So, I know I'll have something to eat tonight no matter what.
We departed for Yad Vashem at 8:30am. Ori walked us around some of the outdoor features first and described our visit and gave suggestions. This was our first museum we visited unguided here in Israel. I know Ori wasn't allowed to guide or use our headsets because Yad Vashem uses their own. But we still used guides at the last 2 museums. I have no idea why not here. It was fine and probably because it is so disturbing to some people that they get in and out as quickly as possible. We were in around 9am and needed to meet outside on the other side by 11am. It is a tall triangular shaped building that you can see all the way through length-wise but that you have to zig-zag back and forth from side room to side room to progress to the far end to exit. So, you are really forced to spend time and look. Since we felt we knew a lot about the end period of the Holocaust, we focused on the pre-war run up to the Holocaust. I found it disturbing in the historical parallels of a party and candidate coming into power based on a campaign of hate speech. Both the womens' restroom and the Children's Memorial had what was for me a disturbing use of multiple reflection mirrors. An infinity of images that was disorienting. I know the Children's Memorial was designed to do it. I asked Ori about the Ladies' Room and he had never heard about the U-shaped room of mirrors before and the Mens' Room is not like that according to him and Clay. A coincidence?
At 11am we met in a small classroom in the Youth Study Center with Berthe, a French Holocaust survivor. She was 6 when anti-Jewish activity began in Lyon and 9 when her parents sent her to live on a farm with a widow near the Swiss Alps with a certificate stating a local priest had baptized her. She lived on the farm until she was 12 or so and reunited with her parents who had been maquis. It was probably a fairly typical story. We spent almost 2 hours with her.
About 1pm, we arrived outside the Machane Yehuda market. It was much larger and more restrained than the one we visited in Tel Aviv. I don't know if I said it before, but I quickly got over my initial dislike of Jerusalem. I am not sure what I was reacting to on our first arrival in town. It was not a good first impression. I still wonder if it was just the view on arrival because seeing it and approaching it from a distance from the east instead of the west was fine for me. We were back on the west side of town again today and I recognized some of the first day landmarks and it is just different. That said, we drove by the Knesset today and that was new. Back to the market. We had to meet back at 2:30pm and we on our own to have lunch. We wound up at a Yemeni place. There are evidently a lot of Yemeni Jews living in Israel. We ate at Jahnun Bar. Fearing over ordering again, we ordered a pizza malawach to share with the intention of ordering a sweet version in a choice of chocolate, honey or peanut butter for dessert if we liked the first one. We did like the first one, so Clay ordered a chocolate one. He was asked small or large which was weird because the menu only had one size. Then again the menu only had one thing in 2 sizes and after our "dessert" was delivered we realized that somehow Clay's order had become one for jachnun. It came with a cup of tomato sauce, a hard boiled egg and some hot green sauce. It was clearly not dessert. We didn't like it much, especially since it wasn't what we expected, but we ate most of it anyway. We passed a group of 4 female soldiers eating ice cream and figured that would do. Clay bought a selection of pastries before we found a crepe place with ice cream. I had cookies & cream and Clay had dulce de leche. He said it wasn't as good as last night's gelato. It was certainly an International experience anyway.
Since it will be late after dinner and we have a 7:30am departure tomorrow morning, I will post this now I may not post again until after we get home. It depends. I won't have a Business Class Lounge to post from this trip!
Photos
We learned that the farewell dinner tonight at 7pm will be at a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. It will be at Olive & fish.That doesn't sound too promising for me. I have been able to easily avoid fish and seafood all trip without any help. In the good news category, we never ate the nabs or apple we had stockpiled for Shabbat. So, I know I'll have something to eat tonight no matter what.
We departed for Yad Vashem at 8:30am. Ori walked us around some of the outdoor features first and described our visit and gave suggestions. This was our first museum we visited unguided here in Israel. I know Ori wasn't allowed to guide or use our headsets because Yad Vashem uses their own. But we still used guides at the last 2 museums. I have no idea why not here. It was fine and probably because it is so disturbing to some people that they get in and out as quickly as possible. We were in around 9am and needed to meet outside on the other side by 11am. It is a tall triangular shaped building that you can see all the way through length-wise but that you have to zig-zag back and forth from side room to side room to progress to the far end to exit. So, you are really forced to spend time and look. Since we felt we knew a lot about the end period of the Holocaust, we focused on the pre-war run up to the Holocaust. I found it disturbing in the historical parallels of a party and candidate coming into power based on a campaign of hate speech. Both the womens' restroom and the Children's Memorial had what was for me a disturbing use of multiple reflection mirrors. An infinity of images that was disorienting. I know the Children's Memorial was designed to do it. I asked Ori about the Ladies' Room and he had never heard about the U-shaped room of mirrors before and the Mens' Room is not like that according to him and Clay. A coincidence?
At 11am we met in a small classroom in the Youth Study Center with Berthe, a French Holocaust survivor. She was 6 when anti-Jewish activity began in Lyon and 9 when her parents sent her to live on a farm with a widow near the Swiss Alps with a certificate stating a local priest had baptized her. She lived on the farm until she was 12 or so and reunited with her parents who had been maquis. It was probably a fairly typical story. We spent almost 2 hours with her.
About 1pm, we arrived outside the Machane Yehuda market. It was much larger and more restrained than the one we visited in Tel Aviv. I don't know if I said it before, but I quickly got over my initial dislike of Jerusalem. I am not sure what I was reacting to on our first arrival in town. It was not a good first impression. I still wonder if it was just the view on arrival because seeing it and approaching it from a distance from the east instead of the west was fine for me. We were back on the west side of town again today and I recognized some of the first day landmarks and it is just different. That said, we drove by the Knesset today and that was new. Back to the market. We had to meet back at 2:30pm and we on our own to have lunch. We wound up at a Yemeni place. There are evidently a lot of Yemeni Jews living in Israel. We ate at Jahnun Bar. Fearing over ordering again, we ordered a pizza malawach to share with the intention of ordering a sweet version in a choice of chocolate, honey or peanut butter for dessert if we liked the first one. We did like the first one, so Clay ordered a chocolate one. He was asked small or large which was weird because the menu only had one size. Then again the menu only had one thing in 2 sizes and after our "dessert" was delivered we realized that somehow Clay's order had become one for jachnun. It came with a cup of tomato sauce, a hard boiled egg and some hot green sauce. It was clearly not dessert. We didn't like it much, especially since it wasn't what we expected, but we ate most of it anyway. We passed a group of 4 female soldiers eating ice cream and figured that would do. Clay bought a selection of pastries before we found a crepe place with ice cream. I had cookies & cream and Clay had dulce de leche. He said it wasn't as good as last night's gelato. It was certainly an International experience anyway.
Since it will be late after dinner and we have a 7:30am departure tomorrow morning, I will post this now I may not post again until after we get home. It depends. I won't have a Business Class Lounge to post from this trip!
Photos
Last Night
We had an excellent escort from our Israeli guide, Ori, last night to the Night Spectacular. It was an excellent suggestion and we were glad we spent the extra time and money. We realized this morning as we ate breakfast overlooking the David Tower that it was where we were last night viewing the projections. After the show, we walked through the Mamilla Mall. We stopped at H. Stern. We stopped in to use the card we'd gotten on hotel check in to receive a free charm. Since Clay was at my side, she handed one to each of us. They were both star of David, but the card had an image of a hamsa, or hand, we asked and she found one of those and exchanged it. So we got 2 H. Stern charms from Israel. Nice. Clay had a pistachio gelato cone on the way back to the hotel.
I spent some time sorting my clothes to prepare for our last day here before bedtime. Every hotel we've stayed in in Israel had an iron and small board in the closet. When I got out my travel jeans and blouse, they looked as if they'd been slept in, they hadn't. I went to our David Citadel closet and you guessed it no iron. I hung them up and will have to go rumpled. I checked the guest directory hoping they had a room somewhere or a number to call for an iron but while they will launder or dry clean, there is no mention anywhere of pressing or ironing. So, I'll leave rumpled. I didn't need an iron the first 4 or 5 nights!
Today we visit Yad Vashem. That and a visit to Mechane Yehuda Market are all that we have on the schedule besides a 7pm farewell dinner at the hotel, I believe. We always knew this was a long pair of flights for a short trip, but it really has flown by with very little down time.
I'll be back later this afternoon or evening with a post about today. But, before I go I want to let everyone who mighth be following Mideast news and be worried that we are not feeling any effects of what is happening militarily with Israel. This does probably explain all the tanks we saw moving North towards Syrian when we were in the Golan Heights. I didn't mention it because it was military and it seemed like a bad idea. But I think Clay posted a photo.
More later.
I spent some time sorting my clothes to prepare for our last day here before bedtime. Every hotel we've stayed in in Israel had an iron and small board in the closet. When I got out my travel jeans and blouse, they looked as if they'd been slept in, they hadn't. I went to our David Citadel closet and you guessed it no iron. I hung them up and will have to go rumpled. I checked the guest directory hoping they had a room somewhere or a number to call for an iron but while they will launder or dry clean, there is no mention anywhere of pressing or ironing. So, I'll leave rumpled. I didn't need an iron the first 4 or 5 nights!
Today we visit Yad Vashem. That and a visit to Mechane Yehuda Market are all that we have on the schedule besides a 7pm farewell dinner at the hotel, I believe. We always knew this was a long pair of flights for a short trip, but it really has flown by with very little down time.
I'll be back later this afternoon or evening with a post about today. But, before I go I want to let everyone who mighth be following Mideast news and be worried that we are not feeling any effects of what is happening militarily with Israel. This does probably explain all the tanks we saw moving North towards Syrian when we were in the Golan Heights. I didn't mention it because it was military and it seemed like a bad idea. But I think Clay posted a photo.
More later.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Masada and the Dead Sea
We were both awake before the alarm this morning. So even though we had time for an extra half hour of sleep, we were up. We had Shabbat breakfast which meant that there was only mostly cold food and no omelet station. The rule is no work, which primarily seems to mean you can't push a button. Like the Shabbat elevator, which is set to just run up and down opening and closing at every floor for the entire 24+ hour period. So, there were people working but supposedly not observant Jews. It was fine. Hopefully they charge less for Shabbat breakfast than regular, but who knows.
The bus left at 9:30am for Masada. On the way we went through West Bank territory, which was just a check point and past Jericho and Qumran.We also passed a lot of Bedouin "encampments". We've seen these in other Mideast countries and they were large tents that looked like they moved around. These looked like shacks and sheds and plastic covered huts. It didn't look like they moved them around, but they hardly looked permanent either. Jericho we were told is the place with the longest continuous human inhabitation. Qumran is where the caves with the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Masada also has a long history but has been mostly abandoned since a 1st century siege that ended tragically. We saw the remains of Herod's construction there which was the same time frame as Caesarea. The Jews who died there later did not built, but just moved in and modified Herod's buildings. It was impressive. We were glad for the cable car up and down! Especially after yesterday, we'd have never survived the 1000 ft. or so elevation climb and descent. Talk about stairs!
The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. The Jordan River that we saw in the Golan Heights in the North runs through the Sea of Galilee and I suppose just ends in the Dead Sea. I mean if it is the earth's lowest point, how could the water get out. As I understand it, it just evaporates. The Dead Sea is receding and is now in 2 separate parts connected by a manmade canal. We drove by both parts and stopped for lunch and bathing at Ein Bokek or En Boqeq at the Hod Hotel. Our package gave us all a towel pass at the hotel to be used to change clothes, shower and use the spa's hydro-facilities. We didn't but just accessed the beach through there and walked along the shore and back. On a clear day, you can see Jordan, but not today.
At 3pm, we drove back to Jerusalem. We got back about 4:30pm or so. We ate the snacks we'd collected about 5pm and finished our 2 liter Coke Zero. We have to meet in the lobby in about 20 minutes to walk to our evening light show that the entire group opted in to do. I'll post this now and expect to go to bed after we return. If I have anything else to report, I'll do it tomorrow. Today was an easy day touring wise. I personally had a hard day. My right leg felt like lead and I had to drag it along. Not an easy day for me, but it would have been a real nightmare yesterday.
Oh yes, last news. We got an Air Canada email and our bid to upgrade to Business Class on Monday was unsuccessful so it will be Premium Economy for us for 12 hours. So sad for us!
Hooray! The lights just came on! Shabbat is over.
Photos
The bus left at 9:30am for Masada. On the way we went through West Bank territory, which was just a check point and past Jericho and Qumran.We also passed a lot of Bedouin "encampments". We've seen these in other Mideast countries and they were large tents that looked like they moved around. These looked like shacks and sheds and plastic covered huts. It didn't look like they moved them around, but they hardly looked permanent either. Jericho we were told is the place with the longest continuous human inhabitation. Qumran is where the caves with the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Masada also has a long history but has been mostly abandoned since a 1st century siege that ended tragically. We saw the remains of Herod's construction there which was the same time frame as Caesarea. The Jews who died there later did not built, but just moved in and modified Herod's buildings. It was impressive. We were glad for the cable car up and down! Especially after yesterday, we'd have never survived the 1000 ft. or so elevation climb and descent. Talk about stairs!
The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. The Jordan River that we saw in the Golan Heights in the North runs through the Sea of Galilee and I suppose just ends in the Dead Sea. I mean if it is the earth's lowest point, how could the water get out. As I understand it, it just evaporates. The Dead Sea is receding and is now in 2 separate parts connected by a manmade canal. We drove by both parts and stopped for lunch and bathing at Ein Bokek or En Boqeq at the Hod Hotel. Our package gave us all a towel pass at the hotel to be used to change clothes, shower and use the spa's hydro-facilities. We didn't but just accessed the beach through there and walked along the shore and back. On a clear day, you can see Jordan, but not today.
At 3pm, we drove back to Jerusalem. We got back about 4:30pm or so. We ate the snacks we'd collected about 5pm and finished our 2 liter Coke Zero. We have to meet in the lobby in about 20 minutes to walk to our evening light show that the entire group opted in to do. I'll post this now and expect to go to bed after we return. If I have anything else to report, I'll do it tomorrow. Today was an easy day touring wise. I personally had a hard day. My right leg felt like lead and I had to drag it along. Not an easy day for me, but it would have been a real nightmare yesterday.
Oh yes, last news. We got an Air Canada email and our bid to upgrade to Business Class on Monday was unsuccessful so it will be Premium Economy for us for 12 hours. So sad for us!
Hooray! The lights just came on! Shabbat is over.
Photos
Friday, February 9, 2018
Day of 1000 stairs
I don't think I'm exaggerating, If anything, my 1000 stair estimate may be conservative. We were up and down all kinds of stairs all day long. Old Jerusalem touring is not for sissies.
I was up early, before the 6am alarm sounded. I had explosive diarrhea last night with cramps and gas. It hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea about an hour before the lecture. I may have not appeciated the lecture as much as I should have because of that, but Clay didn't seem too thrilled either. Anyway, I am not sure that either of us learned anything new or formed any new opinions or impressions of Israel as a result of the lecture. After the lecture, given my condition, we just went to the Lobby Bar for their snack menu. I didn't want much. We ordered a cheese pizza to share with a beer and a Coke Zero. It was good and the perfect amount of food. It was also crazy overpriced. My small glass bottle of Coke Zero was $5.50 USD. After dinner, we walked one block uphill after turning right out of the hotel door and hit a small supermarket, more like a convenience store. We bought a 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero for a fraction of the cost. We also bought a bag of chips and a box of chocolate cookies. We were laying supplies for the onset of Shabbat. We've had dire warnings about restaurants being closed and requiring reservations for those that aren't. We won't go hungry now.
The buffet breakfast this morning was good and came with a view overlooking the old walled city. Ori asked on the bus this morning if anyone had a room with that view. NO! Anyway, I learned at breakfast that I was still in intestinal distress. I finally broke down and took 2 loperamide when we came back to the room to brush our teeth. Good news is it worked! Hopefully it will wear off naturally but we'll be home within 4 days anyway. This was always a short trip, but it is flying by.
At 8am, the bus departed for the Mount of Olives. We had bus number 3 today as Misha's bus couldn't climb hills yesterday. We can't remember today's driver's name but it isn't clear if we'll finish the trip with him or not. We only spent a couple of hours today with him. From our vantage atop Mount of Olives, we could see an overview of many important Christian sites. We saw where "Jesus wept." Where Peter denied Christ 3 times before the cock crowed. Where Jesus was crucified. Where the Ark of the Covenant was once kept. Where the Last Supper was held. Where Pontius Pilate tried and sentenced Christ. The 2nd of 2 places where the Virgin Mary is said to have died. The list went on and on. It was astounding but the atmosphere was of a carnival. There were people selling trinkets and photo opps on camel and white donkeys. It seemed surreal and disrespectful.
We loaded the bus again and drove back to the Dung Gate of the Old City. We went first to the Western Wall because our guide in the Davidson Centre had not arrived. The Western Wall is also known as the Wailing Wall. It is an outside base layer close to where the Ark of the Covenant was once stored and therefore thought to be a place to be close to God. We had to divide by sex to go through security to go there. Then we had to divide by sex again to approach the wall. The men get the wall on the other side of room that held the Ten Commandments, the women get a smaller section further away from the holiness. Men have to cover their heads and women don't. Clay got a souvenir yarmulke or kippah. The tradition is to touch the wall and pray and to write a prayer and fold it up and place it on the wall or in a crack. Clay said he put his hand on it. The women though were packed in 3 and 4 deep at the wall and we only had a short time allowed there. I got to be 2 back from the wall and reached in between 2 women who were standing touching the wall to set my prayer paper on a ledge. The woman to my right evidently didn't like that and elbowed me. I hadn't touched her! Since women were sitting on chairs in front of the first row of standing women reaching over them, I didn't think I was breaching etiquette. Anyway, I got out of there after that and got taken for a shekel at the free ladies room. At 10:45am, we all regrouped and walked back to try the Davidson Centre again. Our guide was not organized and though he knew a lot, he didn't communicate it very effectively. The good news was that the half hour of our lives that he wasted sitting in the dark in a sub-basement was at least dark and cool and quiet. But we were here, and it seemed silly to sit looking at computer simulations when the real thing was outside and above us. Anyway. It seemed that was the low point of the tour for the group. It wasn't just us. We came back outside in time to hear the muezzin call to prayer for Muslims. We had to go through the security checkpoint again. We walked across a good portion of the Old City for the rest of the day. We were warned to take water and our belongings when we left the bus at 10am or so that we wouldn't be back until afternoon. It isn't clear why then since we exited through the Jaffa Gate which we've been told is a 5 to 15 minute walk from our David Citadel Hotel. Here is a map that might help. So as the call for noon prayer was sounding and the noon church bells were ringing, we began the Via Doloroso and the Stations of the Cross. This was not on our itinerary, though Ori had mentioned it when he was pointing things out from the Mount of Olives. It was a surprise. A good one. We started at 3 since 1 and 2 are not accessible according to Ori. We went through 8 I think before we stopped for lunch at about 1pm. It was the latest we've had lunch and it was a hard walk with all the stairs and cobblestones and blazing sunshine and crowds. People seemed stressed. It didn't help that lunch was sidewalk seating at a shwarma/falafel stand. We were fine with it. It wasn't as good as the shwarma we had in Tel Aviv though. After lunch, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to finish the Stations of the Cross. The carnival atmosphere picked up again here. It did not feel sacred. I was surprised. It was a super crowded noisy maze. I'm glad we went, but what a mess. After a near revolt by about half the group over Ori refusing to stop for souvenirs or shopping of any kind, and after Mick had promised it to them, Mick yanked Ori aside and insisted. We got 15 minutes in a market area. Ori first derided the experience and described something like a long ago Turkish market. They stopped doing that even in Turkey and nothing like that was seen by us. I don't know what his deal is about riding us for spending our time in Israel in toilets or souvenir shops. What difference should it make to him if that is what happens. People, especially old people, go to the bathroom alot and enjoy shopping. I finally found an Israel flag patch in the last shop I checked. So, I'm done!
We rode the bus a long and circuituous route to arrive back at the hotel around 4:30pm. One of the women on our tour had shown me her free H. Stern charm from the voucher with our hotel keycards and told us where to find the store. I have another H. Stern charm from Manaus and I wanted to get mine. I had the voucher in my purse so hoping to beat the Shabbat shutdown, we went straight to the mall across the street to find it all shut down already. We had been told it would be about 5:15pm but it was earlier. We went ahead and walked all the way back to the David Tower to find the store for later reference. It looks like maybe Sunday afternoon on our last day.
We walked straight on to the Mandarin Chinese restaurant that Clay had found near our hotel that would be open as non-kosher on Shabbat. We walked through a bunch of open pubs and coffee shops on our way there as well as past an Italian place named Cielo that would open at 6:30pm. We were inside Mandarin and upstairs eating when we heard the citywide sirens sounding to give the 5 minute warning that Shabbat was beginning. Clay had to make 2 trips up the stairs because Mandarin didn't accept credit cards. He had to go to an ATM across the street. The Chinese food was good. It was a nice change. We got back to find that our setting the AC Shabbat settings per directions had left our AC running, but the lights being out was a problem. The bedside reading lights worked and the maid had left the bathroom lights on so we won't touch that switch all night to have light in there for showers in the morning. According to the hotel guide, the outlets should still work, but all the lamps have wall switches and since we didn't leave them turned on before we left, we can't use them now. The closet lights come on when the doors are opened which the hotel guide wouldn't work with the overhead lights. The elevators work and the hall lights are on. The lights are on in the ice machine room and the ice maker works. The TV works as do our tablets, so the dark is the only issue.
Tomorrow we visit Masada, the Dead Sea and in the evening Ori suggested we all go to an evening show at 55 shekels each. I think everyone took him up on that. Shabbat should end about 8:15pm tomorrow. The show is at 6:30pm, I think. Mick told us right before we got off the bus that tomorrow the tour would provide everyone of us a ticket to some kind of Dead Sea bathing, so to either bring a swimsuit or buy one in the hotel tonight. We didn't bring or buy swimsuits and neither of us would be seen in one any way. He didn't really explain what was happening tomorrow so if you can't just take off your shoes and roll up your pants to test the water, I'm not sure what we'll be doing while bathing is happening. Mick told us we'd all be impressed by Masada and they both think we'll all be impressed by the evening show. It will be another long day. We'll be ready to go home on Monday and just wish it wasn't such a long flight! We still haven't heard from Mick about our airport transfers which we prepaid for when we bought the tour. We have our fingers crossed that our Air Canada BC upgrade bids are accepted too! We won't know before 48 hours.
Photos
I was up early, before the 6am alarm sounded. I had explosive diarrhea last night with cramps and gas. It hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea about an hour before the lecture. I may have not appeciated the lecture as much as I should have because of that, but Clay didn't seem too thrilled either. Anyway, I am not sure that either of us learned anything new or formed any new opinions or impressions of Israel as a result of the lecture. After the lecture, given my condition, we just went to the Lobby Bar for their snack menu. I didn't want much. We ordered a cheese pizza to share with a beer and a Coke Zero. It was good and the perfect amount of food. It was also crazy overpriced. My small glass bottle of Coke Zero was $5.50 USD. After dinner, we walked one block uphill after turning right out of the hotel door and hit a small supermarket, more like a convenience store. We bought a 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero for a fraction of the cost. We also bought a bag of chips and a box of chocolate cookies. We were laying supplies for the onset of Shabbat. We've had dire warnings about restaurants being closed and requiring reservations for those that aren't. We won't go hungry now.
The buffet breakfast this morning was good and came with a view overlooking the old walled city. Ori asked on the bus this morning if anyone had a room with that view. NO! Anyway, I learned at breakfast that I was still in intestinal distress. I finally broke down and took 2 loperamide when we came back to the room to brush our teeth. Good news is it worked! Hopefully it will wear off naturally but we'll be home within 4 days anyway. This was always a short trip, but it is flying by.
At 8am, the bus departed for the Mount of Olives. We had bus number 3 today as Misha's bus couldn't climb hills yesterday. We can't remember today's driver's name but it isn't clear if we'll finish the trip with him or not. We only spent a couple of hours today with him. From our vantage atop Mount of Olives, we could see an overview of many important Christian sites. We saw where "Jesus wept." Where Peter denied Christ 3 times before the cock crowed. Where Jesus was crucified. Where the Ark of the Covenant was once kept. Where the Last Supper was held. Where Pontius Pilate tried and sentenced Christ. The 2nd of 2 places where the Virgin Mary is said to have died. The list went on and on. It was astounding but the atmosphere was of a carnival. There were people selling trinkets and photo opps on camel and white donkeys. It seemed surreal and disrespectful.
We loaded the bus again and drove back to the Dung Gate of the Old City. We went first to the Western Wall because our guide in the Davidson Centre had not arrived. The Western Wall is also known as the Wailing Wall. It is an outside base layer close to where the Ark of the Covenant was once stored and therefore thought to be a place to be close to God. We had to divide by sex to go through security to go there. Then we had to divide by sex again to approach the wall. The men get the wall on the other side of room that held the Ten Commandments, the women get a smaller section further away from the holiness. Men have to cover their heads and women don't. Clay got a souvenir yarmulke or kippah. The tradition is to touch the wall and pray and to write a prayer and fold it up and place it on the wall or in a crack. Clay said he put his hand on it. The women though were packed in 3 and 4 deep at the wall and we only had a short time allowed there. I got to be 2 back from the wall and reached in between 2 women who were standing touching the wall to set my prayer paper on a ledge. The woman to my right evidently didn't like that and elbowed me. I hadn't touched her! Since women were sitting on chairs in front of the first row of standing women reaching over them, I didn't think I was breaching etiquette. Anyway, I got out of there after that and got taken for a shekel at the free ladies room. At 10:45am, we all regrouped and walked back to try the Davidson Centre again. Our guide was not organized and though he knew a lot, he didn't communicate it very effectively. The good news was that the half hour of our lives that he wasted sitting in the dark in a sub-basement was at least dark and cool and quiet. But we were here, and it seemed silly to sit looking at computer simulations when the real thing was outside and above us. Anyway. It seemed that was the low point of the tour for the group. It wasn't just us. We came back outside in time to hear the muezzin call to prayer for Muslims. We had to go through the security checkpoint again. We walked across a good portion of the Old City for the rest of the day. We were warned to take water and our belongings when we left the bus at 10am or so that we wouldn't be back until afternoon. It isn't clear why then since we exited through the Jaffa Gate which we've been told is a 5 to 15 minute walk from our David Citadel Hotel. Here is a map that might help. So as the call for noon prayer was sounding and the noon church bells were ringing, we began the Via Doloroso and the Stations of the Cross. This was not on our itinerary, though Ori had mentioned it when he was pointing things out from the Mount of Olives. It was a surprise. A good one. We started at 3 since 1 and 2 are not accessible according to Ori. We went through 8 I think before we stopped for lunch at about 1pm. It was the latest we've had lunch and it was a hard walk with all the stairs and cobblestones and blazing sunshine and crowds. People seemed stressed. It didn't help that lunch was sidewalk seating at a shwarma/falafel stand. We were fine with it. It wasn't as good as the shwarma we had in Tel Aviv though. After lunch, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to finish the Stations of the Cross. The carnival atmosphere picked up again here. It did not feel sacred. I was surprised. It was a super crowded noisy maze. I'm glad we went, but what a mess. After a near revolt by about half the group over Ori refusing to stop for souvenirs or shopping of any kind, and after Mick had promised it to them, Mick yanked Ori aside and insisted. We got 15 minutes in a market area. Ori first derided the experience and described something like a long ago Turkish market. They stopped doing that even in Turkey and nothing like that was seen by us. I don't know what his deal is about riding us for spending our time in Israel in toilets or souvenir shops. What difference should it make to him if that is what happens. People, especially old people, go to the bathroom alot and enjoy shopping. I finally found an Israel flag patch in the last shop I checked. So, I'm done!
We rode the bus a long and circuituous route to arrive back at the hotel around 4:30pm. One of the women on our tour had shown me her free H. Stern charm from the voucher with our hotel keycards and told us where to find the store. I have another H. Stern charm from Manaus and I wanted to get mine. I had the voucher in my purse so hoping to beat the Shabbat shutdown, we went straight to the mall across the street to find it all shut down already. We had been told it would be about 5:15pm but it was earlier. We went ahead and walked all the way back to the David Tower to find the store for later reference. It looks like maybe Sunday afternoon on our last day.
We walked straight on to the Mandarin Chinese restaurant that Clay had found near our hotel that would be open as non-kosher on Shabbat. We walked through a bunch of open pubs and coffee shops on our way there as well as past an Italian place named Cielo that would open at 6:30pm. We were inside Mandarin and upstairs eating when we heard the citywide sirens sounding to give the 5 minute warning that Shabbat was beginning. Clay had to make 2 trips up the stairs because Mandarin didn't accept credit cards. He had to go to an ATM across the street. The Chinese food was good. It was a nice change. We got back to find that our setting the AC Shabbat settings per directions had left our AC running, but the lights being out was a problem. The bedside reading lights worked and the maid had left the bathroom lights on so we won't touch that switch all night to have light in there for showers in the morning. According to the hotel guide, the outlets should still work, but all the lamps have wall switches and since we didn't leave them turned on before we left, we can't use them now. The closet lights come on when the doors are opened which the hotel guide wouldn't work with the overhead lights. The elevators work and the hall lights are on. The lights are on in the ice machine room and the ice maker works. The TV works as do our tablets, so the dark is the only issue.
Tomorrow we visit Masada, the Dead Sea and in the evening Ori suggested we all go to an evening show at 55 shekels each. I think everyone took him up on that. Shabbat should end about 8:15pm tomorrow. The show is at 6:30pm, I think. Mick told us right before we got off the bus that tomorrow the tour would provide everyone of us a ticket to some kind of Dead Sea bathing, so to either bring a swimsuit or buy one in the hotel tonight. We didn't bring or buy swimsuits and neither of us would be seen in one any way. He didn't really explain what was happening tomorrow so if you can't just take off your shoes and roll up your pants to test the water, I'm not sure what we'll be doing while bathing is happening. Mick told us we'd all be impressed by Masada and they both think we'll all be impressed by the evening show. It will be another long day. We'll be ready to go home on Monday and just wish it wasn't such a long flight! We still haven't heard from Mick about our airport transfers which we prepaid for when we bought the tour. We have our fingers crossed that our Air Canada BC upgrade bids are accepted too! We won't know before 48 hours.
Photos
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