March 30, 2007/Friday
3:36pm (Jerusalem)
This is our last day. We went first to the Pool of Siloam. This is the one mentioned in John 9. This is where Jesus put the mud on the guys eyes to heal his blindness. From there we went to the Yad Vashem. It is the Jerusalem holocaust museum. That was a sad spot to visit. I have been there once before. It is so somber. Then, we went to the Shrine of the Book. This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. It is also where the model of the city of Jerusalem during the time of Jesus is.
We went to this restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. We ate some excellent food there. I also remembered something today while shopping that I totally forgot to put in my blog yesterday. Yesterday I wrote about the second best food I had eaten in the whole world. I don’t know how, but I forgot to tell you about the desert I ate. It was called Kada’if. Amazing! It will sound gross when I describe it. But, let me make it for you first. It is goat cheese, string thin pasta, almonds, with sugar and water dissolved and poured over it. It is so delicious. I can’t wait to make it. It may be the best desert I have ever eaten.
After eating lunch today, Dave, Tina, and I decided to go shop in the Old City. Maybe I should say that I decided to go and they decided to go with me. This was shortly after our guide, Jack, had just told us that the 2:00pm, the time we were going, was the worst time to go. He said that the men would just be finishing their prayers in the Old City. He also said that this was the most likely time for there to be an incident. Well, that is when we went. I wanted to go to a couple of art galleries there. I was afraid that the art gallery would be closed. As Dave said, we looked like salmon swimming upstream. Every person we met was a male Muslim. We worked our way through the tiny streets.
We made it to the art galleries. I got a few lithographs. I wanted a painting that costs about $2500. I decided not to go for that one just now. It was some beautiful stuff. I’ll keep it on my wish list.
While we are here, there is preparation for the Passover next week. One night this week, the hotel took all of the plates, dishes, and utensils and threw them away. This is so that they make sure that there is no yeast on the stuff for the Passover. You can’t even have bread now until after the Passover is complete. It is the craziest bunch of crap you have ever seen. Dave managed to sneak some pita bread into the room. Every time you have a meal, there are Jewish guys walking around the restaurant in the hotel just to make sure that you don’t taint the plates with bread. One of our ladies had her shopping bag searched as she entered the hotel lobby. They were looking for bread. I have started calling these people who monitor all of this the Yeast Patrol.
Right now we are sitting in the lobby waiting for our departure. We leave the hotel for the Ben Gurion Hotel at 1:30am. We have decided to stay up. Bunkie, David, Dave, and I have decided not to go to sleep. From where we are sitting in the lobby we can look over the restaurant. We have talked about how funny it would be to get a loaf of bread and start throwing it on the tables below where all the Jews are eating. Well, funny might not be a good description. I am sure we would get thrown out. We might even miss our flight due to the uprising that would cause. I would love to see how the Yeast Patrol would respond to such an act.
I will be en route until Saturday night. I’ll wrap it up with more thoughts then.
3:36pm (Jerusalem)
This is our last day. We went first to the Pool of Siloam. This is the one mentioned in John 9. This is where Jesus put the mud on the guys eyes to heal his blindness. From there we went to the Yad Vashem. It is the Jerusalem holocaust museum. That was a sad spot to visit. I have been there once before. It is so somber. Then, we went to the Shrine of the Book. This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. It is also where the model of the city of Jerusalem during the time of Jesus is.
We went to this restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. We ate some excellent food there. I also remembered something today while shopping that I totally forgot to put in my blog yesterday. Yesterday I wrote about the second best food I had eaten in the whole world. I don’t know how, but I forgot to tell you about the desert I ate. It was called Kada’if. Amazing! It will sound gross when I describe it. But, let me make it for you first. It is goat cheese, string thin pasta, almonds, with sugar and water dissolved and poured over it. It is so delicious. I can’t wait to make it. It may be the best desert I have ever eaten.
After eating lunch today, Dave, Tina, and I decided to go shop in the Old City. Maybe I should say that I decided to go and they decided to go with me. This was shortly after our guide, Jack, had just told us that the 2:00pm, the time we were going, was the worst time to go. He said that the men would just be finishing their prayers in the Old City. He also said that this was the most likely time for there to be an incident. Well, that is when we went. I wanted to go to a couple of art galleries there. I was afraid that the art gallery would be closed. As Dave said, we looked like salmon swimming upstream. Every person we met was a male Muslim. We worked our way through the tiny streets.
We made it to the art galleries. I got a few lithographs. I wanted a painting that costs about $2500. I decided not to go for that one just now. It was some beautiful stuff. I’ll keep it on my wish list.
While we are here, there is preparation for the Passover next week. One night this week, the hotel took all of the plates, dishes, and utensils and threw them away. This is so that they make sure that there is no yeast on the stuff for the Passover. You can’t even have bread now until after the Passover is complete. It is the craziest bunch of crap you have ever seen. Dave managed to sneak some pita bread into the room. Every time you have a meal, there are Jewish guys walking around the restaurant in the hotel just to make sure that you don’t taint the plates with bread. One of our ladies had her shopping bag searched as she entered the hotel lobby. They were looking for bread. I have started calling these people who monitor all of this the Yeast Patrol.
Right now we are sitting in the lobby waiting for our departure. We leave the hotel for the Ben Gurion Hotel at 1:30am. We have decided to stay up. Bunkie, David, Dave, and I have decided not to go to sleep. From where we are sitting in the lobby we can look over the restaurant. We have talked about how funny it would be to get a loaf of bread and start throwing it on the tables below where all the Jews are eating. Well, funny might not be a good description. I am sure we would get thrown out. We might even miss our flight due to the uprising that would cause. I would love to see how the Yeast Patrol would respond to such an act.
I will be en route until Saturday night. I’ll wrap it up with more thoughts then.
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