Israel Day 6
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Phil's Journal
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Being
Shabbat, Day 6 was mostly unstructured for us. Our guide Doron had
the day off. We slept in at the Dan Panorama Hotel for a couple
extra hours, had a light breakfast and headed out on a short walking
tour with Rabbi Adland. We walked from our hotel to one of the Old City
entrances, the
Jaffa Gate. We entered the Old City and made a quick turn into the
imposing building known as the Tower of David or The Citadel. From here
we got breathtaking views of the entire old city. Our Rabbi pointed out
The Dome of the
Rock, the Church of the
Holy
Sepulcher, the Western Wall, and places in the distance like Hebrew
University. We watched a short animated film that described the time
line of Jerusalem and left the Tower too enter the Old City. The Old City is divided into informal sections (Moslem, Jewish, Christian, Armenian) and lots and lots of small shops. Surprisingly, most of the old city is also covered giving it an almost scary quality. |
Various wares are sold including religious items, raw food stuffs like meat, spices, grains, and finished items like clothing, jewelry, and leather goods. We quickly learned that you don't EVER pay the asking price for an item. One must bargain down the price, sometimes up to 75% reduction. We walked and walked and finally stopped for lunch at a small restaurant we we once again had Shawarma. We left the Old City late in the afternoon to go back to the hotel for a rest. As Shabbat ended (at 7:30 PM we re-gathered in the hotel lobby) where our Rabbi led us in a short Havdalah service. We then all walked as a group up King George street to one of the more famous shopping districts, Ben Yehuda Street. Here, we window shopped and stopped for a very good Chinese dinner. Our fortune cookies gave us our fortune written in Hebrew. We took a cab back to the hotel and got a good night's sleep. |
| see map for days 6,7,8 | |
