Today was the last day of touring around Israel with my parents so we spent the final day in Tel Aviv doing a morning walking tour around old Jaffa and in the afternoon we did another walking tour of Tel Aviv. Both tours gave a great overview of the history of Tel Aviv and introduced me to some new museums and restaurants to visit when I return to Tel Aviv (which will probably be next week for Purim).
Although we hit bad weather during most of the trip, with heavy rain in Haifa and snow in Jerusalem, we still had a wonderful time visiting many wonderful sites in Israel some of which I had never been to before.

I’m spending another night in Tel Aviv and will be back in Jerusalem tomorrow to check into the dorm and get ready for the semester to begin next week.

Today was our last day in Jerusalem so we spent it shopping in the old city and visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where Jesus was crucified and buried) and having lunch in the shuk.

By the time we arrived in Tel Aviv it was already close to dinner time so we headed to my favorite shakshuka place for dinner.

Today we walked to the Israel Museum and spent the day looking at the exhibits on display. The most interesting exhibit was of course the Dead Sea Scrolls but we also enjoyed the Jewish Culture section which included re-constructed temples from different countries, many different Torahs, and Chanukiahs from around the world.

That evening we attended a klezmer concert which began with havdalah service and then continued with beautiful klezmer music with wine and potato kugel.

This morning we woke up to Jerusalem covered in beautiful white snow. Although that meant no busses, no light rail and most of the stores shut down, we still made the most of the day. After lunch we went on a walk to the shuk and got there by following the light rail track straight to the Mahane Yehuda stop. Although not all the shops were open and it wasn’t packed like a typical Friday afternoon before Shabbat, there were still people there shopping and even dancing in the street! By the time we returned to the hotel our shoes were soaking wet. Now I can say I walked one mile up hill in the snow to buy groceries.

That evening the three of us planned on attending Friday night services and although we made it to services, we ended up at two separate services. Mom headed down to the lobby to light the candles and once I finished shaving, Greg and I took the Sabatavator (elevator that observes Shabbat) down to the lobby to meet Mom. Since we were taking the elevator from the 11th floor and the elevator stopped at every floor, by the time we made it to the bottom Mom wasn’t there. We went to the room where the service was scheduled however nobody was there so we walked to the bottom floor where it appeared to be a Bar Mitzvah service going on. We then went to the hotel lobby to confirm where the service was and was told that it may be on another floor which it was. Since the service was orthodox there was no way of knowing where Mom was sitting so we waited until the end of the service to find her. But where was she? We walked to the lobby and saw here waiting there for us. Turns out Mom went to the Friday night service for the Bar Mitzvah but since her service also had men and women divided she also had no way of knowing when we arrived.

We then made our way to a lovely Shabbat dinner put on by the hotel.
While we were having dessert, a table full of women from Argentina were singing Hebrew songs at the top of their lungs. Before leaving the dining hall, we stopped by their table to wish them a Shabbat Shalom and at some point while we were chatting Mom mentioned that I was single! So then the organizer of the group pointed out who was single and they said a few things about themselves then asked me some questions. The whole ordeal was embarrassing yet entertaining at the same time.

Today we went to Yad Veshem to visit the Holocaust History Museum. Since the weather forecast was calling for rain today I figured it would be a good day to do an indoor activity, however about halfway through the museum we were told we had to leave because the museum was closing due to the snow storm that was going to hit Jerusalem in five hours so they had to get everyone out of the museum before the roads closed (based on past snow storms, the city of Jerusalem will close the roads once the snow starts building up). The whole irony in the situation was here we are hearing about Jews being taken from their homes, in a museum which we were told to leave.

Our next stop was the Knesset for a tour of the inside which included seeing the plenum which is where all the big debates are held.

After the tour ended we rushed back to our hotel room and waited for the snow storm to begin.

Today we visited Masada, the fortification in the Judaean Desert, and the Dead Sea. The last time I went to Masada, back in ’96, I had taken the snake path up early in the morning to see the sunrise however this time we took the tram up to the top. The view going up was beautiful and even more spectacular at the top! Since it was raining in Jerusalem we were worried it would also be raining on the top of Masada but to our luck there wasn’t a drop of rain.

After lunch we headed to the Dead Sea, earth’s lowest elevation on land and one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water.

Our original plan was to do a walking tour in the morning however due to a military drill conducted on the light rail, we were forced to switch to a bus and were therefore late for the walking tour. We instead spent the morning walking along the city walls which gave us a very nice view of Jerusalem.

At 2 o’clock we met the tour guide at Jaffa Gate for our tour around the old city. The tour covered all four quarters of the old city and gave us a good insight on the origins of the old city and each quarter.

After our wonderful dinner in the old city we headed to the Western Wall for a tour of the Western Wall through tunnels under the old city. Walking through the tunnels under the old city helped us to visualize how the Western Wall looked during the time of the 2nd temple and we were also able to go to the closest point to where the temple would have stood 2000 years ago.

This morning we left Haifa for Jerusalem and not a moment after checking into the hotel, we were off to the old city for sight seeing. Our first stop was the Tower of David Museum which tells the history of Jerusalem from the days of Herod until today. What’s fascinating about this museum is that it’s located inside the citadel which was built on top of remains of the first temple from over 2000 years ago.

After learning about the history of Jerusalem and seeing amazing views of the city, we headed to Roladin cafe in Mamilla Mall to relax over coffee and hamamtaschens. Roladin was the same place I went for the doughnuts during Chanukah so I knew they’d have hamamtaschens during Purim.

That evening we watched a 45 minute light show on the Tower of David which told the story of Jerusalem depicted with stunning visuals projected on the inside walls of the citadel.

We finished off the night with shawarma wraps and walked around Jaffa St until we were ready to head back to the hotel.

Our first stop was to visit Caesarea National Park, a city originally built by Herod the Great during the Roman times and the last of its remains dating as late as the crusader period. The best part of the park is the hippodrome with tracks in the sand that make it look like a race had just completed.   The last stop of the tour was an amphitheater which was mostly restored and in use today, in fact Mom had seen a show there during her first trip to Israel.

Our next stop was to the city of Akko where we had lunch at a falafel stand and later visited the Or Torah Synagogue which is a synagogue built in 1955 and known for its mosaics covering almost every wall, floor, and ceiling.  The mosaics depict different aspects of Judaism from biblical times to modern times.  We were lucky to get into the synagogue since when we first arrived the doors were locked however eventually a group of people that had arranged a tour of the synagogue arrived and said someone was coming in another 20 minutes to give them a tour . Good thing we waited!

Since today is Shabbat we decided to stay local and visit the Hect Museum located on the campus of Haifa University. It’s more like a smaller version of the Israel Museum but had some artifacts that can only be seen there such as the MaAgan Michael ship which dates back to the 5th century bce.