Day 21: More Old City and Ein Karem (July 2)

Jim still hadn't really seen the market a few blocks from where we are staying, so we decided to go there for breakfast.  A Monday morning in the market looks very different from the bustle of Friday mornings.  While on Fridays you can barely push your way through the crowds, today the market was just starting to open and we sat at stools outside a little croissant shop and watched the vendors setting up their shops.

Julia left for work and Jim, Rachel, and I headed back into the Old City to see some of what we had missed yesterday.  I heard from Sandra about a place named Jerusalem Pottery that is supposed to have the best pottery in the city.  My mom just emailed me to tell me to pick up a birthday present for myself in Israel, so that was our first stop.  We spoke to a man who was the third generation of pottery makers. His grandfather and a few of his friends were brought to Jerusalem from Turkey/Armenia to work on restoring the tiles on the Dome of the Rock.  In the end they weren't allowed to complete that work because it was decided that Christians shouldn't work on the Temple Mount, but as he had moved to Jerusalem, he started making and painting pottery for sale to tourists.  He was also the man who made all of the street signs in the Old City, beautifully written originally in both Arabic and English.  There is a picture on the wall of his father (the second generation) adding the Hebrew lettering to the signs after 1967.  It is cool because all over town you can see the original signs with an added row of Hebrew lettering above them, the work of a father and a son.  The grandson continues to make beautiful pieces and has a daughter who may (or may not) take over the business.  I bought myself (thanks Mom!) a wonderful serving tray.

From there we walked to the museum at the Tower of David which we read was a great place to start to get an historical overview of the whole city.  Better late than never.  We happened to walk in just as a free tour was starting and couldn't have been luckier.  The guide, (Helen Kaiserman in case you ever need a recommendation), was a Jewish woman with encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Jerusalem.  We started on the top of the tower where she spent a good hour explaining everything we could see 360 degrees around us.  We've been to lots of viewpoints, but her descriptions really helped to bring everything together and she was full of interesting stories.  She explained the neighborhood where I got my sign last night was the first community outside the walls that no one wanted to move to until a cholera outbreak in the Old City made it look more attractive to leave and pointed out the BYU prominent on the Mount of Olives.  Having Mormons in Jerusalem caused a lot of  controversy; people were upset because LDSs have no historical connection to the land and were worried that they would try to convert Jews.  She said they have 7 million dollars on the line if they break their promise not to proselytize or even really talk about their religion at all.  As we walked down into the museum, her great depth of knowledge proved to be more than we had time for.  We were about 1000 years before the end of the tour when we broke off because we had to get to two important sites before they closed.

First one was Zalatino's - the sweet treat we just had to introduce to Jim - or at least that was our excuse for getting it again.  Perfectly delicious - don't forget the tea.  It is the super sweet Arabic Chai.

Then we wanted more time on Temple Mount.  On the way there we passed the Western Wall and this time, as it was a Monday afternoon, we got to see a Bar Mitzvah in progress which was interesting to stop and watch for a while.  I imagine it would be very meaningful to have your ceremony right there, but as men and women are separated on the Wall you couldn't even have your mom there, though she might have been one of the women reaching over the partition.

This time we got up to the top of the Temple Mount with about 45-minutes to walk around the huge complex.  It was really exposed and hot up there, not made better by the fact that I was covered from head to toe in an additional layer of clothing.  Though we weren't allowed to go inside, the Dome of the Rock was beautiful to walk around from the outside.  Our tour guide earlier had shown us a picture of the inside, and it is just as beautiful!

We needed to leave again by 2:30 and walked out to the base of the Mount of Olives to see Mary's Tomb, which is down several levels in a very cool spot.  We walked across the street to show Jim the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of All Nations.  This time not wanting to be led astray by what others had to say about the area, Rachel pulled out her handy New Testament she had picked up at the bus station/book exchange and gave us the actual account, at least according to Matthew.

Jim wanted to go to the City of David and we made it as far as the information center.  There was a movie that would have been cool to see but you had to pay for museum admission as well and we just didn't have the time.  We walked back up and along the wall to Mount Zion and the spot of the Last Supper, the Dormition Abbey were Mary fell into her "long sleep," and the King David's grave.  We were separated from Jim for the viewing as there are two separate walled off areas by gender.  (I was too hot on this part to take any pictures...running out of steam without lunch too.)

We still hadn't had any lunch and it was getting almost time to meet Julia for dinner.  So, we walked into the Zion Gate along the side of the Armenian Quarter over to the Jaffa Gate.  I went to pick up my pottery and sent Jim and Rachel ahead to the place where we had ordered the hummus with cauliflower that she loved last week.  By the time I got there they had been served and Jim seemed to love it as much as Rachel.

From there we took a Gett! (like an Uber) to meet Julia in the neighborhood of Ein Karem near her work.  Quaint and beautiful hillside.  We sat outside on their balcony, deciding the view and pleasant weather was worth the second hand smoke.  We took a bus and light-rail home and arrived just as the next World Cup game was starting. 

At halftime we decided to walk out to the market for a waffle/ice cream dessert and to watch the second half.  By the time we made it the few minutes to the market Japan had scored two goals.  We were all pretty tired though and were home for the last-minute winning Belgium goal.