London, Weds Jan 17

Bill woke up early and went down for brekkies, I opted to sleep a bit longer.  After washing up and getting dressed, we went for a stroll along the streets of Bloomsbury neighborhood, where our hotel is located.  We are quite literally, 1 block from the British Museum.  We headed passed the museum and into a courtyard bookshop.  Within the shop was a coffee house, so we stopped for a cup of joe and a croissant.  While we sat there, Bill said he was suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue.  We decided to head back to the hotel and Bill would nap and I would explore Covent Gardens.

There was a string quartet playing on the lower shop level.  An energetic group playing an eclectic mix of standards and jazzy renditions of the American Songbook.

I wandered around a bit more, finding a cheese shop and trying about 4 different cheese, 2 cows milk, and 2 goats milk.  I settled on 1/2 of an Innes Brick, which was one of the goat milk choices.  I wandered back to the hotel and woke up Bill and decided on snoozing as well.   We both slept until about 5 pm.

We had dinner at Malabar Junction, an Indian restaurant just down the block from the hotel.  It was quite early, about 6, and the place was empty.  By 7 or 7:30 it was hopping!  I ordered the Rogan Josh  and Bill had the Masala fish curry.  The lamb dish was good, the lamb was tender, but I do like my own version better.  Bill’s curry was tasty, but for me, the mixture of coconut milk and fish was a no go!

What do you think happened next?  We went back to the hotel and slept

Sounds like a real vacay, don’t you think.  How is it possible that 2 retired people need this much sleep?

LONDON and TAMIL NADU, INDIA, Jan 16, Tuesday

The beast is out and packed and this time only weighs about 9.4 kilos, or about 20 lbs.  Not too bad for packing for 2 different climates!

Our flight over was interesting!  Aside from leaving at 8:15 am, which meant that we had to be at the airport at least by 6 am, there were issues with issuing us seats, we had a strange “family” sitting behind us which consisted of a young mother, a toddler, and an older young adult, (late teens, early 20’s) with some cognitive issues.  The toddler was a screamer, a high pitched, caterwauling-earth-shattering-keening that would just erupt suddenly when he, the toddler, was prevented from getting what he wanted.  That coupled with the older one’s muttering of strange phrases such as “you smelt it, you dealt it” over and over again.  The mother’s tone of voice never wavered, always soft, soothing, and frankly, freaky.  Fortunately for us the toddler fell asleep for about 1/2 of the flight and the older one was totally into his movies.  The issues began in earnest when the toddler, “Jamesie”  awoke  from his nap and decided that everything that “mummy” offered was responded to by an emphatic “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO...”, then high pitched scream!

There should be a separate area for people traveling with small children, as this just becomes a more and more frequent occurrence and annoyance.  (I’m hitching up my pants and wagging a finger right now in a curmudgeonly fashion.)

As we are getting ready to exit the plane and are gathering our things, I am putting on my jacket and notice the aforementioned young man starting at me.  I turn my back to him and finishing getting dressed.   When we reach baggage claim, I notice him getting off the escalator and he then jumps out from behind a pillar and says hello to me.  I’m thinking, Jeez, of all the luck, I’ve got a guy tailing me who is a bit daft.  

We exit without further issue and hit the subway.  We were fortunate in that there was a tube stop close to the hotel.  We only had to make one change and that was for only a single stop.  As we are walking to the hotel, so much was coming back to me.  Bill, Johnny, and I stated in this hotel about 10 or 12 years ago!

We checked in and headed out for a quick bit as it was about 10 pm local time.  We hit the place on the corner, a Turkish place, called Tas.  We have eaten there before and it was as good as we remembered.  

At a table behind us was a larger group of about 8 Americans.  They were really loud.  Having cross conversations and virtually shouting at each other their observations.  This led me to comment to Bill, “Jeez, Americans are loud!”

The room is small, compact and well designed.  It was so nice taking the pack off and getting to lie down.  It was a little tough to fall asleep, but I finally succeeded.

Tuesday....October 31

We are heading to Tel Aviv today....well, actually, Yafo.  These 2 used to be separate city/towns, Yafo and Tel Aviv, but gradually over time they have melded into a city entity.  Looking out over the cityscape, you can see the high rises of Tel Aviv towering to the north and the low rise landscape of Yafo to the south.  Yafo seemed, to us, to be different than the big city of Tel Aviv, so we opted to stay there.  Again, we chose to stay in an apartment. 

We left the apartment in Jerusalem around noon to catch a sherut to Tel Aviv.  It worked out quite well.  The sherut was filled up shortly after we arrived and then we were off to Tel Aviv.  Bill explained that Israelis thought that sheruts were safer than buses, but I can't say from a terrorist point of view, however, the way that many sherut drivers drive scares the bejeezus out of me.

We were dropped off at the central bus station in Tel Aviv and then had to figure out how to get to the apt.  We flagged a cab and shortly we were at the apt.

The apartment that we rented was in a very nice modern complex with broad grass spaces defining the grounds.  The apartment came with the largest cat Bill and I have ever seen...I mean enormous.  This guy probably weighed a good 35 or so pounds.  He wasn't particularly friendly, but wasn't a hisser either.  Neither of us could get over how damn big it was.  Watching the cat negotiate jumping up on the couch was pretty funny.  Back legs coiling for the leap, ears twitching, and then the leap--and he was then clawing his way up onto the couch, scrabbling with his hind feet to get purchase.  Hilarious.

Bill on Promenade

After settling in we headed out to explore and find something to eat.  We walked into the flea market and were underwhelmed.  It is billed as an attraction of the area, but it's just kind of sad.  Realizing that we were hungry we settled on Dr. Shakshuka.  Shakshuka is a national dish of a tomato-based stew/sauce onto which are put 2 eggs to poach.  We had it in Jerusalem, and I thought that it was good, I was not prepared for this place.  It was AWESOME.  Rich and chunky, redolent with onions and red bell peppers with 2 perfectly cooked eggs sitting on top.  It's served with pita on the side, and you yearn for more bread to sop up every last drop of that sauce.

It seems that the chef is a celebrity!  People were coming through and having their pictures taken with him.  He is a cherubic man with a jowly face and round body that speaks to enjoyment of food.  We found out later that he was a celebrity judge on Israel's top chef or was the winner of it...not sure.  But he certainly did not shy away from his customers!

After eating our fill, we wandered out to the beach front promenade and walked up to the edge of the high rise buildings in Tel Aviv proper.  There were all sorts of people out and about.  Children attending a surf school, sun bathers, pensioners, trendy sorts, trendy sorts with obvious surgery resulting in almost duckbill lips...hilarious on the one hand, and creepy on the other.

We wandered back to the abode and tried to figure out what to do for dinner.  Ultimately we settled on __________.  If I’m drawing a blank as to where we ate, it must not have been memorable.

This was the view from our apartment in Yafo looking west towards the water.  We crawled into the loft bed gently skinning our knees, and Bill said, enough, and opted to sleep on the couch.  I bravely remained in the loft, scraped knees and badly bruised toes and all.

Mr. Kitty, began wailing around 2 or 3 in the morning, we both talked to him and he eventually calmed down and settled back to sleep.  On arising and feeding time, he was my best friend once again!

Monday, Jerusalem, October 30

We hang a bit in the apt waiting to take the Mount of Olives tour at 2 pm.

We arrive at the Jaffa Gate at 2 and find quite a crowd, there were people waiting to take the Tour of the City of David and those waiting for Mount of Olives.  The groups were separated and instead of the 15 that were expected, there were suddenly 24.  That was the first indication that there was a need for organization.

Our tour guide (and I use the term guide in the loosest sense of the word) was Shir.  She gathered us and headed down to the street below.  However, she did not know how to manage a group and sped off down the stairs without giving the large group instructions as to where we were headed to get the transport over to the Mount of Olives.  The first group arriving at street level were relatively young, but the second group was spearheaded by an older foursome from Britain, a couple and her elderly parents.  (The mother had sight issues and was not surefooted)  Shir went back up the stairs to corral
the stragglers who had headed into the Mamilla mall.

Once assembled at the street, it occurs to Shir that the van holds 15, but there is a group of 24, so she needs another van.  It is very confusing, we don't know if we should just grab a cab, or she is ordering another van.  About 10 minutes go by, and another van has been procured and we head off over to East Jerusalem.

Traffic is very heavy and the roads quite twisty, but as we pass the Damascus Gate, Bill and I notice a whole new side to Jerusalem, the Arab Area!  It reminded us of Cairo and we wanted to explore it further.

Up the hill we went and finally stop at the very tippity top of the Mount of Olives.  We exit the van and cross the street into a small crusader era enclosure.  Inside is a small chapel and outside is a ring of stone walls.

This is the small chapel within the stone walls.  It was part of the original church of the Ascension where Jesus was reputed to have ascended to heaven.  There is a stone which is said to bear the marks of his feet.  I'm not so sure, there are 2 depressions in the rock, but it kind of feels like the ancient astrological figures....3 stars makes the belt of Orion....not much else can be "figured" out from those 3 stars...same here!  I guess that is what makes faith, belief that those 2 depressions are the imprints of Jesus's feet as he ascended.

We head down the street, (which is only wide enough for 2 donkeys but cars come in both directions speeding around blind corners), and head into another church built by Helena, mother of Constantine, and is now run by the Carmelites.  The grounds are beautiful, gardens everywhere and the Lord's Prayer written in every language posted all over the walls.

The plaque outside the Church and a view of the courtyard within the church walls.

Bill in front of some of the Lord's Prayers

Another view of the domed roof of the church proper.

We gather again outside the church, and once again, start out without the whole group knowing where to meet.  We meet at a stone wall over looking the City and the HUGE Jewish Cemetery, which is right on the busy narrow road AND there are tons of tourists ooohing and aaaahing over the view and stepping right into traffic to get that perfect selfie or friends photo.  A mess.  However, the view was spectacular.

At the far left middle of the photo you see a small gray dome, that is the Al Aksa Mosque, the golden dome in the middle is the Golden Dome both are within the Temple Mount, and behind the gold dome, you can barely make out 2 smaller gray domes, that is the Holy Sepulcher Church in the Latin Quarter of the Old City.  As you can probably tell, it is clouding over and starting to sprinkle, plus, it is late in the afternoon, around 3:30 or so.

We wander down the slope and Shir takes us into the tomb of the Prophets.  This lies on private land, and the owner graciously agreed to let us come in and he gave us the tour of the burial crypts or sepulchers that were in the cave.  It was kind of spooky and eerie as there were no lights, just a candle.  This is reputed to be the burial site of 3 prophets....Malachi, and 2 other guys as well as their disciples.

Heading down the slope at a break neck speed.  This almost makes the older British man fall as he slips on the stones and starts sliding down one of the rock walls.  Luckily, his son-in-law was there to catch him before he fell down completely.  We end up at the Jewish Cemetery.  WHICH IS ENORMOUS!  You really can't fathom how large it is until you see it from both sides of Jerusalem.  This is part of the steep path that we were walking on.  As you can see, there are no sidewalks and there are cars speeding in both directions.

We could see into the cemetery through a gate, the small square cuts in the stone work is for a candle.

To the left and right this is all you can see, and it stretched down the hill as far as you can see as well.  As night descends, you can feel the magic of the place.

We then head into St. Peter's church yard.  This is a crusader age compound and it is the only Church in the world that doesn't face east, it faces west as that is what Peter did...push Christianity out into the Roman world.

 The Orthodox Church at the base of the hill

 The view from the church yard towards the Temple Mount

 Looking up at the City walls

 Interior of the Orthodox Sanctuary above, and below

Descending into the crypt, it was illuminated by all of these candles which gave it an other worldly feeling.

We then finished up walking down the rest of the hill and up again into the Old City.

After the tour, we peeled off and hit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  This place is always crowded, as well as confusing in order to find the last couple of stops on the Via Dolorosa.  Some are upstairs, and some are on the 2 lower floors.

 To the left is the carpeted nave of the church

To the right is the stair case leading from the lowest level up to the 1st floor

To the right is another view of the nave.

To the left is the Holy Sepulcher.  It is a large wooden box that fits over the Holy Rock on which it is reputed Jesus was resurrected








We decided to head out the Damascus Gate and ended up looking for a restaurant and ended up at a Chinese place, that served ramen noodles.  Meh!  It was interesting having a discussion with the owner on why he came to Israel.  Strictly economic.  He left Hong Kong and came to Jerusalem....doesn't seem like the usual path to escape oppression.


 

Jerusalem, Sunday, Oct 29

After visiting the Old City on our own, we decided to take a walking tour with Sandeman’s.  They offered a free two hour tour of the Old City.  We met outside the Jaffa Gate and met our tour guide, Yoni. He was fabulous, enthusiastic and knowledgeable, making the city come alive.  We saw things we would never have been able to find on our own, such as vista points overlooking the Western Wall and the Golden Dome.  We wandered in and out of all four quarters of the Old City.  Definitely a must do for any visitor to Jerusalem.

At the end of the tour, we ate at Tala’s Hummus and Falafel.  It was excellent.  Crunchy falafel and creamy hummus with excellent Israeli salads on the side.  I must say that the pita bread in Israel is nothing like what is called pita here.  It is moist and fluffy and it doesn’t matter if it is opened up and filled or not, it is great all by itself!

Having a deep pita jones right now!

A view of a deserted alley in Jerusalem’s Old City

Our hidden vista point looking down on the Western Wall and the crowds!

A courtyard in the Old City

The path from the south side of the Old City walls leading to an Orthodox Church.

After lunch, my back was aching, so I went back to the apt to do laundry and Bill went on another tour to The City of David.  His guide this time was Gary.  He really liked the tour.  

We had a slight case of crossed wires.  Bill got home from his tour later than expected.  My back and hips were so out of sorts, I resorted to a handful of Ibuprofen and lying down.  I could hardly get out of bed without pain.  There was no need for Bill to stay with me, so he went out for a beer and would contact me later on about joining him.  At least that was my recollection of the discussion.  His was that it was definite that we would meet and he was so anxious that I didn't show up.  The wifi at the bar was not working and he felt he couldn't leave in case I showed up.  In my mind, it was that I was going to decide if I wanted to meet up with him based on him making contact with me.  I fell asleep and was unable to contact him because of the bad wifi at the bar.  When he came back to the apt, he was so concerned that we hadn't connect.  I felt so bad for him.  I wasn't the least bit bothered by the mishap.  He was worried that I would be very angry.  It all worked out in the end.  I ate some yogurt earlier in the evening and called it a night!

I fell asleep in my clothes only to awaken at 3 am, take a shower and hit the bed again.  At some point, my hips popped back into alignment and everything was right with the world again!  

Sabbath in Jerusalem, Oct 28

We were at least smart enough to find something open on the sabbath, the Israel Museum.

It was a short, well sort of, walk from the apartment.  We headed out and took a wrong turn almost immediately, that got fixed, and we were off in the correct direction.  What struck me was the nature of the neighborhoods we traversed.  I knew we were in relatively wealthy communities, but was amazed at the unkempt look of each home.  There was trash, debris, dirt, and assorted things lying in each little patch of grass.  Not just stones and branches, but empty wrappers, soda cans, and other detritus of human activity.  No one picked up their spaces.  Granted, these were multiple dwellings, and the “yard”was equivalent to the patch of grass in front of Brooklyn or Queens private homes, but each and every yard was trash strewn.  It was fascinating to me.  Here was a wealthy county, in a well off neighborhood, but no one cared for their piece of property.  I mused on this and wondered if it was an issue of mine and not a problem for Israelis.  Am I that bourgeoisie that I couldn’t imagine that it was unimportant to them?  I’m not sure.  And I’m still musing.

The Israel Museum was wonderful.  The sculpture garden was extensive and fascinating.  There were many types of mediums represented.  

This ways an Ai Wei Wei piece, entitled tree.  It is made of casts of real trees cut down for fire wood

 The ubiquitous Henry Moore sculpture

This one was interesting, by Israeli brothers in the death of their mother.  Entitled 1000 arms to hold you.  And of course, Robert Indiana’s Ahava.

The others in the garden were not as striking to me.  Inside there was an exhibit of Ai Wei Wei works that were very thought provoking.  In the exhibit were several wallpaper designs, which at first glance looked English Country House-ish, but on closer examination were revealed to be cctv cameras. Another wallpaper was illustrating the treatment of immigrants in a not too subtle or nice way.  There were also additional trees and a carpet made to look like the floor in a Paris building.  Not so compelling from an artistic point of view, but far more interesting from a construction point of view. He had to find a company that could weave something that large and exacting.

Our visit began at the nano bible exhibit.  Literally these scientists had engraved on a silicon wafer the entire bible, in Hebrew, (I assume Old Testament only).  The wafer is the size of a grain of sand. We realized that we started at the end of the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit, so we viewed everything backwards.  Just to do things correctly, we viewed it again in the correct order after having a snack at the only open place for food in the museum.

The room housing the Dead Sea scrolls is architecturally very interesting,  all you can see is the white roof of the building, which is shaped like the top of the clay pots that the scrolls were found in.

I was very impressed with the Israel Museum.  The exhibits were interesting, the sculpture garden, divine, and the Dead Sea Scrolls fascinating.  I urge visitors to Jerusalem to take a day to see it.

I just couldn't face the walk back after the museum and we took a cab.  It was surprising to see how really close we were....the walk took about 1 hour, but the cab ride only 10 minutes...

After a nap, we went out to Barood for dinner.  It was a little hard to find it, but thank God I had maps.me.  (A shameless plug... this app is amazing, it doesn't need wifi in order to use for directions. The only issue is that if used for restaurants, it only gives you location, no reviews and/or type of cuisine).  You will need to download the map of the region you are visiting.  We used it in Cuba, and now in Israel.  I think I will be using this whenever I travel and can't use my phone for internet access without wifi.  Back to Barood, it was a little place that has a Bleeker Street jazz club feel.  The walls are covered in posters and photos from around the world, and the music is jazz.  The place is run by Lebanese or Syrian Christians which is why it was open on Saturday.  The good was really good.  I  got an assortment of starters lebne cheese, fried cauliflower, fatooshe salad, and Bill got the meatballs.  We were both very happy.

More Jerusalem....Friday, Oct. 27

We set off to try to find the Sandeman free tour which we thought was at 10 am at the Jaffa gate, it was not.  We wandered around in the Christian quarter and found the Via Dolorosa and stopped at a Church which was built the sight where Jesus was sentenced and whipped.  There was a "Holy Land" experience-type film that we saw, well, not really a film, more of a projected image with verbal subtitles.  We paid our shekels, and in we went and the door closed.  We were in a stone room and the film was projected on the walls.  We had sat down on some stones, but had to get up and turn around to see the film!  It wasn't that great, but, hey, it was worth the experience.

this is looking back through the courtyard 

I never found out what this alcove was, but an awful lot of people came into it 

This is part of Via Dolorosa, sadly, I don't recall where!

We ended up taking a nap and woke up kind of late, around 7:30.  One of the few places open on Friday night was Focaccia Bar.  We headed out.  The food was good, what was really great was the focaccia, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped garlic, absolute heaven!  My main was asparagus gnocchi and Bill had another type of pasta.  I think mine was the winner. 

The place was thumping when we got there, as one would expect on a Friday night.  Next to us were seated a group of older Americans.  I was flabbergasted when the woman sitting at the table turned her beer back to be sure that the bar tender was told that she wanted a full glass.  I guess she didn't understand the little black line on the side of the glass that was marked with 375 ml.  Not the top of the glass is 375 ml, to that little black line is.... I was really embarrassed and felt for the waitress.  She pleasantly took the glass back and a fuller one appeared.

Wandering back to the apartment, we witnessed the police arresting 2 guys.  We couldn’t tell from our vantage point if the men being arrested were Israeli or Palestinian, they were handled a bit roughly.  No hitting or punching, they were pushed up roughly against a gated store.  We had no idea of the offense and there were plenty of other witnesses, so we opted to continue on our way.  Which brings to mind how plugged in Israel is.  Everybody has a mobile phone, even the guy sleeping on the street or begging for money...they all had phones.  On our last day we saw them whipped out and filming a dispute between a woman and a tram cop.  The officer was being filmed in his interaction with the woman who was yelling.  We guessed (and this was an educated guess, that she had either no tram ticket, had not validated her ticket, or had tried to validate an expired ticket.  This scenario could have been our experience in Prague where we ran into tram cops.  Not fun in any language).

We slept hard that night.