We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday enjoying the sights, sounds, and even the smells of Jerusalem. The city is filled with marketplaces, little stalls, mostly covered in narrow roadways.
It was fun to browse around and look at everything that was for sale. Lots of tourist-related items, but if you get off the beaten path you can find almost anything – food, shoes, clothing. More about this later.
Of course, no visit to Jerusalem would be complete without a trip to the Western Wall. We stopped to pray.
The kids did not like the fact that men and women have to be separated there. They “missed Papa”.
We also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the scene of the crucifixion.
That was an experience that is hard to describe in words. Meaningful, moving, spiritual….more than all that.
Oh, the catastrophe that was averted in the arab souk. Well, let’s go back a bit. You might know that the Crowders are kind of “belt and suspenders” kind of people. We brings back-up supplies for almost every emergency. That’s why we had so much luggage (see our second post). In keeping with this strategy, Charles, who hates facial hair, brought along a back-up electric shaver. Taking a risk (OK sometimes we do), he left it on the ship when we left for our land tour, and the one he took with him quit somewhere in Germany. Dead, never to bzzz, bzzz again. By the time we got to Israel, this was becoming a problem.
I googled “electric shaver Jerusalem” and found one dealer across town who carried electric shavers. I also found out a lot about Jewish law on how men may and may not shave. Interesting, but not helpful to us. We set out to walk across the old city, through the arab souk, where as I said, you can buy about anything. Including – you guessed it – electric shavers. We happened upon a shop overflowing with electrical things, which carried a few different electric shavers. We bought one, and the catastrophe was averted. What an adventure.
We are still having an amazing time.
Blessings, Linda
And we are still enjoying all your photos and stories. Glad the catastrophe was averted.