Jerusalem Day 3 (Saturday May-16-09)

Jerusalem Day 3 (Saturday May-16-09)

As we have done each morning at the Dan Panorama Hotel we had a large delicious breakfast with a wide verity of foods.

We went in the late morning by Taxi to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem where a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls is on display. The 2,000 year old scrolls were found in 1947 in a jar in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea. The building where the copy is stored as well as other artifacts looks like a white jar from which the scrolls were found. Adjacent to the building is a black wall to indicate the negative side of things.

There is also a large model of the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. The model which is to scale shows the walls, the Temple and all the buildings that were there at that time.

In the gift shop at the museum we purchased a children’s popup Passover Haggada that our grandsons Brady can use now and Jayden can use when he gets a little older.

It was 88 degrees this afternoon so we again decided to take a rest and then go out in the late afternoon after things cooled off.

In the late afternoon we searched for a nice restaurant that was open on Shabbat. We walked down some side streets and got a very nice view of the Old City of Jerusalem. We also stopped and looked at some of the hotels that we pass by every day, King David and David Citadel. Jackie left her sun glasses in one of the places we stopped at and we went back to check and a couple sitting in the lobby chairs overheard us asking the bellman for the glasses and handed them to us. Jackie was very thankful for getting them back. We found a nice French restaurant, Katy’s, on a small street not far away. It had good food but was more expensive than we were used to paying. Since we ate there early in the evening we were the only guest, but we had very good service with even the chef coming out of the kitchen and making suggestions, which we agreed to try. When it came time to pay, they told us their credit card machine did not work and I did not have the $150.00 to pay in Israeli shekels. Fortunately I did have $200.00 in travelers’ checks which they did take and gave me change in shekels.

There is a building on King David road that is under construction and has the scaffolding covered with a screen. The screen has a large photo of the city of Jerusalem to hide the scaffolding which is shown below.

The scaffolding is more apparent below the photo in the photo below:

I was also finally able to get the phone number of a distant cousin of mine, Jochanan Moses, a retired flight engineer with El Al airline. I called him and talked to him and his wife Marilyn. We plan on meeting next Thursday at their home near Tel Aviv for lunch. They are going to try and arrange to have some of their children and an uncle, Shlomo Moses attending the lunch. I also got the phone number of another distant relative Naomi Sela. I left a phone message for her, but I have not connected with Naomi yet.