Last Days in Jerusalem

Unfortunately, on Sunday, my mom was not feeling well so I was on my own.  I was headed to the Temple Mount when I rani to the Truman State group. They invited me on their tour of the Western Wall tunnels, with one of the archaeologists that excavated them. All the students wanted me to join them, and I wanted to ask their professor if it was okay, but they said to just join, so I did. About an hour into the tour, their professor finally fully realizes I joined them and he just smiled. we had a good laugh about it afterwards. After the tour, we said our final goodbyes, as they left to continue their trip to Athens.

I headed to The City of David. Rather than wading through Hezekiah's Tunnel, I opted to walk through the Canaanite Tunnel instead. However, before going through the tunnel, I had an even more surprising encounter. I ran into a girl a grade below that I went to high school with. Crazy right? We did a little catching up and took a picture together to prove that it had happened. She was there for a dig at a tel between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. 

After I finished at the City of David, I went to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Center. The Park is along part of the Western Wall, right by the Temple Mount. The park is divided by the Old City wall as well. Visitors pass between those excavator gate to get to between the two sides. Because I was on my own, I explored the whole park, and ended up walking up to a tower and then along the Old City Wall where I took a picture of the park with the Mount of Olives in the background through an archer's window.

On Monday, mom was feeling better, thank goodness. We started off by taking a bus up to the Mount of Olives, where we visited the Church of the Ascension. I even decided to climb the tower, where I could see the Old City and Bethlehem, I think. Then we took the bus back down the mount and entered the Old City through Damascus Gate and went towards Jaffa Gate to the Citadel, or Tower of David, which had a museum with the history of Jerusalem.

Citadel

Then we went to try and go to the Wohl Archaeological which without no way of knowing, was closed because of a bar mitzvah. I respect religious celebrations, I do. But I was frustrated by this. So instead we went to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. We climbed the tower for an absolutely gorgeous  panoramic of the Old City and beyond and viewed the excavations below the church.

Dome of the Rock from the tower.

On Tuesday, we ran into more frustrations, we learned that the Israel Museum would not open until 4 pm. I was pretty upset. We decided to return to Yad Vashem, so I could spend some more time there. We went into the children's memorial, which was stunning, and I went back into the museum as well. 

By the time we had found Yad Vashem, we had lunch, and spent time there it was almost 4 pm so we decided to go to the Israel Museum for a couple hours. I could have spent a day (or more) at the Israel Museum. We went to the Shine of the Book to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I heard the the Herod exhibit was good so we walked through that. Finally, we went through the archaeology wing so I could see the actual moon god stele from Bethsaida, and sadly that was all we had time for. I decided to get a giant book with the archaeology of museum in it so that made me really happy.

We said goodbye to Jerusalem and headed to Tel Aviv. Our hotel in Tel Aviv was too fancy for me. In the morning we got up so we could had to the airport. The line to get boarding passes was ridiculous! We were in line for over an hour! We should have had plenty of time to check out a few shops and walk around before boarding but instead we had to rush through security and hurry to board the plane. Tel Aviv to Newark was the longest flight I have been one, eleven and half hours. I had no problems with the long flight on the way to Israel, but on the way home I struggled. I got very warm at one point which is unusual for me and my legs hurt at one point, probably from having been used to all of my walking. When we got to Newark, we went through customs smoothly. Our flight to Des Moines was still on time too. Then it was delayed ten minutes, changing to 8:10 pm. Then it was delayed to 9:15 pm. The reason was that though our plane was there, our crew was not. Finally, we left. I slept most of the way and was happy to see my dad waiting for us at the airport when we landed.

I would have loved to stay longer, but it was time for me to come home. While it was sad for me to leave Israel, I am happy to be home. I am thankful for the amazing experience I had and the great people I met. I am grateful for the support I received during my trip from my friends and family, especially my dad. 

Shalom Israel!