Jerusalem - New City

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The museum is divided into 9 galleries. We had a guide who provided us with a wealth of information. Her name was Alice and she was from Romania. Her grandmother was the only survivor in her family from the Holocaust. She also presented a lecture on Memory of the Holocaust in Contemporary Israeli Society at the end of the tour.

This is "the light at the end" from the exhibit. We could only take pictures outside.

This tree is part of the exhibit for The Righteous among the Nations (non-Jewish people that helped save Jews). It was planted for Oskar Schindler. The rocks at the base of the tree were placed there when one of the survivor's descendants had her Bat Mitzvah at Yad Vashem.

On this Mount, the official state ceremony marking the conclusion of Memorial Day for Israel's fallen and the commencement of Independence Day festivities takes place.

Mount Herzl is named after Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodor) Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State. It is a site of major national importance for Israel and the Jewish people. 

We placed stones on his grave as a marker of one's visit.

President Yitzhak Navon and his wife.

Shimon Peres.

Yitzhak Rabin and his wife. He received a special grave apart from other dignitaries due to his assassination.

Prime Minister Golda Meir. She is revered more in the US than Israel. Still the only female Prime Minister.

Jerusalem Military Cemetery. The decorated grave was for an American who moved to Israel and joined the Army. He died in 2015 and was from a Synagogue in Philadelphia which one of our group members belonged to. She knew the fallen soldier.

Ammunition Hill is the site where one of the most famous and fiercest battles of the Six Day War (1967) took place. Now a public park and museum dedicated to those that fell. This is David one of our group members and a co-worker of Michael.

The Cardo was part of the Old City's Jewish Quarter and was reconstructed as the market place of Byzantine Jerusalem from the 6th Century. Today, situated 20 feet below modern street level one part of the Cardo is a restored arcade of Jewish galleries and shops, while the other part is an open-air reconstructed street.

At 5:30 PM we arrived at the Jewish Quarter. This was an area we missed on Friday due to the scheduling change. We only stayed about a half hour.

Israel Museum and Tower of David

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world's leading art and archaeology museums. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present day. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, are housed in the Shrine of the Book.

Model of Ancient Jerusalem.

They had a section on Jewish Temples from around the world. This one is from India.

African wedding headdress.

Shabbat for engineers.

Menorah

Nabratein Synagogue, Upper Galilee, 564 CE, Limestone.

We really enjoyed this national museum. It was impressive indoors and outdoors. It was like the Smithsonian only smaller. 

We went to the Muslim quarter for dinner. I bought some spices from this nice man.

We ate dinner at this restaurant. I had falafel, Michael had shwarma, and Jacob had the infamous cheeseburger which was put in the panini to warm.

Muslim quarter.

The Tower of David. The sound and light show tells the story of Jerusalem. Cultures, religions, rulers, and legends appear on the ancient walls.

Jerusalem - Old City

This rose was delivered to our hotel room this morning, it says Shabbat Shalom. After breakfast we had a guest speaker Ms. Dana Sharon from the Israel Religious Action Center and a board member of Women of the Wall. It was a very interesting talk.

We spent much of the day at the Western Wall. It was quite the education for me.

This is the Western Wall, to the left is the men section and to the right is the women's little section.

The Western Wall Tunnels. Some in this group are part of our tour, the men in the black hats not so much.

The Western Wall tunnels are a labyrinth of underground tunnels directly below the Western Wall. We took a guided tour which lasted almost two hours which was over the allotted time and threw our whole schedule off for the day.

The Western Wall.

Jacob in the men's section.

City of David. Behind me is Israel's most sacred cemetery.

Machane Yehuda Market. This photo does not do the crowds justice. It was a zoo as shoppers were buying for Shabbat. We did not get to eat until almost three; I was hungry, tired from the day and overwhelmed. 

Machane Yehuda Market. This is where Michael and I had Sabich, a traditional Mizrahi Jewish sandwich popular mostly in Israel which consists of pita stuffed with fried eggplant and hard boiled egg. 

We went to a concert in the park with Jewish music for Shabbat. It was very causal.

Walking back to our hotel; Jacob, Michael, one of our group and our guide. This was a lovely park. We ended our day with a buffet feast in our hotel with two Israeli soldiers. 

Shalom Israel

We were greeted by our Rabbi upon exiting the airport. He hugged each of us and took us to our tour guide, Julie. We are in good hands. We took an Air Conditioned bus with the rest of our group to the Haas Promenade. "According to Jewish legend, it was from the location of the Haas Promenade that God showed Abraham where one day his descendants would build their holy city." We said the traditional Shehechianu Blessing recited upon arrival in Jerusalem then checked into the Inbal Hotel.

Jacob's picture.

We had dinner at the Olive and Fish restaurant with guest speaker Dr. Eran Lerman, Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies. He was an incredibly smart man who gave us quite a history lesson.

Amsterdam Part Two

We are still suffering with the heat. One young local resident told us it is the hottest it has ever been and one older local said it hasn't been this hot since 1976.

The mornings remain cool so we try and get out early. This morning we went to the local street open market. There was a variety of stalls including this farmer's market.

We enjoyed croissants and smoothies as a snack.

In the afternoon we headed to Jacob's bucket list item, meeting the folks at Blender. Blender is the 3D modeling computer program that Jacob has been using for the past 6 years. Their headquarters are in Amsterdam! He met the developer and owner of the organization Ton who is the tall gent. The other employee does the videos for the website. Ton gave us a nice tour of their new digs. 

This was a great experience for Jacob. We are going to send him here next summer to work:)

Amsterdam's Central Station. They have amazing public transportation.

Bibliotheek, the Library! This was a 6 story library. It had AC but not working well for me. This part of town was hot and we just wanted to leave so didn't spend much time but I can add it to my list of libraries from around the world.

Michael asked our B&B host to stock us with some traditional Dutch food and this is one of them. They are sprinkles you put on toast. Jacob enjoyed this treat for breakfast.

We have enjoyed our time in Amsterdam. Here are a few things we have learned. The people are incredibly nice and helpful. Everyone owns a bike and it is the primary transportation. The population seems very healthy. Would we return? absolutely!

We are off at dawn's early light for the next leg of our journey. I know the heat will follow me but I am hopeful for more AC and ice!

Amsterdam

Our first day in Amsterdam was really hot in the 80-90 degrees. We managed to go for a walk to this old windmill.

Our second day we headed out early for our 8:30 AM reservation for the Anne Frank House. It was a wonderful tour which lasted an hour. I was so happy to have experienced this. One for the bucket list.

Amsterdam is one canal after another. I thought this was a pretty spot and not too crowded.

Jacob is keeping up with his Instagram account. This is a royal building.

We went to the Stedelijk Museum which was modern art and it had Air Conditioning!!! This particular piece caught my eye and it was called C'est What.

This box is floating and turns. We think it is computer operated. It was an impressive piece.

Jacob is enjoying the modern architecture. I like this stylized version of the photo that Google did for me.