3/29/2011 - Up Hill Both Ways

After the City of David we returned to the hotel for a few moments of rest before heading out for dinner on our own.


We joined together with Mark and Bobbi Kramer and Ken and Barbara Laff and decided to go to a nearby Italian restaurant - Focacetta - for pizza, salad and wine.  We got directions from the hotel concierge and thought that we knew exactly where we were going.  We headed out from the hotel down the hill toward the old city, knowing that we needed to turn right to get to the restaurant.  We turned right, but not on the right street and were now heading up hill.  We walked a couple of blocks, but couldn't find the restaurant.  We headed back down the hill and went up the other side of the street - just in case we had needed to turn left instead of right.  Again, up hill and again, not the right direction.  We finally stopped at the Mamilla Hotel and asked them for directions.  Again, we thought we knew where we were going and walked up hill back to the right again - this time taking the middle tine of the forked road.  Up hill we went and still no restaurant.  We walked through a building that was the right street number, but not the right street.  Bobbi and I decided to go over one more street, while the rest of the group went further up the middle street.  Jackpot!  I found the restaurant, but none of the those that had gone the other direction had their phones with them or on.  Bobbi and I went down the hill to find the rest of the group and then all climbed back up to the restaurant.  We had a lovely meal, but decided we wanted ice cream for dessert and determined to walk to Ben Yehuda Street where there are many ice cream shops.  Again, we walked up the hill looking for Hillel Street, but instead we found King George Street - the street that our hotel is on.  It was adventure, but we found our way to dinner and dessert - just having to go up hill each way we went.  Another great day in Israel.

3/29/2011 - The City of David

Our last stop of the day was the City of David where we saw a 3-D movie about the building of David's Palace and the water system used for the Gahon Spring.

They are not certain that this is in fact David's Palace, but the remains of the structure point to a wealthy owner and much evidence points to this structure being David's Palace.  There was an early toilet found as well as a Bullae (seal made of clay used on important documents).

Across the road from the City of David is the Arab village of Silwan with its houses stacked on a hillside like blocks.  Looking from David's Palace across to Silwan you can see what could be burial caves at the base of the houses.

We then went down Warren's Shaft to see Hezekiah's Tunnel beneath David's Palace.  The Gihon Spring was Jerusalem's main water source, but it was located near the bottom of the eastern slope outside the city walls.  A system had to be devised to create a protective passageway to get to the Gihon Spring.  In 1867 Charles Warren climbed from the Gihon Spring up a vertical shaft over 13 meters high that had been hewn from the rocks by the Canaanites in the 18th-15th centuries BCE.  The passageway lead to a pool carved out of the bedrock that was protected by surrounding fortifications.