A Quiet Shabbat, Then Adventure

It has been a few days now since our last falafel and it shows.

Yesterday we all spent a quiet Shabbat at the hotel, by the pool, and staying at the lunch table until 4 pm getting to know each other. We ended the afternoon with a walking tour past a few government buildings and through a newer (1880s) neighborhood (Kiryat Moshe/Nachlaot) constructed in a similar fashion as the old city. It looked somewhat run-down but quaint, and apparently very trendy and expensive. Some older houses have been replaced with new, modern versions.

After dinner, we took the bus back to the Old City for a nighttime visit to the Kotel (Western Wall), mainly for a tour of the Kotel Tunnel, a fairly recent (since 1980) excavation of the base of the entire length of the Western Wall, heading north from the well-known exposed portion. Did you know that the Western Wall was not part of the temple itself, but a retaining wall for the temple mount that held up a flat platform for the second temple and plaza? The experience was like exploring rooms in an Indiana Jones movie. Hardest to believe is that workers were able to move such large blocks of stone into place. The oldest (lowest) stones are the largest.