Jerusalem and Hezekiah's Tunnel

We made it to Jerusalem! We had a free afternoon, as the rest of the tour doesn't join us until the evening. So we went over to the City of David to look around! Crystal taught us how to do wide selfies with our cameras, and captured us at a high point overlooking the Mount of Olives!

We had an easy border crossing from Jordan to Israel. Not one of us had to open our suitcases! We were so early arriving that we took the tour operator in Israel by surprise! He arrived a few minutes after we got through passport control!

We dropped off our luggage and then went out to lunch at a Schawarma Bar in the Jewish quarter of the old city! The shaved meat sandwiches came in a wrap and had humus and vegetables in them.

It was fun to see spring is here. The colorful flowers at the City of David complemented the white stone walls around the temple mount.

Crystal solved the mystery of the open hours. I had looked them up online, and it said the tunnel was opened 17:00-08:00. Was that 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.? Crystal said maybe you read the time backwards, like you do in Hebrew. So it was 8-5!

We didn't realize our tickets had a complete tour of the City of David, as well. We really enjoyed our young guide. She spoke English very well, as she has an American father, but was raised in Israel. We learned a lot about the layout of the city from her before we even ventured into the tunnel.

We really enjoyed walking through the tunnel, as well! It was a tight squeeze, and there was some ducking involved (as well as a head bonking, again!) It was a much longer walk than you'd expect, and we were happy to finally return to daylight.

The tunnel ends at the pool of Siloam, where we joined the group that went through the dry tunnel to hear more about Hezekiah and his times!

We caught a cab back to the hotel, where we had some major entertainment!

Halfway to the hotel, the driver stopped to put water in the overheated radiator. It gave me an opportunity to remenisce about taking the green Mazda pickup over the mountains on our way from Montana and Utah. We really learned how to cool off a radiator!  Now Crystal knows how to cool off a radiator, too!

We met for dinner at the Ramada, where 3 new members joined our merry band. We're looking forward to getting to know them! We're also looking forward to getting more sleep tonight Four hours a night is not enough!.