19,299 Steps

Tuesday May 8 / 23 Iyar
Our trip to Northern Israel totally wiped us both out. Sheindy fell asleep so quickly. Me, not so much so, because I had to update my blog. I woke up at 3:45 because my throat was hurting so badly. I got some cold water and took advil, but it took a very very long time to kick in. I worked on my blog, and before I knew it, it was time to wake Sheindy up to get ready for our day. A little bit of coffee and I was good to go.
Our first tour of the day was with Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum from Chevron. This was on my bucket list to do from my last trip. It's an "Off the Beaten Track" tour.  This tour is going to take us to most of the gates surrounding the Old City. We met at the Dung Gate. We start with the Southern excavations of the Temple Mount. Then we headed East down along the mountain with Har Hazaisim on our right. We stopped in a Bedouin tent for some tea and a talk.

We learned the history of the monument of Avshalom, Dovid Hamelech's son. This son is the one who tried to murder him.

Rabbi Hochbaum has so much knowledge! We saw the monument to Zachariah as well.

There were some cool tombs where they think they used to embalm the kohanim. Next we had up and passed another sealed gate, Shar Harachamim. This is the gate that will open when Moshiach comes (ad mosai! It should happen immediately!).

We kept working our way up, stopping to see the monument to the 5 paratroopers killed trying to liberate Yerushalayim in 1967. From there we continued up and around to the Lions Gate.

Here we entered the Muslim quarter. We stopped for some ice cream, and I finally found a Magnum Bar, vanilla with milk chocolate. I was so proud of myself to have finished using up my shekalim. I know it's impossible to trade coins, so I didn't want to be left with any. Mission accomplished! We saw some significant sights in the Muslim quarter, including the spot to where the Kodesh Hakedoshim was. We could only view it from a door from a certain point. We also stopped at the Mini Kotel, the part that is even closer to the Kodesh Hakedoshim than the one in the Kotel Tunnels.

It was very emotional. The longing for Moshiach is so strong there. We went to another spot where you can only look through the door, but you are able to see Har Habayis. We exited the tour right by the (big) Kotel.
We had an hour before our next tour, so we ran around the Old City trying to find something to eat. We ended up with some snacks and headed off to the Artzeinu tour of Ir Dovid. We were sorta tired, and it was here that I realized it wasn't the smartest move to book two walking tours back to back. Anyway.
So we meet up with our group. In the course of discussing things, the tour guide mentions we need 5 shek per person to take the shuttle back. Oops! Remember how brilliant I was to get rid of all my shekalim???? Oiy vey! Sheindy and I were going to have to walk back. But that was for later, so we just plugged on.
Part of the tour goes into the Ir Dovid excavations. We were standing on a walk way. Another tour group was passing by. One lady reaches out, gently grabs one of Sheindy's gorgeous corkscrew curls and pulls it down to see it BOING back. Poor Sheindy was SOOO embarrassed. She quickly got over it as we headed into the actual City of David.

After looking at a bunch of things, we finally reached the part we were waiting for - Hezekiah Tunnels aka the Spooky Tunnels as Sheindy calls them. Last time, Sruli and Shmueli went, even though it was so cold. I couldn't do it, so I was excited to do it now. We descended into these rock tunnels that has water running at the bottom. The beginning was deeper than most of the rest, but it means you start off getting very wet. The tunnel is not very wide, and at certain points out gets very low. The tunnel seems to go on and on and on. A couple of times I turned off my flashlight, and looked behind me. It was blacker than black. It was so dark! At the end of the tour, we were thankfully treated to the shuttle by one of the families on this tour. It was a family we had bumped into at De Karina, and they are related to Tami. That was the good news. The bad news was Gett doesn't work near the Kotel. So, we started, yup, walking to Yaffa Gate. I couldn't take one of the many taxis that were around, because, I HAD NO SHEKALIM!! Genius here! Once we were already at Yaffa Gate, we figured we would eat a Rimon again, and then head back to Shauly with a taxi. After we ate, we tried to get one, but it kept putting in the wrong location. We kept walking towards Shauly's apartment. At one point, I have up trying, and we just walked the rest of the way back. Towards the end, Sheindy's shins were hurting and I felt so bad for her.
Fitbit says I had 19,299 steps which is almost 8 miles! And I still had to pack us up for our flight back to VA!!!