After a late start with a little extra sleep (well needed!), we headed for Mini-Israel. Leaving Jerusalem was a whole lot easier than getting in, since now we had idea as to what road to take, and added factor was that it was Shabbat and the roads were very quite as many people in Jerusalem keep Shabbat, it’s mostly tourist that are moving around. As a result we arrived a lot earlier than expected and had 20 minutes to waste so decided to go to Latrun Tank Memorial and Museum.

The Latrun Tank Memorial and Museum was initially a police station built by the British during the mandate period and abandoned to the Arab forces when they withdrew from Palestine.  Latrun is situated on the road to Jerusalem so it was necessary for the Israeli forces to take the fort and thus break the siege of Jerusalem, this during the War of Independence (1947/1948). This was accomplished by the newly formed armoured divisions.  The site has been developed over the years and now contains a large number of tanks and armoured vehicles that have been used by the IDF over the years. Also on display are a number of armoured vehicles captured by the IDF during the various wars and battles, which is an interesting contrast. In the Museum are a number of displays, most are unfortunately in Hebrew so it was not always possible to aappreciate them. One display, we learnt later, was an interactive touch screen that enabled a person to search and find all the armour personnel who had died in battle, and displayed a photo and their military record.  A video was shown in one of the auditoriums telling the story of the armoured corps, it was very moving resulting in Jen stifling a few tears, not without reason.  Then the other side of her took over – she just Had to have a picture taken of her on a tank !

Travelling just down the road we arrived at Mini Israel at around 11h15 … with the rest of Israel who were making the most of a beautiful Shabbat day. Mini Israel contains a number of models of the various attractions, historical sites and prominent buildings around Israel. Some of the models have a button to “activate” them. At the zoo an elephant shoots a stream of water at an unsuspecting button pusher. The model of the dome of the rock has a whole lot of pilgrims praying who rock back and forth. It was fun identifying the different buildings and sites that we had visited, as well as a few we have yet to see.

Driving back towards Jerusalem we passed a memorial of armoured vehicles that had been destroyed while trying to carry supplies to Jerusalem during the War of Independence.  It was interesting as we had just seen this in the movie at Latrun.

We turned off the highway and drove through Ein Karem. It was also very full of people and no parking at all, so we carried on. It did not seem as great as some people had made out to be.  We thought of going to the Biblical zoo but as soon as we found parking, Jen decided she did not want to see the animals in cages so we drove back to the studio via Mount Scopus.

Leaving the car in a parking area near the studio we took a walk to the Garden Tomb. This had every other tourist in town, since a number of the other sites are closed for Shabbat. We sat for a while in the garden watching the people go by, and even heard a few South African accents …  An “interesting” name tag on one of their group displayed the name “Cois de Kock” – we assume that it should have been “Koos” !!!  Rob bought a couple of books at the Garden Tomb but has been told he’s not allowed to read them in the evenings unless the blog has been updated!  Leaving the Garden Tomb we walked through the Old City, just wandering the streets and markets, with such a variety of goods and shops. A jewellery store next to a dry goods store next to a butchery next to a food stall.  We stopped in Muristan, in the Christian quarter, and had a chicken schwarma at the Everest Cafeteria.    I did succeed in distracting Jen from visiting her “favourite” shop and buying more embroidered cloths.

Walking on to Ha Kotel we stood and watched as the variety of people came down to the wall. Some Orthodox Hasidic Jews in their black quilted coats with fur hats, others in suits and black hats, and some in casual clothes. The women were dressed conservatively, no cleavage, midriffs, nor short skirts;  this in contrast to the few tourists still about in a range of clothing or should we say a range of almost no clothing.   Jen had been told in a travel forum that the women walk backwards when leaving the wall after praying and she found that this was true.  Something to remember for when we go up to the actual wall.

Walking on, we left the old city by Zion Gate and walked up to the new city, skirting the Yemen Moshe area and found the place were we would need to drop off the hire car tomorrow after our return from Sderot, in all a little stroll of about 6 km.

 

Tomorrow, Sderot … Day 8