Wednesday 7^th July

A great breakfast (which turned out to be more important than we had planned) set us up for the day and around 9.00 am we set off on foot for the Jaffa gate and once outside the Old City, we were able to catch a bus to Yad  Vashem, which is the new Holocaust History Museum. The bus rattled us across the city which is undergoing major road works as they are adding a new light railway. The driver helpfully told us when to get off the bus, but it was very unclear where we went next, but in due course we found our way to the very smart and impressive complex scattered over 45 acres of the of Mount of Remembrance. The guide book suggested allowing a full 3 hours to take this all in but frankly they cannot have ever been here on a serious visit. There are many features around the site, the main one of course being the central museum building itself, which is quite outstanding. It took us nearly 5 hours to make our way through the History Museum alone and this was simply because it is so comprehensive, informative and harrowing. We emerged older,  wiser, appalled and not a little hungry. We walked back to the main road and caught a bus back to the Jaffa Gate from where we planned to walk the ramparts of the Old City.

Sadly they had closed to the public just 5 minutes earlier (it was now 5.40 pm) and so we walked through the lanes, packed with shops all selling identical tourist tat until we reached the Wailing Wall, which a bit of a let down although it is apparent even from our viewpoint that the wall is stuffed full of paper prayers in all the cracks.   And like so many religious sites we have visited here, the women have to worship separately corralled into a small area. Our next stop was the Via Dolorosa, which is the route supposedly taken by Jesus when carrying the cross.

After walking the first part of this, we headed for our hostel again to collect our bags and head for the bus station and home. It was of course now the rush hour and so we were lucky to get seats at first but Steve gave his up for a blind lady and as the world and his mate crammed aboard at each stop, we did sort of wonder at what point they called it full. We arrived in due course at the central bus depot, but for security reasons no bus with people can enter and our bus was only passing anyway, so we had quite a fight to get off the bus in the first place.

We then had to queue – yes another bag and body check, but having queued for 5 minutes, Steve and I were suddenly directed to another entrance as our bags were too large for this one. So now we were separated from Chris and Sarah and they had not seen us being pulled out, so it was a little while before we were all reunited inside the multi-story complex that includes the bus station. The buses from here to Tel Aviv run every 15 minutes and so we were soon on our way again heading out of Jerusalem and once again we found ourselves surrounded by young soldiers and civilians mostly carrying seriously large weapons.

At Tel Aviv we bravely opted to try for another bus to save us the 80 NIS taxi fare to the marina in Herzliya and having found one heading for the right town, the driver informed us that for the marina we needed a different one. This one eventually arrived and then had an electronic fault and we stood around for 20 minutes in frustration before they sent a replacement. This was now running late and at each stop more and more people boarded until at last a ‘full’ light was illuminated. However it still stopped everywhere anyway so people could get off of course and it seemed for ever before suddenly the driver and several passengers sitting around Sarah announced that we needed to get off as this was as close to the marina as it went. We fought our way off this bus and found ourselves standing in the dark at a VERY busy road underpass with no clear idea of where to go. An hour later we trudged wearily along empty roads into the mall behind the marina and found ourselves in a parallel universe where there were thousands of people and packed restaurants and bars – all focussed on the second semi-final of the world cup. All we wanted was some food (remember breakfast all those hours ago??) but everywhere was full (note the biblical reference) except just one Italian restaurant who were paying the price for not installing a TV. Hooray!! Strangest sight of the day was as we sat having dinner when two joggers ran past in shorts etc, clutching a beer each and with large machine guns strapped to their backs. Ready for just about anything I guess.

We ate well and returned gratefully to our respective boats for a reasonable night’s sleep despite the stifling heat.