Now Benjamin is the driver and Jon is the navigator. Sometimes this means we go around the roundabouts a couple of times or we have to make illegal U-turns but they are pretty nice to each other even in those moments of confusion and backtracking. I just sit in the back seat and stay quiet.
We stopped for a snack and stretch break somewhere near Be'er Sheva and sat at the picnic table next to the gas station. I love picnic tables. Then shortly after that Benj picked up a hitch hiker (he says that is how people get around in Israel, in addition to buses, and the only people not allowed to ask for rides are soldiers). And we got to watch B speaking Hebrew with the guy (who spoke just about no English). Very cool. Most of the time people speak to him in English within a couple of sentences so he doesn't get to use his Hebrew very much. The hitch hiker bailed on us when we got to Jerusalem, after a few of those missed exits and backtracking. The bus was probably looking like a better deal by then.
We found a parking lot just a short walk from our hotel on King George St, threw our stuff in the room and set out by 2:30. Kind of a late start for sightseeing. We walked into the Old City (got a cup of sachlav on the way in), walked past some of Benjamin's old haunts, remembered places we had already been together, enjoyed the Escher-esque crisscrossing architecture and alleys and stairways, and found our way to the City of David. I knew just where it was because I had been there in 2008 with Nancy et al. We bought tickets and headed down the path. This is an archaeological park, underground, following the tunnels that allowed the city to get to its water source which was outside the city walls.
We had a choice between the dry route and the wet route (Hezekiah's Tunnel), and there were a few signs warning us that the water was 70 cm deep. Last time I was here, we took the dry tunnel. This time Benjamin took off his shoes, took a flashlight and headed into the rushing water to see whether it was something his parents might want to do. I wanted to go but I didn't want to be scared. Jon wasn't crazy about getting wet up to his underwear. Benj came back grinning and wet up 70 cm of his jeans, reporting that the bottom of the tunnel was flat and it seemed do-able. So we took off our shoes and put all his cameras into the backpack and stepped into the fast-moving water. Luckily the water slowed down a lot very soon, and unluckily the deepest part happened in the first few steps. After that it was just up to our knees. The tunnel was barely wide enough to walk through and sometimes we had to crouch down. I would have been scared without Jon in front and Benj behind, both with flashlights. At some point, B had us all stop so he could take some pictures (but he later discovered that he had already run out of film by then so those pictures didn't really happen) with two flashlights in his mouth. It seemed like a really long way, but Benj says it was about a quarter mile or a little more.
After we emerged from that tunnel -- there was a small group behind us that we could hear echoing and splashing, which was both reassuring and a little stressful -- we gathered our wits, despite our soggy jeans, and headed into the tunnel that would take us back up the hill into the Old City. Apparently this is a new find. It was a lot of climbing, a little slippery, and pretty hot. It was longer than the wet tunnel but at least it was lit. Let me just say that nowhere in America would they allow tourists to go in either of those tunnels. No one even knew we were in the one going back up the hill. We made one wrong turn at what seemed to be the exit, ended up in an area where there was still a dig underway (but no one in sight), turned around to go back into the tunnel and found a guard closing things up. He had to unlock the exit door to let us out. By the time we got out of there, the Davidson Center was closed (that we had bought tickets to, but oh well). We headed home, meandering through the Cardo, the rooftop, the market that ends up at the Jaffa Gate. Along the way someone tried hard to sell Benj and Jon some rugs, and they listened with interest to his stories/pitch, but then politely declined and we continued on our squelching way.
I never expected that we would do so much hiking/spelunking today. We may have walked 5 miles today, and most of that either uphill or downhill.
Dry clothes felt very good after that. We went to the shuk and had a civilized dinner, sitting under a heat lamp. It is very entertaining to watch Benj translating the menu, and sometimes discovering that the word is written in Hebrew letters but is phonetic English (what he imagined might be "caramel" eventually became "crumble").
Jon continues to struggle with the photos, which are piling up and will eventually be freed, but his computer isn't cooperating and he is mighty frustrated. Someday the blog will be beautified with lots of photos, but not here, not now.
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