Day 10 Part 4 Bagels!

We arrive in the Jewish Quarter through Zion Gate and I already feel at home.

We join a couple of friends for lunch which is up a narrow alley way that I think eventually leads to Jaffa Gate.  It is a little sit in diner that is very tight.  We do manage to get a table but we are sitting so close it feels odd.  The street outside is kind of steep and runs right past the window.  We are half way below the street level as we sit looking at people's legs as they walk by.  

Once again, the service is not fast.  We play it safe and order pizza again just because it seems less confusing than other options and we think we might get it quicker and have a little more time to look around.  Once again we get some glass bottles of Dr. Pepper to go with lunch.  For a place to eat that is hardly bigger than a walk in closet they sure do pack a lot of people in here.

After what seems like a little too long, our food arrives.  It is a little more than the Joseph's Pizza we had the day before which is just around the corner so my appetite is a little more sated than it was after lunch yesterday.  We eat and talk.  Soon we are trying to un-wedge ourselves out of our little booth and we venture into the Christian Quarter once again.  

I stop and go into a little t-shirt shop on the edge of the square.  It has a pretty cool Harley-Davidson design that I decide I am gong to get.  What?  They are out of those.  Would I like something else?  I can't find anything else and knowing that these little shops tend to repeat themselves every so often, I think I might get lucky and find one somewhere else.  

I walk down a busy corridor reading the signs in front of the little shops.  Antiquities, a dress shop, jewelery and what?  A bagel shop?  YES, a real honest-to-goodness bagel shop!  I am full from lunch but I am going to fulfill a wish I have had since day one.  I am going to get a "bagel and a schmear" in Jerusalem.  I step right up and order my bagel and schmear.  They do it up right and I wonder how I am going to eat my prize.  I dive in.  It is heavenly.  The cream cheese must have a high sour cream content and the bagel is warm and toasted just right.  If I wasn't already full it would be even better.  I eat as I wander and notice right across the way there is another bagel shop!  What?  I have hit the only two bagel shops in Jerusalem and they are in the same place!  I do not stop at the other bagel shop as I think I might explode if I eat any more. 

It is really getting warm today and the large square where are to gather offers little shade.  It is perhaps the warmest day we have experienced so far.  We have already walked quite a ways and climbed a number of stairs, combined with the heat I can feel the effects of fatigue already.  I keep the water handy so as not to dehydrate.  

We are assembled and off we go again walking to our next destination, The Davidson Center of Jerusalem and the Archaeological Park.  This area is where the southern wall of the Temple Mount and the western wall meet.   It is much too hard to explain in just words.  You Tube has several great videos.

We don't spend long in the Davidson Center itself, but move to the corner of the the west and south walls of the Temple Mount.  Getting a close up look at the size of the immense stones of the wall is fascinating.  One stone is over 40 feet long and must weigh many tons.  How did they get it up as high as it is on the wall?  I would have put that one on the bottom.  The stones are all random sizes, I assumed they were uniform in size but that is not the case.  They fit so tight that there is no daylight or room between them.  They are all dressed beautifully.  Our Israeli archaeologist guide, Eli found an actual iron chisel at the base of this wall that was used to dress these stones.  It is amazing.  

If you study the corner of the western wall, you will see the last remnants of what is known as the "Robinson's Arch."  Google Robinson's Arch and you will find some great pictures of how it appeared in the first century.

We sit under what was once the arch and examine the very stones and rubble that the Romans pushed off the temple mount in 70 A.D. These large stones sit exactly where the Romans threw them down.  

Right at the corner of the walls there is a very special stone that was once at the top of the walls in the corner.  There is ancient Hebrew writing chiseled on that says something to the effect of: "This is where the Priest stands to blow the trumpet".  It is the actual place where the trumpet were blown to signify the beginning of a feast or other special events.  It is pretty neat to think the priest's feet touched this very stone.

Click on this picture to see the ancient writing on the stone

There is much information to absorb and understand and I don't have my journal to scratch it down.  There is so much to see with so many stones from the wall jumbled up and down the wall.  It is easy to discern old foundations of what must have been shops or rooms among the rubble.  I want to get out a little trowel and metal detector and dig...

We are on our feet again and we head to a little gated off area that we have been sitting next to the whole time with a ladder that goes steeply underground.  We are in for some really neat exploration.