My Israel Adventure: Day Four

A bit of a lie-in today: didn’t get up till 8.45! Went to St. Andrews, the ‘Scottish Church’, built in the 1920s as a WWI memorial.


Beautiful and sparse inside, white with touches of blue.


Nice hymns and prayers, including a special one on social justice. The seats are sponsored by various Church of Scotland congregations, and I spotted one for Hillhead, Glasgow.The guesthouse attached to the church has huge windows, out of which is a great view of the Old City.


Houses a shop which sells the products of Palestinian craft co-operatives—lots of amazing embroidery. The weather was extremely changeable – sunny, wet, but all the time incredibly, unnervingly windy. As we walked passed the YMCA, we decided it was not a good day to be up on the Old City walks, so we’d do museums instead.

Waiting for Alana to join us, we looked in the shop windows of the Arts and Crafts Lane – expensive and beautiful Judaica, including things made from old Roman glass.


Up to the Jaffa Gate and then into the Tower of David – a museum woven into the old walls. Turned out that it involved heights and slippery steps in fierce wind – but worth it for the wonderful views and good overview of Jerusalem’s history.


Quaint illustrative displays and animated film, which had some political understatement: ‘Jerusalem was now holy to three major religions: a flattering, but somewhat uncomfortable position’...Afterwards we tried, but failed, to get to the City of David archaeological park. Cup of tea in the Jewish Quarter instead, during which time it started pouring down with apocalyptic amounts of rain.

We went into the Burnt House Museum, the excavated remains of a Second Temple priestly family’s home burnt down during the Roman destruction. It involved a tacky and overtly political/religious ‘multimedia’ dramatisation. I’m not used to propaganda in historical museums, at least not quite so blatant, or maybe I’m just not used to it here. Also not accustomed to walking around museums full of soldiers, squeezing past people with big guns on ancient staircases.

As we made our way out rain was still absolutely pouring down, the streets of the Old City streaming with water – slippery limestone, shopkeepers sweeping rainwater away from their wares. Also very windy still, so I was glad went we made it to T’mol Shilshom, a cosy literary cafe/restaurant. Had delicious chai, then spaghetti, finished up by a drink/desert called sahlab.