Jerusalem Trip Report

Working on next summer’s big road trip (only nine months to go!!), I have become addicted to trip reports. I read trip reports on blogs and forums, in both English and Hebrew, about places we’re about to visit. They’re not just informative, but they also give a unique personal angle on things.

Every visit and every trip is unique – it’s a combination of the exact timing, weather, local affairs and events, and of course, of the people experiencing it.I feel that combining these trip reports in my mind really helps me get a good sense of the place.

In fact, the book I’m reading these days is one long trip report. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. The experiences of the author traveling through Europe and in the Holy Land, some 150 years ago. Great book!

Mentioning Mark Twain’s trip report is probably not a good idea when I’m about to share one of my own… Don’t set your expectations too high, and hopefully you’ll enjoy my tale of our 24 hours in the Holiest City of the Holy Land.

Jerusalem, Here We Come

The reason for our trip to Jerusalem was the ligthshow, or should I say light  spectacle, at the Tower of David. This show is so popular, you have to book tickets several weeks in advance. Since this is a night time show, we decided to spend the night in Jerusalem, sleeping over at my sister-in-law’s parents’ house.

If you’re in Israel today, you know we’re in the middle of a particularly obnoxious heat wave. At times like this, we generally try to stay indoors with the air conditioning humming in the background. With fixed dates for our tickets, off we went, taking comfort in the knowledge that at least Jerusalem is not as humid as the coastal plain.

We left home after a leisurely breakfast and drove up to Jerusalem via Road 6. Driving through Sha’ar HaGuy, we showed the kids the old armored vehicles of the war of ’48 and talked about the time of the siege back then. The conversation soon took a typical turn into fantasy land, as the kids very seriously discussed how they would handle a similar situation in case of an attack on Jerusalem by aliens – specifically the Protoss or Zerg races of Starcraft 2.

The lightshow was scheduled for 8 in the evening, so we had lots of time and decided to visit a museum. Following online recommendations, we went to the Bible Lands Museum, right across the street from the famous Israel Museum.

The Bible Lands Museum

Arriving around noon, the parking lots in the area were full. We got into line and voila – got stuck in parking lot limbo. 200 meters in which you can’t go back and have no choice but to stand in line behind a couple of dozens of other cars. Only when a car leaves the parking lot on the other side, the guard lets in a single car in its stead. The slowest 200 meters in the world – it took us over 50 minutes to finally get into the parking lot. I actually called the manager of the museum about this but she told me there is nothing they can do, as the parking lot is managed by the Israel Museum. I made a mental note of writing to them – and may still do that.

Inside the museum things got much better. First, it was not as crowded as I had feared it might be (judging by our parking lot woes). Looks like everyone went over to the Israel Museum and I’m glad they did.

The museum itself, while aesthetically pleasing, is basically made of a couple of dozens of galleries of fairly traditional displays. Yes, the items on display are very unique and impressive, yet this could easily have been a very boring visit for the kids.

Fortunately, the museum offers a special booklet for kids. Along the lines of a “Young Ranger” booklet, this one challenges the kids to explore various displays with a character called Shamshi. You can see the first couple of pages here – the booklet is available in Hebrew and English.

We loved Shamshi, and the kids went through the booklet cover to cover. This has been an extremely educational experience for the entire family. All in all, including a break in the cafeteria, we spent two and a half hours in the museum.

Speaking of the cafeteria, it’s fairly small, and has a limited selection of a few salads and pastries. You have to be quick at lunch time, as by the time our kids decided on the pastries they wanted, the place went out of stock on those. The coffee was good though and the prices surprisingly sane. One large coffee, one salad, a sandwich, a potato filled pastry and juice, all cost us around 60 shekels ($15).

Leaving the museum at half past three, we decided to try and get to the Tower of David museum, where the lightshow was to be held. We figured we can grab our pre-booked tickets and tour the museum. We made it all the way to the Old City, but weren’t sure where to park and how to reach the place. Carried ahead in the heavy traffic, we just gave up and decided to go visit our relatives instead. This was the best decision, on a hot day. We got there, met everyone and socialized for a bit. We were shown to our room and while the kids watched TV, we took a nap.

The Tower of David Light Show

The nap was sweet and we had a hard time getting up. We had planned on grabbing a bite in a coffee shop before the show, but ended up taking some crackers and cookies for the way instead.

We parked in the adjacent Mamilla Shopping Center. This relatively new addition to the city, is an open mall right next to the Old City, specializing in fancy shops and some nice cafes and restaurants. It’s a lovely place, with artwork spread along the main walking path which we really enjoyed.

We arrived at the Tower of David, which turned out to be inside the Old City, about 100 meters or yards after entering Jaffa Gate. We got our tickets and patiently waited along with about 100 more visitors for the gates of the show area to open.

The show was spectacular. You start by walking inside along the walls of the citadel, with various spectacles projected on walls along your path. We’ve stopped several times just to look at those, finally arriving at the main show area, where we had to find available seats. There is plenty of seating for everyone, but if you come with a group, as we have, and you want seats in a particular place, you don’t want to be the last one in. In retrospect, the show is so huge in scale, you will see it just fine from any point.

With everyone finally seated, the show began. It’s hard to describe it in words, but I’ll try. Imagine a huge movie, projected on gigantic citadel walls, almost all around you. Nothing is behind you, so you can remain seated, but you definitely move your head around, as images are projected on your sides too. It’s absolutely huge, and the quality of projection is so amazing, you almost don’t see the walls. The movie is designed to perfectly match the outline of the walls on which its projected, so nothing “breaks” or comes in the way.

The content is very artistic and the visuals are stunning. The story is the story of Jerusalem, from the times of King David to this day, but very little is narrated or “told”. They give you a brochure before the show starts, suggesting that you read the historical timeline in advance, to figure out what you’re seeing. It doesn’t really matter that much, as the focus here is on aesthetics and the soundtrack. You’re really looking at a work of art, not a history lesson. Here’s the official movie of the spectacle, but really, if you have the chance, go and see it, as it can’t be captured in a movie.

Walking to our car after the show, we walked through the Mamilla center again. Lots of people there at night, live music and street shows – very nice!

The Tower of David in the morning

The next morning, we came back to the Tower of David. The tickets we got for the light show also included a visit to the museum which we could take at anytime, so the next morning was as good a time as any.

The museum opens only at 10, which is a shame. On hot days like these, we would have preferred to be there much earlier. Instead, we stopped over at the Mamilla Mall again, for ice coffee and a salad at the Rimon restaurant there. We entered thinking this was a cafe, but realized from the menu and prices that they were a proper restaurant. Still, we ordered an Israeli salad, which was not on the menu, along with fresh bread and some spreads (including eggplan jam!), two ice coffees (with soy milk), and a plate of fries for the kids and ended up with a bill of 90 shekels ($22.5). Not cheap, but could have been worse.

The Tower of David museum also had a booklet for the kids, but this one was not as good as the one we had at the Bible Lands museum and the kids soon lost track of the assignments. So, we just went from one display to another and enjoyed those as best we could. We did manage to teach them quite a bit of history, and the displays were good enough to draw their attention in most cases.

In the Crusaders gallery, we came across a nun. The kids were shy at first, but after she secretly told me she wasn’t a real nun, but an actress working in the museum, I encouraged them to interact some more and Dan had a good time talking to her. I don’t think he learned too much about Christianity, but she learned a lot about Dan’s world…

Overall, this was a very good museum, with good displays in a beautiful setting. It took us about an hour to go through it all.

Dan really wanted to go to the “Time Elevator”. It’s one of those multi-dimensional shows, where you sit in a moving chair, see a movie with a variety of special effects. We made the mistake of walking over there in the heat. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was uphill, and in a hot day and could have been avoided by calling in advance and being told they were all booked up for the next few hours.

We went to the Mamilla center again, where our car was parked. The kids had ice cream, and we grabbed a great sandwich, an ice coffee and a glasspresso – ice cream in a glass of espresso. All by Aroma. I don’t remember exactly how much it all cost, but I think it was in the 50 shekels region.

Finally headed back home – via road 6 again, in time for a shower and a short nap after a hot morning.

Whew… trip reports are long, aren’t they?

I hope you enjoyed this one. I had fun writing it.

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