Shalom,

  Up until now Randal and I have been really Gung Ho! about our cruising life.  But now, for some reason, we have hit a snag. We have been off traveling since November 2006 when we left Roanoke with a one way ticket for China. Since then we’ve spent 10 months of every year away from home.   Maybe it’s all of the obstacles to cruising in the European Union Countries that limit you to 90 days during a 180 day period.  Maybe it’s memories of our awful passage from Malaysia to Sri Lanka and India.  Maybe it’s Randal’s dream to build one more house during his life time from all he has seen during our travels. Maybe we’re a little tired of having "nothing real to do" other than just be outsiders with no involvement.   Maybe we’re just not really "boat people."  I know I’m not.  I need to be able to get onto land and walk.  Lots of people like to anchor out, relax, swim and take their dinghy ashore. I can’t get enough exercise swimming and we always seem to find our dinghy more trouble than it’s worth.  Our friend Linda on B’Sheret calls herself a "marina babe."  I guess that’s what we are too; "marina people."  So that’s where we’re heading when we leave Israel, the Netsel Marina in Marmaris, Turkey.  Turkey has no 90 day limit.  We spent some time in Marmaris last year at Yacht Marine.  This time we’ve chosen Netsel because it’s in town and you can get off your boat and just walk where you need to go. And there are lots of places to walk.   We do have our motorbike, but that’s not so fun in the winter.  Being in Marmaris town it might be more noisy in the summer time; but no place could be more noisy than Israel…at least I hope so. Israelis certainly like very loud music.   Maybe in Marmaris we were far enough from the discos and bars to hear the noise and real cruising marinas don’t allow blaring music from the boats.   In the cold months DoraMac will be closed up so we won’t hear it though I doubt there will be any.  In winter Marmaris has a population of about 30,000.  In the summer about 200,000 if I remember correctly.   In the warm months we can close up the boat and run the AC to drown out the noise if we have to.  We don’t do that here because with our location in the marina, the Mediterranean breezes keep us cool enough.  At least so far anyway.  Each day finds it a bit warmer, but not like the heat wave back in Virginia.  It certainly is a bit lonely here with no other real live aboards.  We have our pal Eve, but she has a life.  She has family and several job offers and a trip to Berlin to close up her daughter’s apartment. (Eve’s daughter moved from Berlin to China where she has a job as a fashion designer near Shanghai.)    Even our boat project that need to be done aren’t very appealing.  We’ve hit the doldrums.  I’m not whining, though if you’re still doing the 9 to 5 thing, I’m sure it sounds a lot like whining!   I’m just trying to explain the lack of emails and exciting stories lately.  Neither one of us seems very inspired. 

So anyway….

  We did visit Jerusalem this past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I took lots of photos.  Wifi has been iffy so I have been having trouble doing my "post touring research."  I did come across some interesting online articles from the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.  I’ll include them at the end of emails so you can read them or not.  This first email is about the neighborhood of Mazkeret Moshe just off Jaffa Road.

Ru

Jerusalem is such an important, historic, beautiful city: but that’s not why we keep returning. I’m actually not sure why I keep wanting to go back. On our first visit we did an organized tour that raced us around the major “tourist sites” in the Old City, Masada, The Dead Sea, and Yad Vashem. Our second visit, while Charmaine and Linda were still visiting, we did our own touring, again mostly famous sites like the Israel Museum, Shrine of the Book, Dome of the Rock and the Chagall Windows as well as an organized tour of Jericho and Bethlehem. In all of that we’d only spent 4 nights; not nearly enough time to visit everything. It isn’t just what’s in the Old City that makes me want to keep returning, it’s the interesting neighborhoods in “new” Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. Neither Randal nor I went to Jerusalem for religious reasons so neither of us felt drawn to religious sites. So what else is there? The old stones, the sounds, people watching, the cooler temperatures? Pico Iyer, one of my favorite travel writers did a piece about Jerusalem for Conde Nast Traveler April of 2010. City of God, City of Man

“What struck me as I wandered, though, was not how old the place seemed but how alive.”

“It’s common, almost inevitable, to call Jerusalem a pilgrimage site, since few people ever come here casually and almost everyone is on a mission.”

It was the liveliness that captivated me; but neither Randal or I were on a mission. Just the opposite in fact. We weren’t sure why we were there other than, How could we not go? We both put it on our list of places we’d like to live for 3 months when we stop cruising. I just can’t explain why.

This trip we explored some of the small neighborhoods and wandered up and down Jaffa Road. We like Jaffa Road. It has book stores and coffee shops and there are those interesting intersecting neighborhoods. There’s the Mahane Yehuda Market with its zillions of stalls and streets to get lost in. We also took half of the Ramparts Walk along the walls of the Old City. That was great! I hope to do the other half before we leave Israel. It is possible to take an early bus to Jerusalem, walk the walls, see a few things and then catch an afternoon bus back to Ashdod

We stayed in the same homey Allenby Hotel owned and run by Dan Flax and his family. It’s just a 5 minute walk from the Central Bus Terminal and just a block or so off Jaffa Road and a short walk to the Mahane Yehuda Market. When we arrived Monday, Dan welcomed us and gave us each a huge bowl of fruit salad that is served every morning at breakfast. We ate our fruit and chatted for a bit, catching up since our last stay. Then we left our packs and headed out to wander down Jaffa Road.

We’d left the boat about 8 am and had arrived at the Allenby about 10:30. By the time we got to the Mahane Yehuda Market, it was time for some food (even after the fruit salad because the cute little Market eateries were just too tempting.) Sandwiches in Israel are served on giant pieces of bread so Randal and I have learned that one sandwich is plenty for both of us. One of our favorites in a salmon sandwich with cream cheese and green onions. I’ve probably mentioned that before.

Salmon sandwich, mint tea for me, beer for Randal. The great bakery next door.

These photos look so calm! We were sitting outside the bustling restaurant on the tiny patio packed with tiny tables and chairs. We just managed to squeeze ourselves in. You `could hear any number of languages being spoken…that is when the man with the drill wasn’t drilling up some concrete tiles just across the alley. Thankfully that stopped pretty quick. Unfortunately they served Lipton tea rather than my favorite Wissotzky; so I drank my hot water and mint leaves sans tea bag.

A halva stall; I almost took a free taste but we’re not really halva fans.

The man in black is wearing a gold crown if you can see. Some kind of promotion I’m guessing. From what I can make out the Hebrew on his shirt says halva halva.

A shop just outside the market.

I don’t know how to interpret this photo other than to point out the variety of people who live in Jerusalem, apparently, from what I’ve been reading, more poorer than richer. One article I just read said that Israel should have two capitals, Jerusalem for the Orthodox Jews and Tel Aviv for the secular Israelis.

Oiy!

We didn’t buy it and I’m going to be snobby enough to say “Who would?” Like an Elvis painting on velvet. But far better than I could paint it…so there’s that. I didn’t like the movie with Charlton Heston either. But I think Moses must have been some fantastic leader/politician if half of what is attributed to him is true.

Speaking of Moses, we discovered a very charming neighborhood, Mazkeret Moshe, not far from the market. We walked several blocks: it was one of those places I could imagine myself living.

Mazkeret Moshe (Hebrew: מזכרת משה) is a neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel.

Mazkeret Moshe was founded in 1882 with the financial support of Moses Montefiore. The name "Mazkeret Moshe" means "memorial to Moses." The neighborhood was intended for Ashkenazi Jews, while the adjacent neighborhood Ohel Moshe, also funded by Montefiore’s foundation, was intended for Sephardi Jews. In 1938,the Mo’adon Mazkeret was opened as the first community center in Jerusalem. It was a club for neighborhood kids not in the school system. In 1975 a second story was added for an old age center and a kindergarten. In 2000 the building was remodeled as a heritage center documenting the stories of the people who settled the residential areas outside the walls of the old city.

The Weiner Heritage Center, an archive of historic photographs, is located in Mazkeret Moshe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazkeret_Moshe

Wiener Heritage Center (Closed, maybe for lunch, while we were there.)

The Wiener Family Heritage Center in Mazkeret Moshe was dedicated in 2000 by Hans Wiener from Stockholm, Sweden as a living memorial to the memories of his parents Kaete and Franz Wiener killed in Auschwitz in 1942. The Center’s vision is to create a dynamic, productive center that would instruct groups and individuals from Israel and abroad on the urban renewal work taking place in the center of Jerusalem.

The Wiener Center would also serve as a place for the exchange of ideas and a meeting place between divergent groups. One major task of the heritage center would be to gather information and document the historical neighborhoods of the Inner City, built in the second half of the 19th century from the Old City along Jaffa Street, ensuring that children and adults alike would learn from the area’s rich cultural

http://www.levhair.org.il/Index.asp?CategoryID=585 website has some interesting photos linked from this page, though most of the site is only in Hebrew.

Hessed Verahamim just across the street from the Weiner Heritage Center

“Pass under the arch and you will be inside the Mazkeret Moshe Quarter, founded in 1882 specifically for Ashkenazi Jews. Turn right (Rehov Carmel) and stop at Hessed Verahamim, surprising for two reasons: it is a Sephardi synagogue in an Ashkenazi neighborhood, and it was once a pub! Sometime in the late 1920s, as more and more Sephardim moved in, a neighborhood butcher and his goons "persuaded" the owner to transform the pub into a Sephardi synagogue. Be sure to examine the exquisite doors, covered with unique silver symbols representing the 12 tribes.”

I have to admit that I can’t find the Hebrew that says Hessed Verahamim on the door, so I don’t know why it’s called that.

I’d guessed about the twelve tribes but not that it had been a pub. I wasn’t even positive it was a synagogue until I did some research. It was a pretty amazing door. Lovely detailed trim depicting the city.

“THE QUIET on Nahlaot’s streets is interrupted momentarily by a crowd of over 30 Israelis on one of the many guided tours of the picturesque neighborhood. They marvel at the ornate artwork adorning the Hesed Verahamim Synagogue, admiring its shiny metal gates, painstakingly engraved with Hebrew prayers and 12 panels signifying the ancient Tribes of Israel. As their tour guide finishes his potted history of the area, the group disperses, revealing the Hebrew words "Na, Nah, Nahma, Nahman, Me’uman" spray-painted on a wall adjacent to the historic Moroccan synagogue. The stuttering Kabbalistic mantra, written by followers of the late Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, is probably Israel’s best-known graffiti, reaching just about every corner of the country.” http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=105667

We didn’t see this particular bit of graffiti, but we have seen more than I would have expected in such an historic city.

Side street adjacent to the Weiner Heritage Center; I think this was a café.

This is a real neighborhood with real people who live here.

For some reason black and white stripes seem to be very popular among the more religious women.

Shirat Devorah is an organization aimed at teaching 20-30 year old women how to make Torah teachings part of their everyday lives.

I especially liked this fence painting of the woman with the camera.

So picturesque.

Randal dreaming of the house he wants to build when we move to land.

Some of the homes seemed a bit shabby but were still appealing.

It was developed as a real neighborhood with communal ovens and cisterns.

Popular painting subject, Moses who adorns the side of this building and wall.

I’m not sure where one neighborhood ends and one begins; we wound around an ended our neighborhood walk where we had started exiting back into the seemingly much newer world of Jaffa Road.