Sabbath in Jerusalem - Friday evening January 29

It's been a full day. As our luggage is unloaded at the King Solomon Hotel in Jerusalem, we are reminded Sabbath begins at sundown. There is a special elevator that is set to stop at every floor for approximately a minute. It will run this way until sundown tomorrow evening. Why? It's the Sabbath and to push the elevator button is considered to be work and working on the Sabbath is sinful. Interestingly enough, many come to the hotel for dinner so as not to violate the Sabbath by cooking.

The King Solomon Hotel is an OK place to stay. It's rated 3 out of 5 according to the online evaluation. I would not recommend it. When we arrived we had to ask for clean towels as the wet ones were still on the floor. As I write this, I now wonder about the sheets. Oh well, too late to worry about it now. Guess they must have been OK. The food was nothing to write home about. Food meant to be hot was often cold or barely warm. The fruit was good. The tomatoes were really good. The menu was typical, mostly fruits and vegetables. Tuna and pickled herring - even for breakfast. The breads were not nearly as fresh as the other places. I missed the pita and other breads from the other hotels.

Pictures below show the elevator, a large globe of Jerusalem that is in the lobby, and a young boy on the steps watching us we waited for our luggage to be unloaded from the bus.

Our schedule for tomorrow will be slightly different. Wake up call will be 5:30 AM, breakfast at 6:30 and the bus will pull out at 7:30 sharp. Our guide, Louie, wants us to beat the crowds inside the walls of Jerusalem.

Later in the evening, once again several people tried to get my computer to connect with wireless internet. My thanks to each one, including the guy at the coffeeshop who told me he could get all computers to connect. Guess what - he can no longer make this a claim to his fame. I felt sorry for him. He tried and tried and tried for nearly an hour. It was not meant to be.

Then I was incredibly frustrated. Now I am so very thankful. I now have time to reflect what goes into the recording of my sacred journey. Writing it day to day would have resulted in much less detail been less and I would have forgotten more than I have already forgotten.

Yes, the energizer bunny was tired in the evening and was known to be in bed asleep by 10:30 or 11 PM. Ahh, all that fresh air and walking! It was great!