Israel trip, Day 2

Long day. Drove east out of the city towards Masada, first stopping at the Ahava factory store and buying lots of products for ourselves and friends. 


 



Masada was wonderful, but it was surprisingly hot on top of the mesa, and we all wilted a bit, touring the castle, baths, and other areas.  

Here is Matt in the famous dove cote:


 



However, it was cooler by the Dead Sea, and a bit windy, so none of us stayed long in the water (Larry didn't go in at all). My favorite was the sulfur pool - my shoulder didn't hurt at all for 3 days afterward!  

The kids were great on the bus:

When we got back to Jerusalem, we walked from our hotel to Ben Yehuda St, about 10 or 12 blocks, and had awesome shwarma at Moshiko - thanks to "Aunt Beth" for the suggestion! 


 



Hung around Ben Yehuda, enjoyed our first WiFi, watched people (the streets got fuller and fuller as the night wore on), had ice cream and Turkish coffee, and did a little shopping (didn't realize until later that we should have done more!)  


 



We thought we could take the intracity train back to our hotel, but it didn't really go the right way, so Bobbie took a cab and the rest of us walked a different (longer as it turned out) route back.  One of the estimated 2 million stray cats that Israel hosts even followed Alana for a couple of blocks, after she stopped to pet it: