Saturday morning we enjoyed sleeping late and not feeling we had any place to go (except breakfast at the hotel). We were then excited to find out that the Israel Museum http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/home.aspx was indeed open and it wasn’t that far a walk from the hotel. Off we went pass a nice park and amazingly found the museum without much trouble. The museum was huge, but luckily came with an audio guide. We spent quite a few hours there. The main exhibit we saw was about the early historical periods. The exhibit was a bit confusing so we spent wound up walking back and forth in different directions of time as we struggled to figure out the route. The Judaica stuff was really neat too. Three old synagogues were moved to the museum. My favorite one came from Suriname where it was customary to have sand on the floor. There were all sorts of old religious items and sections on the different holidays. Outside the museum we saw the “Ahava” sculpture. Ahava means love, so this sculpture mimics the famous “LOVE” sculpture. There is also a model of the Second Temple on the grounds (however since we learned so much about the Temples the day before we only look briefly at it). The Shrine of the Book is also included in admission, so we went in there to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was pretty crowded and dark, so we didn’t see much. After that we headed back to the hotel for a leftover lunch.
After a bit of a rest we headed back out to explore. We were looking for the large menorah near the Knesset (the Israeli House of Representatives). It wasn’t that far a walk from the hotel. We came across a group of French-speaking tourists, one whom was nice enough to take our photo in front of the menorah. I’m curious to see the pictures on his camera. We wondered through a rose garden, but there weren’t many roses in bloom. Returning to the hotel it was time to find a place for dinner. We decided on a Kosher Argentinean Steak House located near Ben-Yehuda St. We had quite a bit of trouble finding the restaurant, but we eventually made it. Unfortunately they had one out of the steak kabobs Shira was interested in trying so she had chicken, but I had a very nice steak. The waiter was quite patient with us as we navigated through the menu (since Shira and I are not steakhouse connoisseurs). After dinner we were amazed to find how lively Ben Yeduda St. was at 11pm. Lots of Purim merriment. We didn’t stay out too late, because we had a big day ahead of us.
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