We planned this day to be a little more low key...just us, no tour guide. To be honest, however, Gershon did help us by making reservations for us for the tunnel tours and the virtual reality Beis Hamikdash (Temple). Alas for my kids, the reservations were pretty early in the day so it was another morning of "rise and shine" and "up and at 'em." We actually decided that the best course of action would be shacharis (morning prayers) at the Kotel. My mom stayed with Asher in the Rova rather than shlepping the stroller down the stairs just yet and when I finished davening, well before the men, I ran back up the steps and we ordered bagels for everyone. By the time we got back down to the Kotel plaza, we were already running tight on time.
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| Replica of the Menorah from the Holy Temple |
How does one explain the Kotel Tunnel Tours... The Western Wall (the Kotel) is a familiar view to people, but archeologists have been excavating the wall for years. The Tunnel Tours take you beneath the city and up against the unexposed stones of the wall. Some of these stones are just massive! First, however, a trained tour guide provides a fascinating history of the mountain on which the Temple was built and how the Temple evolved so one gets a better understanding of what we are about to see.
One spot, which generally has a contingent of people there for davening, is the closest one can physically get today to where the Holy of Holies part of the Temple was. Additionally, the excavations also take you "out" onto an ancient roadway where you can see pillars and windows from a time long gone, technically, for a good part of the tour, you are under the Arab quarter and the tour's exit used to be in that section as well.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you where it ends this time because our two tours ended up scheduled to closely together and we had to cut out early to make the 4D Temple tour.
While the kids had done virtual reality in Acre, we adults had not. The 4D required us the put on these goggle and headphones, blocking our senses of the world around us....which would have been no problemo if we hadn't forgotten to take Asher into consideration! So if all seven big people are immerse in VR, whose watching the wide awake toddler? I asked if we could stagger our time, but there was a larger group scheduled right after us. In the end, it worked, David kept a hand on him, and I partially removed my headphones so I could hear if he needed me.
The Virtual Reality Temple Tour was really cool. When it started you found yourself in the courtyard of the Temple. Wherever you turned your head or body, it was like you were really turning. In fact, it was a little trippy that if you turned to look at your hand, there was no hand, just part of the scene, like the floor or something. The animation was excellent and the tour took you through the main areas of the Temple that was built by Herod. It gave you a real sense of perspective. Like how tall a pillar was and how long the courtyard was.
Having spent our morning in the Old City, we headed back to the apartment to park the car and take advantage of a free afternoon for some shopping time. The girls had been hoping to go look for clothing in the Geulah area and the guys wanted to go to Meah Shearim for some Judaica stuff. I'm going to leave out the details of our shopping expedition, but I can say that Avi found a Yad, a pointer for someone reading Torah In shul - something for which he appears to have a great talent - and we ladies came home satisfied (is there such a thing as too many scarves?)
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