When I left off last time, we had spent our first day at a hotel in Jerusalem. I had a wheelchair with me and was fully dependent on my family to get me around. Our first full day at the hotel was Yom Yerushalyim, a day that celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem after the 6 day war. That morning, my family went to a special prayer service at an overlook of the city, and when they got back at 10 am I was still sound asleep!
Even though I overslept, we made it to breakfast on time. Israeli hotel breakfasts are a big deal! There is a large buffet and you can also order food. Each day I had a cheese omelet.
The kids wanted to go in the pool so we hung out there for a little while.
The hotel left this liquor in our room.
We went for a walk to some stores so I could get things I wanted like earrings and a book in Hebrew. Gabbie had some falafel and saw some friends from her trip two years ago.
There were a lot of people around getting ready for the parade that night.
We also saw my nephew.
We went back to the hotel, which was along the parade route. We checked it out from various areas around the hotel.
It was mainly groups of school kids walking by. These kids wanted me to take their picture:
Someone handed Simon a flag.
The parade route went into the Old City and my family wanted to go as well, so Dave brought me back to the room. The crowds and access route isn’t wheelchair friendly! It did take awhile for them to get back and by then I was pretty hungry. Dave and I got salads at the hotel restaurant for dinner.
It was basically mozzarella sticks on the salad (but haloumi cheese) and really good!
The next day, we went to my nephew’s army base to see him off. My other nephew and my brother-in-law were making pizzas for him and his group.
After we said goodbye to him, we went to see the areas that were attacked by Hamas on 10/7. We mainly wanted to see the site of the Nova concert, which is now a memorial to those who were killed and a plea for the return of those taken hostage.
This is a bomb shelter that has been painted.
After that, my brother-in-law brought us to Sderot, a city which is close to Gaza and has been under constant rocket fire over time. There is an overlook there where you can see how close it is to Gaza.
We also saw the police station there that had been a spot of a battle and was blown up on 10/7.
After all of this, we went to Ikea for dinner. That may be random, but the Swedish meatballs are kosher in Israel!
These two days felt like real cultural experiences, from seeing the parade to seeing the memorial site, and we are glad we got to see them.
