Here are a few newly edited photo’s from our first day in Jerusalem where we covered the old city on foot.  It was one of the most exhausting and exciting days of our entire trip – rivaling only the night in the Sahara in intensity.

Click on one for the slideshow.

Our Middle East posts are done! We still have about 60 percent of the video to compile and edit — it’s beginning to look like that may never get done.

They look great! Thanks to Trish for photographing, editing and producing these.

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Today was a slight drop from the fantastic success we’ve had each day so far. Our primary target; the Israeli Museum was mostly closed but some of our secondary targets turned out to be interesting. We ventured our beyond the Old city to the Jewish suburbs and most of our day was spent in a taxi ($200 on taxi fare!) Much of it could have been California if you ignored the Hebrew signage.

We left our fantastic room at the American Colony around 9 a.m. and grabbed our first ride. I had decided earlier to skip Bethlehem, thinking that a long ride was not worth a church. Luckily, the charming taxi driver, (who was doing tours of Petra from Jerusalem in the 70′s) convinced me to do it. We switched cars in Bethlehem, which is one of only a few christian towns in Israel or Palestine, and got a quick tour.

The Church is the oldest intact church in the world, and it was built on top of the cave where they kept animals: the famous manger. It was genuinely interesting on it’s own but the crowds of singing, chanting, prostrate tour groups from Italy that packed the place were also fantastic. There were gift shops everywhere.

On to Hadassa Hospital where we tried to find a plaque with the girls’ great-grandmother’s name inscribed. It turns out that it was in a different hospital, but they were able to show us pictures of it and were very helpful. There are a series of Chagall stained glass windows at the hospital synagogue that were amazing and worth the extra effort.

Yad Vashem was Emma and Lily’s first experience with the holocaust. We answered hundreds of questions from them as we went through the half-dozen memorials including a memorial to the exterminated children that I won’t forget. We couldn’t see the new museum as it is too graphic for kids.

The highlight of the day was supposed to be the Israel Museum where we would see the dead sea scrolls. And we did. They are amazing. But we also hoped to see the main building with some great modern and ancient art, especially the Islamic section. But it was closed for renovation. Doh.

Around the corner was the kids science museum of Hebrew University. If you’ve seen one kids science museum you’ve seen them all but they never fail to entertain. We made it back to the hotel by 4:30 and got ready for work. We both have several hours of meetings tonight.

[Photos by Trisha Creekmore]

Our destination today was my office in Ramallah. We had to take a Jerusalem licensed taxi, because it’s too much headache for a PA licensed vehicle to come get us. We drove a few miles along the wall, which was a sad sight. It’s amazing how viscerally one feels the oppression of a physical barrier like that when near it. Mentally, it doesn’t have the same effect. Ya godda be there I guess. We saw the Arafat Mausoleum and the Presidential compound on our drive. Ramallah doesn’t have much to offer the tourist.

Ramallah is beat-up, but lively. Most of the PAT economy is foreign aid from other nations, so the international community is huge. So much signage is in english. It’s also a pretty hip place. The nightlife is very good they say. Downtown Ramallah had the highest density of fashion burkas that I have ever seen. One I remember was a structured, slim, button front, in grey wool with a Chanell scarf. It looked great.

I mostly had work meetings in the morning and the girls and Trish amused themselves or worked. We went for a huge lunch with Levant-style food. Lots of salads, fresh bread and mixed grill followed by a whole watermelon. The chicken had flavor, real chicken flavor. We had some ice cream in the center of the town.

Back at the hotel, I took the kids to a playground down the street. It only took Emma about 10 minutes to find a gaggle of arab girls to play with. They spoke no english, but what do playground girls need to discuss? Most of the time she was surrounded by kids yelling ‘Yellah Emma, Yellah Emma’ (Come on, Emma). She handled her celebrity with grace. Lily had a blast but then got a sharp poke from something on the ground and we had to go home. We ate well again at the hotel and Trisha had a late work call. This was a completely different day for us, and worth it.

[Photos by Trisha Creekmore]