Traveling
business class was lovely. The Philadelphia bus class lounge had custom
guacamole, mixed to your specifications by a lady from Ethiopia (Rose talked to
her, and of course learned her life’s story) + free wine + many other assorted
snacks. Business class itself had assiduous service (the bus class
section was 1/2 empty) + good food + unlimited wine (of course). Then, in
Frankfurt, Rose qualified for the first class lounge by virtue of her gold card
& I could be her guest, so we had a second breakfast in opulent
surroundings.
Once
we got to the Hotel Dan, the room we were given had a large double bed, when
Rose had requested that the bed be split into two singles. Rose asked
when we arrived; when we got back from dinner, it hadn’t been done, so the
front desk proposed we move to a different room, which had the split bed, but
not the Old City view which we’d paid for (and it was smaller). We were
finally given a room that didn’t look out on the parking lot & was larger,
but not as high up....
The breakfast is abundant — many varieties of cottage cheese
and cream cheese, fish, salad, many fruits, many pastries (croissants &
babkas) & halvah. I ate too much, of course.
Continuing
the room saga, Rose wrote a long letter to the manager outlining our plight w/
the rooms, and we were given a 5th floor room w/ the proper view and separated
beds (and fruit and a cake). And a free dinner tomorrow. It has a
nice view of Mt. Scopus, and we’re happy.
We
went to the Israel National Mus this morning w/ Karen (the owner of the
cockatiel), and saw illuminated manuscripts of Maimonides (impossibly small
Hebrew script) and the Aleppo Codex & Dead Sea Scrolls. The Aleppo
Codex was the most impressive — it’s a 10th century book that recorded the
vowels in the Tanach (Bible), as the Masorites had passed down by oral
tradition. (Now that I think of it, I’m not sure the trope marks, which
are the punctuation, were included).
Then
Karen drove Rose & me back to the hotel & went off to swim — she swims
2 hours/day.
Rose
& I had lunch & then set off for the Old City — we went to the Kotel
(the remains of the 2nd Temple), where I read Psalm 24 in Hebrew, and then the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (I’m not spelling that right), which is managed by
3 denominations of monks: Franciscan, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian
Orthodox, who sometimes come to blows. There’s a hilarious
NYT article (4/6/2016) on attempts to renovate the shrine around the
tomb.
Then
we stopped at a sweet shop and had kunafe, a Nablus sweet of goat cheese
sprinkled w/ semolina. Then we took the light rail to a place for
falafel. I came back to the room, thinking my day was done, and Rose (who
has more energy than me) went off to explore a nearby supermarket.
I
was sitting writing this, when I got a phone call from Doris, a friend of
Rose’s, who thought she was meeting us for dinner. I scurried down to
apologize — and we talked (she’s a retired conservator at the National
Archieves). Rose, back from the supermarket and investigating bus routes,
etc. heard us, and came down, and we set off for supper (2nd supper for me;
Rose had had 1/2 falafel & I’d had a whole one).
We
had to wait a while for a table, so we wandered down the street window
shopping. There was a lovely store selling really unusual Armenian
ceramics, but I managed not to buy anything (I keep thinking of how much we’ll
have to jettison when we move to a 1,000 sf apt). Aren’t you proud of me?
We
talked about children, the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Mus, medical stuff,
Rabbi Gerber’s YK sermon about his weight problems, Drs’ prejudices against
overweight people, and then Doris drove us back.
Rose
says I snore, intermittently.
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