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| View of Jerusalem from the top of the museum |
We are now on our own
so we decide to spend the day strolling through the Old City. First stop is the
Tower of David museum for a full history of Jerusalem. It is long since as it is
the second oldest city in the world, dating back to 3000 BC. Just about
everyone has had a go at conquering Jerusalem …. most succeeded. Its all a bit
hard to take in when your home country has a recorded history of less than some
of the conqueror’s shortest stays of a few hundred years.
We spend the rest of
the day just walking the alleyways and markets of the old city. Despite many
invitations, we avoid buying any more artefacts.
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| Marketplace wares... |
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| This wouldn't sell well back home |
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| Spice mountain |
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| Mount Strawberry |
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| The Damascus Gate. This is the reference point for mileage calculations from Jerusalem to anywhere else in the world. As you can see there are many people here waiting to start their journeys (just joking) |
The diversity of hat ware we have seen here helps us pass the time as we compete to photograph the weirdest hats we see.
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| These were strongest contenders for the most distinctive hats award... |
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| But in the end this guy won the award for its uniqueness. We didn't see anyone else with a hat anything like this! |
The evening is
reserved for Geoff’s surprise 60th birthday. Wife Noelene had
cleverly reserved the restaurant for the eight of us, and had them also make
the cake. His birthday coincides with the day Armenians celebrate Christmas, so
Geoff takes the opportunity to leak a secret he has kept for 60 years …. he is
actually the Armenian Messiah! We have a wonderful dinner and then retire to
the hotel lounge for the premiere release of a testimonial video I had
produced, which I have now renamed “The Life of the Armenian Messiah” (Video).
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| The Messiah and wife Noelene |
Sidebar - Shopping wait time
predictor update
Today is Sabbath so most
of the shops were closed. Of course there is always window shopping. We notice that we need to
extend our formulation to include a 50% (may be tuned over time) discount if the shop is shut:
Wt = S(N*T1/F)
Where Wt =
Predicted Wait Time
N
= number of women in group
T = mean time for a single one woman visit
F = Fudge Factor for Group Trust
S = 1, if shop open; S = 0.5, if shop closed
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