Israel Adventure: Machane Yehuda, Israel Museum, and Tel Aviv

Our last day in Israel was bittersweet. We all loved being there so much, and we did not want to leave!

We packed up our things and said goodbye to our cozy apartment. Then we set out to find Machane Yehuda Shuk, which is a huge market in Jerusalem, where you can buy just about anything. Of course our GPS lost its signal, and we were quickly lost in Jerusalem again. By this time, after a week of repeatedly getting lost, we were a little more familiar with the crazy streets, so I decided we were going to find it "old school", using the map. It took us just a few minutes to find it.

Yehuda Machane

It was so much fun just wandering around the market in the hustle and bustle, enjoying all of the sights, sounds and smells. I especially loved the beautiful fruits and vegetables and the delicious smelling spices.

We had a yummy lunch of falafel wrapped in a pita with hummus, tomatoes, cucumber, pickles, some kind of delicious sauce, and even a few french fries thrown in. I think this is called a shawarma, but I'm not sure. It was SO good! Then we ate some chocolate rugelach (a crescent shaped, rolled up pastry) from "Marzipan". Yum!

Later we visited the Israel Museum, where we saw the model of Jerusalem and the Temple during the Second Temple Period. This is what the city looked like at the time of Jesus!

We also saw the "Shrine of the Book" where they keep the Dead Sea Scrolls. Cool!

We were too tired to go through the rest of the museum. I think the busy week had started to catch up with us! We decided to get back in the car and make our way to Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv we found a place to park, walked around a bit and went to the beach.

Then we proceeded to get lost in Tel Aviv (due to the wonderful GPS again). We finally found the place to return our car, then rode the shuttle to the airport where we had a wait of a few hours ahead of us.

The girls, waiting at the airport

We really did not want to leave. Israel is such a special place, and we absolutely loved every minute of being there. It was a trip of a lifetime!

Exit sign in Hebrew.
The last photo we took in Israel