Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount, Old City, Jerusalem
From there we drove to Mt. Scopus where we had a great view of the Mount of Olives and the Old City. Coming down the hill on our way to the Jaffa Gate we passed the Tomb of Mary, the Basilica of the Agony (Gethsemane) with its mosaic facade,
the Dominus Flevit Church shaped like a teardrop, and the 19th cent. Russian Church of Mary Magdalene with its cluster of golden onion domes.
We also saw the huge Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
and the sealed Golden Gate (through which the Messiah is supposed to enter Jerusalem). I was wondering how we were going to deal with parking in this obviously crowded area of ancient buildings when we turned into an underground garage (!) and took an elevator to the street level of the Jaffa Gate. There we walked through a modern shopping arcade and stopped for a briefing in a square just outside the gate. Security moved us out of the square because an unattended bag had been found. Once through the gate we turned right into the Armenian Quarter. The Tower of David (really a minaret constructed by the Ottomans in 1610) and the Citadel (Medieval but based on Herod's fortress) drew our camera lenses both from outside the city and from within.
A short distance into the AQ, we turned left and went downhill to Ararat Street and a plaza (Hurva?) in the Jewish Quarter. Here we encountered a bar mitzvah procession with a canopy, hired drummers and people dancing and clapping. It was quite a scene. (apparently Mondays and Thursdays are bar mitzvah days.) Dropping down to an overlook of the Western Wall plaza, we stopped at a huge gold menorah (7-branched) based on plans from the Second Temple (destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD) for use in the Third yet-to-be-built Temple and enclosed in a bulletproof glass dome. Dropping down the last set of stairs we joined a slow-moving line to go through Security and entered the Western Wall plaza. 
Women were herded off to the right and men, with appropriate headcovering (available to borrow) were free to approach a larger section of the wall to pray and leave wishes crammed into the cracks between the huge foundation stones. There were many groups of bar mitzvah celebrations. A 13-yr-old would "lay" (or don) the tefillin, the two strapped boxes containing scripture, one for the left arm and one for the forehead (also known as phylacteries) and read from the Torah for his first time. They would also carry an Ark with the Torah to one of several tabernacles placed at the Wall. Some men prayed at the wall in the black suits and hats of the Orthodox;
others wore fringed prayer shawls. When our group reassembled, 
we exited the plaza at the NW corner and walked along a street (more like a lane) crowded with stalls selling souvenirs, food and clothing.Eventually we reached the Via Dolorosa at around Station V
(Tradition holds that there is a handprint at the next Station made by Jesus when he fell the first time.) and turned W to follow the route uphill.Our guide led us to a more upscale souvenir shop, of course, where we were assured that it was safe to use our credit cards and, "as a special deal, everything was 50% off for us". We bought a couple of
olive wood crosses 
and a refrigerator magnet of the Hand of Fatima (or the Hamsa Hand) to avert the the evil eye. Then we went to lunch across the square and had (surprise, surprise) falafel and schwarma. After that we were allotted about thirty minutes (!) to explore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The building is not impressive to look at but fairly hums with the faith energy of the Christian pilgrims who kneel at the Stone of Unction or line up to enter the Holy Sepulchre itself. The church, founded by St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, contains according to tradition the last four stations of the Via Dolorosa. You go up a flight a stairs to a rock
said to be the summit of Calvary then back down to the tomb. There are lower level chapels and a central rotunda as well.
(photos, left : rotunda; right: Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre)
When most of us had gathered outside again, we made for the Jaffa Gate and met the rest of the group, some of whom had not wanted to spend the whole time in the Church.
Back on the bus it was only a short ride to Yad VaShem ("A memorial and a name"), the Holocaust Museum.We tried to see everything but it was impossible in the hour and twenty minutes we had. (We could have stayed longer because we had to wait at the bus for a taxi to bring people to our bus and pick up others who were staying in Jerusalem...)
The rest of the trip was pretty slow what with rush hour traffic and, from Tel Aviv to Netanya, a taxi driver who did not know where the Seasons Resort was. We got back after 1900 and found Bob and Mark already home. C.J. prepared some pasta and sauce with the leftover kebab meat in it for dinner.
Mt. Tabor from the air
we drove up to the summit and walked around the monastery grounds. C.J. and I observed part of a mass in the Basilica of the Transfiguration in an unrecognizable language, but with beautiful singing from (amazing acoustics) the dozen or so participants gathered about the sunken altar. Back at the launch, conditions were very light but C.J. and I began to get ready. Then a local tandem pilot showed up and rigged for a solo flight along with another Israeli. The tandem guy got up but the other Israeli 
and Mark both went down. I waited until 1223 before launching and even then sank and had to scratch the hillside, then out over Daburiyya where I eventually found enough lift to get above launch and then above the monastery on the summit. I was really happy to achieve enough height to see the winding road leading to the top, and the monastery buildings. At first there seemed to be a ceiling at about 2300 ft where the air got rough but later I climbed to 4500 ft in relatively smooth air. I was looking for someone to go XC with but Mark 
and the tandem pilot had flown north toward Nazereth. I was thinking more about going downwind toward the Sea of Galilee and even set a GoTo for Mevo-Hama. When Mark and the other two locals finally did go south, I was too far to the north and probably too low. Meanwhile C.J. was up when I was down and down when I was up so we were 
out of sync. So, after an hour and fifteen minutes I landed in the LZ near Daburiyya (photo, right) with somewhat of a struggle to get down. Bob picked us up and we chased Mark all the way across the Kinneret to Ma'agan, about 25 km. Bob let Moishe know what we were doing and he came down to meet us with his three children and we ate a late lunch at an Arab cafe in Ma'agan. We drove back to the condo dropping off the Israeli pilot at his car at the Tabor launch on the way. Then we met Yariv near 
his office in Herzilya and drove to Old Jaffa for a walk around the cleaned up old port. (photo, left, twice-rebuilt 1654 St. Peter's Church and Wishing bridge) The restaurant Yariv had planned to eat at was all reserved so we walked on to another place with Yariv and Orley and had a good dinner. We got back to the condo after midnight and realized that we would have to get up early enough to do our seat selection at 0700 for the return flights.
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