A Full Day and Water Activities Too!

Our day began early (surprise) with a walk to the Mount of Olives.  There are numerous special sites along the way and we took in many of them. Some were unavailable to us for various (ridiculous) reasons. We did observe the Garden of Gethsemane which was very cool.  We then went back to our hostel to pick up our packs (so nice to walk the morning without full pack).  From there we went to the City of David National Park. We bought a pass early in our journey to allow us to go to all the National Parks but, lo and behold, our pass was not good at this one (thanks Israel). The park had an unusual underground waterway called Hezekiah's Tunnel which is something we wanted to do so we paid the admission.  The tunnel had water flowing through it that was mostly ankle deep but was 70 cm deep in a few parts. Flashlights were mandatory.  It was extremely narrow and very cramped.  It was 500 meters long and a sign said it would take 40 minutes to walk through. We did it in 20. A tasty lunch back inside the walls of Jerusalem in the Jewish Quarter prepared us for the afternoon of exploring. A short time shopping in the Cardo section took us out the Zion gate where we stumbled upon some interesting sights. Our next adventure was to pick up our 24 hour rental car. Thought it might take that long to get the car! Once we had our car it took an entire hour just to get out of the city just a few short miles. After a bit of cruising the countryside changes to desert (accompanied by camels).  But we soon found ourselves at the Dead Sea.  We drove until we found a public swimming area. There was just enough daylight left for us to get in the weird body of water.  As advertised, the extreme salt makes you pop right up to the surface.  Weird but very cool.  A few more kilometers got us to our hostel at the foot of the Masada for the night.