In Israel we visited the Wailing Wall. The area was busy with tourists and natives. Natives were seen praying despite the crowd and I am sure some were visitors as well. As part of the visit to the wall, worshipers leave notes which we were told would be collected at a later time by a Rabbi in order to have enough space for future worshipers. I was taken aback when I saw young men and young women dressed in military attire and carrying rifles among the crowd and this seemed normal. What really struck me was how young they were.

We did not visit the Dome of the Rock, Islamic shrine, but this site was prominent because of the gold dome which could be seen from many vantage points maybe since it is located on a hill.. Below pictures of the Wailing Wall and the prominent Dome. Driving and walking around Jerusalem I noticed how clean it was people seemed friendly when you interact with them. Of course there are opportunities for you purchase souvenirs.

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Hotels were very modern and the food was quite good. However I believe that when you dine as a tourist group you do not get the opportunity to savor the native food. Again that is my opinion.

Our next stop was at the port of Kusadasi in Turkey. There were designated tours that we could have joined particularly going to Ephesus but of course we decided to stay close to the port to do some shopping. Leather was of good quality and reasonably priced.  Well we missed out on the tour have to make another visit to Turkey. I did return to Turkey which will be covered later.