Day 9: The #13 Bus and Yad VaShem

We generally feel that we haven’t experienced a place until we have struggled with the public transportation system. For some reason that escapes me, the public transportation system in Jerusalem has no useful guide to the bus routes and no bus map. Luckily, private individuals have stepped forward to remedy this deficiency and (finally I am going to give you some useful information!!) if you have Google Earth loaded on your computer, a wonderfully useful interactive bus map can be found at

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.orenstransitpage.com%2Fotpisraelpics%2Fjlembusmap%2Fjerusalembusmap.kmz&ie=UTF8&z=12

(it starts as a default showing all the bus routes and stops so you need to deselect  the day routes box, the night routes box and the stops first and then select the bus routes you are interested in)

We take the 13 bus to Yad VaShem (the Holocaust Memorial). Even though both Roz and I have been steeped in knowledge about the Holocaust since childhood and know many of the details, this is still an overwhelming experience. Since it is described in many guidebooks there is no need for me to repeat their detailed descriptions except to say that we spent four hours there and wish we had been able to stay another two hours. Another of Roz’s cousins, Larry and his wife Gila pick us up and take us to dinner and we spend a very pleasant evening with them.  After dinner they also take us on a quick car tour of the city and even into the edge of the Mea Shearim, the extremely large ultra-orthodox section of Jerusalem. We find the scene there somewhat bizarre, but that is because we are secular U.S. Jews (actually it would be bizarre even were we from the Planet Ork.)