After visiting the Mahane Yehuda Market we took the light rail back to the Old City and found a great area in the Jewish Quarter with half a dozen fast food places.  We bought some chicken and salad and found a place to sit down to eat.  I am sorry now that I did not take a picture of one of the tables with a note on each of them saying that only dairy products could be eaten at it.  

In one small area we encountered a bunch of boys who were around 10 years old playing ball.  They did stopped when a group of police walked through the square but not when we did.  :o)  


 A 13 year old boy was being walked through the streets under a "canopy" to his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall below us.  There were balloons and two men beating on drums as well as a man playing a horn.  Everything was being captured on film just as we might do any birthday party or especially a wedding.  





We spent the evening at the introductory session of the conference and at dinner.  We have met a lot of interesting people and have come to the conclusion that we are the only people from the US here.  Lots of Canadians of course since it is a conference put on by the Canadian studies program here at Hebrew University.  

Most of the people who live in Jerusalem who were sitting at our table had attended concerts on Sunday nights at the BYU center.  Not only LDS people perform but some of the best musicians in the area.  One man told us how amazing it was to sit and look out across the valley to the walls of the Old City as he enjoyed a musical evening at the BYU Center.  

This is a view from the concert hall/sacrament meeting room at the BYU Center. The Organ is at the back of the room.

If you look closely at this picture you will see a car next to the number three on the date.  That should help to give you some perspective of how wide and deep the valley is that separates the center on Mt Scopus from the Old City.  In front of the wall you can see a cemetery where all of the graves are raised above the ground.  It is believed that these people buried on the east side of the city are among those who will be resurrected when the Messiah arrives from the east.  






This shows the area where the Center and the Old City are.  The Islamic Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount.  The Center is in the area where The Mount of Olives is.  The Center and the Old City look so close together as you look across the valley.  But it is not a short walk.