We made our first trip to Israel last December 2022.  After three long years and three refunded tickets, we finally made our way to the Holy Land.  Days prior to leaving, I was excited but worried.  I was aware of the bombings that take place in Israel every so often due to terrorist attacks.  I just didn't realize that 2022 saw more attacks than normal.  Needless to say, I was scared, very scared.

I initially thought that after nearly 15 hours of flight time from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, we would be so exhausted and we would sleep like babies on our first night in Israel.  But no!  Jetlag kicked in immediately and we woke up at 3 the following morning.  If I remember correctly, we slept no more than five hours after checking into our hotel room and going to sleep.

Anyway, we didn't worry and we ate breakfast as soon as we could in our hotel.  Being the cultural blitzkreigers that we are, we set out to see the famous walled city of Jerusalem.  It was walking distance from where we were staying at.

We entered through Jaffa Gate.  Just like what we saw on You Tube videos, there were stalls after stalls selling souvenirs as soon as we entered the premises.  I believe it was the Christian Quarter we first walked into.  Then we saw the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see how empty the church was when we arrived.  It must have been around 9 am when we got there.  There were three other visitors besides us at the time.  With the absence of big crowds, moving around the church was a breeze. 

We visited all the important sites inside the church twice that morning.