Category Archives: Jack’s Travel

My business or non-family travel.

Dome of the Rock

Old City of Jerusalem Tour – Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian Quarters

Church of the Holy SepulchreBackground on my Old City of Jerusalem Tour: I was in Tel Aviv on business and for my first day, my host arranged with the hotel for me to take their semi-private Old City of Jerusalem Tour.

Our guide met three of us in the lobby of our hotel.  We drove to Jerusalem. For our first stop he took us to Mount Scopus.  It’s on the northeast side of Jerusalem, looking down on the Old City.  From there, he pointed out the sights we will soon be walking by, most notably, the Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount / Haram esh-Sharif religious site.

We drove to the southwestern corner of the Old City of Jerusalem and parked outside the walls at the Zion Gate, just outside of the Armenian Quarter on Mount Zion.  Nearby we saw the Dormition Abbey, Room of the Last Supper (Franciscan Church of the Coenaculum) and the Tomb of King David.

Western WallJewish Quarter. We entered the Jewish Quarter from the Zion Gate, walked North along the narrow Habad Street to the Cardo, the Roman market place excavated in the 1970s.  We then made our way over to the Hurva Synagogue and the Wohl Archaeological Museum.  And from there, we made it to one of the major destinations:  The Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall, or Kotel).  From here we are right next to the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock which we first saw on Mount Scopus.

Dormition AbbeyMuslim Quarter. We then started walking North along El Wad street in the Muslim Quarter. This then connected with the Via Dolorosa, where the first stations of the cross are marked.  We followed Dolorosa, turned down Beit HaBad street, then made our way to Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter.

Christian Quarter. The church is built on the Hill of Calvary the place where Jesus was crucified and buried.  After we toured the historic church, we continued our tour, walking by the Church of the Redeemer, Omar Mosque and then settled in for shopping and lunch on the Muristan market street.

Edicule of the Tomb of ChristArmenian Quarter. We then walked West to the The Citadel, Tower of David medieval fortress, near the Jaffa Gate in the Armenian Quarter.  We walked South along Armenian Patriarchate Street, visited the Cathedral of St James, then headed South back to the Zion Gate and to our car.

King DavidOur tour guide did an excellent job explaining the history, the different religious view points, and made it all exciting and fun.  By the time I was done, it became a big blur of one historic site blending into another.  Seeing things 3000 years old next to other things that were 1000 years old, next to things that were built 100 years ago was really cool!!

Tips:I recommend anyone who comes here to first do some homework.  Watch a tourist video or study a tour guide.  I was glad I took lots of pictures and GPS tagged everything; it was only after my tour and I started putting captions on my pictures did I realize the significance of what I was seeing. If you come to the Old City, please do some homework and hire a guide.  The experience is life changing!
Mosaic of Christ's anointing
Door of Humility

Bethlehem Tour – Church of the Nativity

Gilo-Bethlehem CheckpointOur Bethlehem Tour started at the Gilo-Bethlehem Checkpoint at the Palestinian Territories border.  A taxi driver met us and drove for a little while, then we picked up our tour guide, then we drove and parked in Manger Square, right in front of the Church of the Nativity  with the spire from the nearby Mosque of Omar visible.

Star of the NativityChurch of the Nativity.  We entered through the Door of Humility, we walked through the main part of the church up to the Main Alter and the Alter of Circumcision. Our tour guide then took us down the steps to Grotto of the Nativity   We saw the Nativity Manger, the 14 point Star of Nativity (place of Jesus’s birth).  Along the way, our tour guide told us about the history, reminding us that the Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic religions each had a different places to worship in and near this church.

This church dates back to the times of Constantine (380 AD).  The building we toured was constructed in the 6th century and has been updated, restored and remodeled many times over the years.  Our tour guide gave us an excellent overview of many parts of the structure including the interesting role of the Crusaders.

Church of St. CatherineChurch of St Catherine. We left the church, moved our way over to the Cloister of St Jerome, then the Church of St Catherine.  This is the Church from which we see mass on TV Christmas Eve from the Holy Land.  There are many beautiful statues, reliefs and other pieces of art.  While this church’s current form and design are from  the 1800s, with recent remodeling in the 1940s, the church dates back to the 15th century.  St Catherine shares a wall with the Church of the Nativity.

After our tour, our driver and tour guide took us to a gift store, then drove us back to the Gilo 300 Checkpoint.  While nowhere near as big as Jerusalem, Bethlehem was a very good place to visit.

Tips:
Gilo 300. Just so you know, the process of going through the Gilo-Bethlehem check point at the separation wall, was not that bad.  It was a little unnerving just being dropped off and trusting that someone would be on the other side waiting for you, but there was, and we had no problems.  Further, the Bethlehem tour guide and driver were both very, very nice.

Door of Humility

Tour Guide “shopping” process. Another point for you to know, there’s an unwritten expectation that you will patronize the gift shop.  They sell very nice wood carvings, jewelry  statuettes, books and post cards.  I bought a couple of really nice tour books.  I’d budget spending $30.  I’d been through this with other tours in other countries; this is how our tour guide makes money; if you like your tour guide, buy something nice; if you don’t, just buy a little trinket.  Our guide was learned, respectful, and made an extra effort to tailor his presentation to each member of the group.

The Pier

St Petersburg Waterfront Walk

The PierI had business meetings in St Petersburg, Florida, staying at the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel. After my first full day of meetings, I went for a stroll along the St Petersburg Waterfront Walk.

I started walking South on Bay Shore Dr, then I turned left onto 2nd Ave and followed the street out onto the St Petersburg Pier. I had a light dinner on the 5th floor of the landmark inverted pyramid-shaped building. I took some nice twilight city scape photos, then walked back.

St. Petersburg SkylineAlong the way, I walked by Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of History, The Dali Museum, and the Chihuly Museum — the St Petersburg Waterfront Walk features the arts.

At The Pier restaurant, the server told me about how it’s going to be shut down any day. The city is doing major construction, closing The Pier until 2015. Checking the city web site, The Pier will stay open through May.

Marquee sign for the Consumer Electronics Show

Consumer Electronics Show 2013 / CES2013

My company had a large booth at the the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.  I was honored to be invited to attend as a Subject Matter Expert for some of my companies products.  Many of our customers were at CES2013, and I was part of scheduled and impromptu meetings.

I stayed at the Palazzo Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.  It was very nice, high-end luxury hotel.  My company booked me in a high-end suite.  I am sure we must have gotten a good discount — because normally, this hotel would be way too fancy for our normal business trips.

The Palazzo is new to me.  It is located adjacent to and behind the famous Venetian Hotel located on the Las Vegas Strip.  Once you enter the hotel, the two hotels appear to seamlessly tie together.  Really very nice.

The tradeshow was huge.  Over 150,000 attendees.  I was last in Las Vegas a few years ago at the CTIA (Wireless Industry) tradeshow.  It had 50,000 attendees.  I thought CTIA was big; CES is huge!  The biggest challenge for attendees is getting from one building to another; the bus system worked pretty well, expect for the first day, when a traffic accident made a 15 minute bus ride into a 45 traffic jam.

Samsung's Huge Booth at CES 2013

Samsung’s CES2013 Trade Show Booth — Huge!!

Since I was mostly in meetings, I didn’t get a chance to see much of the CES show.  The biggest buzz was around 4K TVs (OLED w/4times the resolution of today’s HD TVs).  The consumer businesses had the biggest booth, and I was really impressed by the size of Samsung’s.  Also, to their credit, both INTEL and Qualcomm had excellent booths, even though they are just integrated circuit chip company’s… all the new mobile phones have Qualcomm chips inside, and everything else has INTEL.

Display case with all the Nikkor Lenes.  Nikon Booth, CES 2013

As an amateur photographer, I loved seeing all of the Nikkor lens on display at the Nikon booth.  Everything in their portfolio was there and they had a really nice setup to let you test shoot the telephoto lens.