3/9 Sunday. The bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is frequent and cheap: NIS 19. I saw one packed full and left, mine left ~15 minutes later, packed full too. I dozed off. The journey is ~1 hour. Seva, a friend's friend, came fetch me at the bus station. Thanks to Skype, the only common messaging app we both use, not my preferred one, neither his. Seva is an American, now living in Israel, with an Israeli wife and a 3 year old daughter. We dropped my suitcase at his parents' apartment (they are here for 2 months escaping some of the winter in US), and headed into the old city. It started raining and didn't stop that day. The problem of having a local guide is that I don't remember well, because I didn't do any research.
My tour started from a tram ride to just outside of Jaffa Gate. There was Mamilla cemetery, a historic Muslim cemetary, where you can find soldiers of Saladin! At its center, a fenced-in big empty rectangular hole is the Mamilla Pool, a cistern older than Jesus. Now it looks like an abandoned construction site with some empty bottles and candy wraps. Once you entered the imposing Jaffa Gate, it's the prosperous and clean Mamilla shopping street, exuding elegance and wealth. We passed many crowded (souvenir shops) and empty alleyways, all narrow, and pedlars for umbrellas.
Western Wall, the remains of the retaining wall of Temple Mount. Part of it is hidden under housing. The exposed part is the holiest for Jews: the wailing wall. Behind it the Muslim controlled Temple Mount with its magnificently shining Dome of the Rock (AD 688-91). Men pray to the left, I went to the right half. Further right is the Archaeological Park. I passed few ladies sitting on plastic chairs reading scripture under an umbrella quite a few meters away from the wall. Most (not too many today) are praying with their body leaning on the wall, some stick papers in the cracks. Since the Western Wall is the closest among Temple's four walls, one prayer here is worth hundreds of prayers elsewhere. The large open square in front of it was once the Moroccan quarter (which stood 4m from the Wall) before it was entirely bulldozed in 1967 by the Israeli military without government order, over bodies of some unwilling Arab residents. There's a walkway, at the moment closed for non-Muslim, to the Temple Mount. Opening hours vary and can change without notice. Summer Sundays – Thursdays: 8:30 am – 11:30 am , 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm. Winter Sundays – Thursdays: 7:30 am – 10:30 am , 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm or 1pm. Expect long lines, which I didn't attempt during my short visit. Something to do next time.
Church of Holy Sepulchre , or rather churches, is mind boggling. Not only it's the holiest of the holy: Christ is believed crucified here, his tomb. Pilgrims line up to touch the marble slab (or Stone of Unction, installed in 1810) which covers the place where Christ's body was supposed to be anointed and wrapped. I touched it too with 2 pebbles I picked outside the city wall. 
So much to see. You will find rows of supporting pillars, big marble columns which need to be imported from some far away land, one right by the other, maybe 10cm apart. Why? There are additions upon additions. Each of the 6 denominations (Armenian, Copt, Ethiopian, Greek, Roman Catholic, Syrian) has its own dimly lit space. Multiple stairs (it's on a rocky outcrop: Golgotha). Down somewhere in St Helena's chapel (NIS 10), is a cistern, in which St Helena is said to have found the True Cross. I was quite disoriented. 
Austrian Hospice is a hotel with a small cafe in front. Ring the bell, and you can walk in the un-decorated hallways to its roof. Excellent view of the city. Lots of domes!3/10 Monday. Seva took me, his mother and cousin to Dead Sea. The most ugly and obvious thing on the drive out of Jerusalem is the Palestinian Wall. Drove by some towns full of garbage (I was told since that these citizens don't pay property tax, so the city doesn't providing garbage collection services). Then desert. Once a while, we passed small Bedouin settlements, equally dirty.
Our first stop is some Sheik's tomb near Nabi Mosa. Open on all sides, under a double dome, a big sarcophagus big enough to fit a camel, nothing else, except graffitis on the wall. Don't know its significance. Seva wants to show us the Judean desert. But here, it's desert everywhere. We then went into the caravan serai called Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses). Two stories. Thick walls provide welcoming shade. Upper rooms often have windows. Lower floor might be for your camels. The shrine, believed by Palestinians to be where tomb of Moses is, is in the middle. There're some trees, a rare find here. Outside, there's a cemetery with crumbling tombs.
2nd stop is a view point of the 5th century St George Monastery in Wadi Qelt. Incredible setting. Down on the cliff of a narrow gorge of a little stream in the otherwise barren desert. A Bedouin guy tried to sell me necklace made of camel bones. Eventually he went to the bus-load of Korean tourists. From here, you can see the town of Jericho to the north, one of the oldest human settlement in the world. We turned south along Dead Sea. To our right (west of the lake) is reddish sandy hills called Qumran, where Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
We went straight to Mineral Beach. NIS 60. Seva got some 50% coupon. It's a great deal. You can sit here until it closes. No one is pestering you to buy anything or hurrying you out. There's of course a cafe. I brought my book. Seva brought food. Very relaxing, even with many tourists. A hot mineral pool under straw ceiling, next to a cold pool and one shower rinse (more shower stalls up near the gate). An Ohio lady in the tub told us that she came on a bus! Her husband just waited by the pool, never once went in the water. 39° is very warm, feels hot to me. There are 1cm-sized flakes floating in the water, and lots of them. After lunch, the mother and I walk to the ever receding sea. ~10 minutes, over stony path. Make sure to bring some water shoes, and walk carefully not to twist your ankles. Dead Sea has been shrinking for some years, leaving several bar huts estranged high and dry. There is no longer any mud bath. They bring buckets of mud dug from somewhere else. I put the black mud all over and took a photo. No one can tell that's me. Dead Sea is true to its reputation. Yes, you float. The "beach" is very rocky. I got some scratches, and picked some rock and salt. I got some sea water in the eye, and boy, it's VERY painful. There're 4 cold shower rinse to get rid of the mud and pain in the eyes. A bit chilly, I went back to the hot pool. By then, most people are gone to the Sea or wherever, and I fell asleep lying on the warm water.
3/11 my last day. After dropping Maya at her kindergarten, and a croissant stop (Maya loves pain au chocolat), we went for some short hikes in the Judean Mountains. First is Tsuba, also my favorite, at the western suburb of Jerusalem. The 12th century ruin Belmont, a Crusader fortress, is up on the hill, overlooking the road to Jerusalem. Actually good 360° view. Now overgrown with vegetation (in spring at least). I tasted a kind of Irid, the flower. Quite good. I was told its root is poisonous. Tsuba seems to be a quite prosperous community. I saw young people (volunteers? tourists) living in the houses. Vineyards, lots of almond trees, apple trees, ... There is spring water. If you come here a couple of weeks earlier, you'd be greeted by white blossoms of almond everywhere.
Next we went to a site where, legend has it, St John the Baptist baptized believers. Next to it is a trail in a gorge (or rather a small valley) by Nahal Sorek (the Comb Creek). Part of the Israeli National Trail. Very green now. It's between Sattaf and Tsuba.Last we stopped at Sattaf, a bit parking lot on a hill with old terraces and big boards showing ancient agriculture in Hebrew.
On our way back, picked up the wife from her work. I asked Seva to drop me off at a grocery store so I can buy some halva for my coworkers back in Oregon. The airport van Seva reserved in the morning came to pick me up. It's NIS 64 to TLV. He picked up 2 religious students, one guy who's traveling for 7 months in Israel, and an old couple. All from US. Took about an hour, even though I was the first one to be picked up. We arrived 4 hours ahead of my flight. 3 is enough. During the lengthy security check (they go through EVERYTHING), I saw they confisticated someone's sea salt in a nicely packaged gift bag from stores (power not allowed). My salt, a lump of mud, and a pine cone are in my checked-in bag. You can buy them in duty-free stores once you past security. There, everything is marked in US$. I bought more halva with my leftover Shekels. 11-12 hours later, when I picked up my checked-in luggage at JFK for customs, I saw a note in Hebrew / English: the content of my bag was completely rearranged. My questionable items all survived though. The only trouble is that I felt quite sick, and I had another 2 legs to fly. When I arrived home 27 hours after I left Seva's home, I checked my temperature: 38°s2. It was an exhausting trip.
Summery: Israel is not friendly to people who don't speak Hebrew, including Jewish immigrants and Arab residents, let alone tourists. The locals are, in general, unfriendly, if not a bit hostile. Even in the tourist industry, the hotel clerks or restaurant servers are not welcoming. Maybe it has something to do with how kids are brought up: defensiveness is engraved in their brains. Those who are nicer are immigrants themselves. There're trash on streets, even in the ruins, like in NYC or other poor US towns, as dirty as in China, better than, say Bolivia. People cut in lines, don't give up their seats for elderly on trains.
