Those who wander are not always lost
-- maybe they fell asleep!

Today was a day of mosaic after mosaic.

It's strangely fitting in a city like Jerusalem. Small pieces fitting together to make an amazing picture sort of reflects the city's inhabitants and cultures, coming together from all over the world to make the city you see today.

We started off early. Up at six, comiserating over the state of our suit cases, and having breakfast downstairs.

Breakfast Israeli style means lots of salads. And they're good. We loaded up on veggies, because half the time if you're doing 'fast food' there's not much available but carbs.

The hotel buffet has an overwhelming choice of everything from Greek salad to coleslaw, omelettes to porridge, and everything in between. Including what would traditionally be seen as desserts!

The one thing they don't seem to go for here? Tea. They have teabags on the table, but what to put them in?? Nur figured the hot pot on the table was a good bet. No. It was coffee. She then spent about five minutes fussing around with the locals, trying to find a cup of boiling water!

8.30 and we were on the bus. First stop, the Old City. The two of us know our way around pretty well, but it was good to see it with people who'd never had that experience before. After navigating our way around the winding, rabbit-warren streets, we'd become used to the city. Seeing it with new people was like seeing it with new eyes.

We started our tour at the Dome of the Rock. Despite being warned that we MUST be covered, some people had chosen to wear either shorts (the men) or relatively low-cut, sleeveless tops (the women). This is  huge no-no for the Dome of the Rock.

A beautiful but skinny cat decided to wait for us while we were in the line for the rock, possibly checking out our suitability to go inside. He stayed with us the whole time, begging for attention, as many of the strays do here. When we moved, he moved. If we stopped, he purred and put his paw out to get our attention.

On entering the compound, we were all given a going-over by the locals, and a few of our group ended up being herded off to a room together. We waited while they were all fitted with 50 shekel scarves to make them sufficiently modest. (amusingly enough, they hand out scarves at the Western Wall... no charge to borrow them) The women were fine. No problem. The men? They walked out to a round of cheers, laughs and claps as they appeared in scarves worn as skirts. Hilarious.

Once we'd all finished taking photos of the amazing ceramic tiles on the Dome of the Rock, we headed out to walk the stations of the cross. We deviated, though, heading to the Western Wall, where those who chose to, wrote a note and put it in the wall.

We then continued the remaining stations of the cross until we ended up at the Holy Sepulchre. Cue more photos of more amazing mosaics and architecture. The Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian and Ethiopian churches are all part of the Holy Sepulchre, each part a huge contrast to the next. The Greek section is more elaborate, the Armenian more artistic... Bottom line, we spent a lot of time in churches today. It's a wonder the ancient walls didn't crumble from our presence!

We did have a cranky priest at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the tomb of Jesus we were herded in to a small room like sheep, and our eyes had barely adjusted to the light before there was a loud slapping on the side of the wall and a shout of "Finish! Finish! Get out!!!!!'" Priest got up on the wrong side of the bed or something. Or maybe he was hanging out for lunch. He was not a happy man. We all moved through very quickly, afraid that the hand would slap us "accidentally"' instead of slapping the wall!

The biggest drama of the day followed a visit to King David's Tomb.

Let this be a warning: if the tour guide says she'll leave without you, she'll leave without you (or at least the grumpy bus driver will!)

We had been told many times by our tour guide Leah that if we don't make it to the bus we can "go to the hotel, or go back to where you came from" (meaning your country of origin!)

Well, Mr M, our new friend from Canada (a nice, older man who's apparently closing in on 75!) is the straggler of our group. He wanders off and we have all at various times threatened to put a harness on him. Mr M needs to have his iPad surgically removed! He sees nothing while he's looking at it, filming and taking photos.

After our visit to King David's Tomb, we headed for the bus.

We got on and Leah did a head-count.

Then it was "Mrs M, where's Mr M???"

After that? "When did we last see him??"

Eventually one of the other guys (I think he's Jamaican) ran off to find Mr M.

He came back empty handed.

The bus driver was all "Stuff this! We're leaving!!!"and off we went for lunch at a nearby Kibbutz.

The food was great. Mr M? Not so great! He turned up at his hotel a few hours later and decided that rather than rejoin us, he'd have a nap. We got a detailed account of his adventure, wandering between the Zion Gate and the Jaffa Gate before he gave up and got a taxi back to the comfort of his room.

After lunch, it was off to the Israeli Museum, where it was Nur's turn to almost get left behind by the group. Leah yelled out "Where's Nur?"to the answer "She could be a while. She's trying to read the Hebrew manuscripts!"

This led to an intervention, during which Nur and two other young Australians were virtually dragged to the bus, kicking and screaming!

The trauma didn't last long, though, due to the promise of a nice swim and an icecream in the new section of the city.

The pool water was nothing like Tel Aviv. It was freezing! We chatted with an interesting Canadian woman who's been here four times before, and over the years has celebrated two birthdays in this city.

Post swim, we headed down to the lobby to show the Ms the town. Mr M promised not to wander, but we still kept a close eye on him, and have threatened to tie a scarf around his neck to keep him in line tomorrow. Methinks after being left behind today, he may be the first on the bus tomorrow!

Anyway, we headed down to Jaffa Road for gelati and to show the Ms the nightlife in the newer part of the city. They had lots of fun, and we heard over and over again about the long trek Mr M had between the Jaffa Gate and the Zion Gate before he finally had to throw himself to the mercy of a cab driver (for 50 shekels) and get the hell out of the city, back to the peace and quiet of his hotel room.

He told us that he'd just sat down for a minute after the visit to King David's Tomb and then we were all gone.

Mrs M thinks he fell asleep.... We tend to agree that that is a possibility, but we will never truly know.

It is another one of Jerusalem's mysteries.

I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about it tomorrow morning, when we all check out of our hotels, get on the bus and head to our next stop -- a kibbutz!