Botanicals and Herzl

I decided to go to Jerusalem today with one of two objectives: go to the Herzl Museum and/or the botanical garden in Jerusalem.  I got up and about early and was on the bus to Jerusalem by 8:15.  I called the museum when they opened and got booked on a 1:15 English tour.

Well, that sounds like enough time to go to the garden first.  The #32 bus from the Jerusalem bus station drops you very close to the garden.  The garden is at the bottom of a valley (that will be important later), south of the Knesset.

It's rather a linear park.  The herb garden was of particular interest to me.

Oregano

Rose geranium (mine doesn't look like this)

There was a cool wood structure:

And here's an overview shot I got from the elevated walkway,

They were kind enough to have water fountains throughout the park, so I left well-hydrated with a bottle of water.  I wasn't too far from the museum on Har Herzl (yes, that's Mount Herzl) and I needed to walk a bit to catch a bus.  After a bit of a false start, I headed west toward Har Herzl.

The garden is in the green blob in the center by "Nayot"; Har Herzl is next to Yad vShem (to the left). I never did find the right bus stop, so I decided to walk the whole way.  Let me just say that it really was uphill the whole way.  From the bottom of a valley to the top of a mountain.  But I arrived in plenty of time for my tour, so I ate the lunch I brought (stuffed grape leaves, hard boiled egg, and pistachios) in some precious shade at 12:30.  And thanked G-d for my health.

The Herzl Museum is fairly new (2005) and is 95% dramatic presentation on video.  They do have a lot of his stuff (desk, living room).  Of course, it's an amazing story.  Well worth my time.  I think he'd be proud of the Tikvah dancers and Israel Spirit.

Luckily for Deb, the light rail stop is very close to the museum.  One more thing to do: check out an alternate route home from Jerusalem to my apartment.  The bus stop in the Tel Aviv south station for the local bus is creepy at night.  I took the bus to the north Tel Aviv bus station at the Savidor train station.  Then in an absolutely not-creepy setting, picked up the #18 which brought me home.  We have a winner for safe evening returns!