Prima Kings Hotel

The Prima Kings Hotel, where King George meets Ben Maimon (and Agron and changes its name to Keren HaYesod (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/watershed.html ) is good value for the money. If they have a room ready, they’ll let you check in at noon (three hours early). Check out time is noon, but the fee for late check out is quite reasonable -- great if you’re taking one of those midnight flights. The rooms are very nice and a reasonable size. There are luxury touches a clothesline across the bathtub and a hairdryer to get those slacks that last bit dr. You can use an iron on the 6th floor. The TV is a bit tricky because it has extraa features like radio reception. Lots of channels. The breakfast is wonderful, better, in my opinion than at the Inbal, a more expensive hotel (though the Kings is not exactly cheap). The lobby is very pleasant. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Tell reception if you want late check out. Also if you want them to order a shutte (sheroot) to the airport.

But, like most (maybe all) hotels they give a bad currency exchange rate. Well, that's a courtesy service, not their business. Convert your money at any of the no-comission store-fronts instead.

Copyright 2009 Jane S. Fox

Apartment

• We found our apartment (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-jerusalem-neighborhood.html ) on flathunting.com , which is a Yahoo group for Jerusalem real estate. You can take look at what's offered or post your needs.
• Living in an apartment means not having the hotel breakfast, but you can get the equivalent on Friday at Cafe Rimon for 49 NIS (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/brunch.html ).
• It means an excuse to go often to the shouk (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html ) for fruits, vegetables, nuts, olives, baked goods, salads, and more.
• More includes prepared foods for "take-out." Many restaurants will also pack their food to go.
• So you needn't even cook.
• You'll save money, and feel you are really living in Jerusalem, and be free to do all the interesting things you've read about in this blog.
• See http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/private-guides.html about finding licensed guides for exactly the tours (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/time-well-spent.html )you want.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

El Marrakesh

• The El Marrakesh has just the gaudy decor you want in a Moroccan restaurant. On the walls are photos of notables who (I assume) have eaten threr or who are friends of the family that owns the place.
• If you eat a full hotel breakfast I advise eating nothing else the day you go there for dinner.
• The host will greet you with a choice of arak or sweek vermouth. Soon little dishes of salads cover the giant round coppery tray that serves as a table. The thin slices of eggplant are excellent, and so is everything else: kholrabi, cucumbers, dressed spinach, tiny sweet tomatoes in chopped onion dressing, delicious humus, red bell peppers done in a way I've tried to copy without success, beets, and five or six others.
• Next come hot appetizers: potato pastilles and triangles, stuffed grape leaves, and chicken with nuts in pastry. Pace yourself.
• The main dishes come with couscous and steamed vegetables.
• Afterwards they bring sesame pastries, pears with chocolate and honey, and hot mint tea sweetened the way it should be at an Eastern meal, poured from a decorated metal teapot into small painted glasses..
• During our meal yesterday, friends and relatives of the host wandered in and out.
• El Marrakesh is on King David Street, right across from the David's Citadel Hotel, about a block from the King Davit, and a five-minute walk from Kikar Tsion or from the Jaffa Gate. It's expensive for Jerusalem. The meal, with two large glasses of wine and a generous tip came to about 100 USD.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Brunch

• Brunch (pronounced brahnsh) is a buffet in the style of an Israeli hotel breakfast served, on Fridays, in restaurants and hotels. Anyone who has stayed at an Israeli hotel (except the most basic) knows how good that is.
• The cheap-hotel version includes two or more kinds of yellow cheese, two kinds of white cheese (usually salt and bulgarian), spreadable white cheese, two kinds of olives, cucumber and tomato salad (with bell peppers and green onions) , sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, sliced peppers, leben, fruit juice, breakfast cereal, omelets, fruit salad, fresh fruit, pickled fish, fresh bread and rolls with butter and jam, juice, coffee, and tea.
• The best and most expansive breakfast I've had was at the King David. It added more cheeses, various quiches, fried potatoes, various smoked fish, several additional salads, roasted eggplant, a table of luscious pastries, waffles, and more -- every single item (over three days I tried to sample everything but the cereal) delicious.
• The Inbal hotel opens its dining room to nonguests at 10 am on Friday. For 79 NIS (about 18 dollars) you get a first-class hotel brunch including several hot dishes. It is not up to King David standards. The juice is not fresh-squeezed and the pastires are ordinary.
• At the Cafe Rimon, for 49 NIS (about $11.50), you get a better brunch, including roasted zucchini, roasted eggplant, several kinds of fish, an excellent brocolli quiche, mizrakhi savory pastries (sort of like various sorts of vegetarian eggroll), and many items I could not manage to even taste. I'll go back.
• Do not eat breakfast first.
• I didn't want anything more until a late dinner.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox