Monday in Jerusalem

Spent much of today in the Old City.

Entered the Jaffa Gate and wandered around the Muslim Quarter, then the Jewish, Christian and Armenian Quarters to give Helen a taste of the city. 

Delivery by hand-cart

Went to the Burnt House Museum, which was great - it is the remains of a house which was burnt during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 (at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple).

The Dome of the Rock

I haven't seen anything else like the Old City of Jerusalem - streets which appear largely unchanged for thousands of years.  Narrow streets paved with Jerusalem stone and slippery as they have been worn smooth by thousands of years of feet.  Little shops selling goods of every description - from Christian, Muslim and Jewish souvenirs to meat, incense, sweets, historical artefacts and so much more.  Store owners using their extremely limited English to seek custom and trying every trick in the book.  Ultra orthodox Jews buying fruit from Muslim men dressed in traditional desert garb.  A little arab girl walking through the Jewish Quarter in a Palestine t-shirt.  Greek Orthodox priests in heavy black robes.  Lots of soldiers with semi-automatic weapons (and with their fingers very definitely on the trigger), particularly in the Muslim Quarter.  Civilians (or at least people not in arms uniform) with guns tucked into their waistband.  Large families.  Extremely modestly dressed women.  So much more.

In the Jewish Quarter

Girls, mobile phones and guns in the Jewish Quarter

Got very substantially lost looking for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (purportedly Jesus' burial site).  Spent so much time wandering through the Christian Quarter that I am now on close personal terms with the elders of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate.

Eventually came across the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and spent some time there.  It is ia bizarre and labyrinthine building absolutely packed full of pilgrims and full of smells of incense and chanting.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Then decided to find a different way out of the Old City.  Looked for the New Gate, but ended up walking all the way through the Muslim Quarter and exiting through the Damascus Gate into East Jerusalem.  Jumped into a cab as quickly as possible and headed back for lunch at the King David Hotel before a relaxing afternoon.

The Muslim Quarter is fascinating.  Lots of sights and smells and people and pushing and shoving and hand-held push carts and incredible piles of sweets and rows of old men smoking hookahs and more.

Enough typing - back to watching the World Cup in Hebrew.