Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, has Jewish, Armenian, Christian and Muslim quarters in the old city.
The Garden of Gethsemene
Mount of Olives
The Christian quarter has the Via Dolorossa, the way of sorrows or the Stations of the Cross. This starts at Lions Gate and goes up to the church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Station 9 where Jesus fell for the third time
The Western Wall
Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe the walled platform that is Temple Mount is the most holy place. The Wailing wall is part of the support for it. The wall is divided into male and female sections. Men are provided with a free Kippah (scull cap) if they don’t have one.The Israelis consider the name offensive and believe it should just be called the Western Wall. The huge limestone blocks at the bottom of the wall were placed without mortar and where the joints have eroded you can see written prayers pushed into them. You can see Bar and Bat Mitzvahs taking place. Just a few minutes standing here quietly shows you much about how Jewish society works.
Wailing Wall
Temple Mount
The Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount is a shrine for Muslim pilgrims. It contains a sacred rock and non Muslims cannot enter. Non Muslims can only enter on to Temple Mount to see the outside through a walkway on the Western Wall plaza. King Hussien of Jordan sold one of his London homes to raise $8.2 million for replacement gold for the dome. Its very impressive , the blue tiles which are replacements, but apparently identical copies of the original, are stunning. Security here appeared to be even heavier than that at road checkpoints. Machine guns and bandoliers of rubber bullets were carried by the security forces.
Dome of the Rock
Round Town
Outside of the walled city Jerusalem is a modern busy city just wandering the streets in the evening and looking at the shops is how we like to spend time after seeing the must do sites.
Young man with hat box
This lovely young man let me take his picture when I admired his hat box, an advantage of great age, you can get away with that kind of conversation!
Vallero Square Poppies
Giant poppies in Vallero Square near to our hotel provide shade in the day and light at night.
They inflate and deflate triggered by pedestrians walking past.
Completely surreal we have never seen anything like this anywhere else.
