Arrived at Ben Gurion Airport late at
night so there wasn't much to see.
Next morning, however, this is the
first thing I saw when I looked out of my window:
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| This is the common/dining room at the Abraham Hostel |
I am staying at Abraham Hostel, a fairly new and very comfortable backpackers' on Davidka Square. The first thing I found on leaving the building was this monument:
Wikipedia says: The Davidka (Hebrew:
דוידקה,
"Little David") was a homemade Israeli mortar used in Safed
and Jerusalem during the early stages of the 1948 Israeli War of
Independence. Its bombs were reported to be extremely loud, but very
inaccurate. There were only six
made altogether. The inscription "וגנותי
על-העיר הזאת,
להושיעה" is from
2 Kings 29:34, meaning "For I will defend this city, to save
it." Jerusalem seems to be
a very relaxed and peaceful city – well, while I've been here,
anyway, but this may be because there are plenty of people with guns
around to protect the populace. I have counted five different
uniforms – army, police, security forces, but somebody told me
there are about ten different security organisations. In Jerusalem
they check your bags as you enter
the shop.
Tourists
in Jerusalem make for the Old City, but not all tourists
are lucky enough to have a local friend to show them around as I
did. Here are some of the things I saw. (For the photographically
curious I am using a five year old Kodak
Easyshare camera which is getting temperamental about exposures and
gets upset if it can't focus on something really obvious).
I am not a good tourist. I don't spend a shekel more than I have to (even when a shekel is only worth a bit more than about 25 cents as it is now). But it's great fun looking at all the pretty things I could buy if I wanted to.
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| Plenty of splendid souvenirs to buy. |
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| Even historic old cities need fire hydrants and garbage collectors |
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| Via Dolorosa |
At the end of the Via Dolorosa you reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which encloses Calvary and the tomb of Christ.
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| Entrance to Church of Holy Sepulchre |
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| The view from Calvary in 2012 |
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| A stone symbolising the anointing of Christ's body was placed here in 1810; pilgrims rub oil on it to obtain blessing |
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| Candlesticks (most with modern power-saving electric light globes), at the entrance to the Sepulchre |
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| I loved the mixture of light sources and the general ambience, but my camera didn't always agree. To the right are steps down to the crypt of St Helena |
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| Somebody on a horse killing something. My pragmatic Hebrew friend couldn't see why evil/Satan etc should be symbolised as a serpent or what serpents have to do with dragons, which she rather likes |
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| Having been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times, the Church includes a variety of architectural styles. Here a byzantine arch has been reinforced by a crusader one |
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| Lots of Crusader graffiti on the steps to the crypt where St Helena identified the site of Christ's tomb |
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| the Coptic chapel |
Having climbed hills and descended into crypts it was time to get a view of the Old City from the tower of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. This involved a lot of steps up a spiral staircase. My friend thought I should take a photo, so I did.
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| shadows on the stairs |
It was worth the climb.
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| Mount of Olives and the Dome of the Rock |
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| Modern communications in an old city |
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| And, to finish, the compulsory Cute Cat photo |
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