Last Day in Jerusalem


Saturday, January 11, 2020

We awoke to another glorious clear, sunny day.  By the time we went out, temperatures were in the low 50s and it was quite warm in the sun.  Saturday in Jerusalem is extremely quiet, almost nothing is open, the busses and street cars don’t run, and if you don’t go to synagogue (which we did not), there’s very little to do.  But one interesting option is to walk the ramparts of the Old City.  The entrance to the walk is at the Jaffa Gate, just a short walk from our apartment.  We paid the small fee, and went up and up the very narrow staircase until we were on the walls:



We started out heading northwest, leaving the Armenian Quarter and circling the Christian Quarter.  There were openings for guns:
  


The views outside the walls were quite wonderful:



The views inside the walls were quite variable:






We exited the ramparts at the Damascus Gate and walked into the Muslim Quarter where things were very lively, as usual:




Our goal was a restaurant in the Christian Quarter.  We found it and had a nice meal in the mid-afternoon, our last meal out with Leah.  Leah was curious about what the Jewish Quarter would be like on Shabbat, so we walked into it, and most everything was shuttered and quiet.  We went to the Western Wall overlook, and there was minimal activity there:



We walked back to the apartment and began packing up.  Leah’s flight tonight is at 11:45 PM to JFK, 12 hours and 40 minutes.  We leave at 6 AM tomorrow morning for a 9 AM flight to Addis Ababa.  More when I can!

Comments

  1. Rwa442January 11, 2020 at 2:44 PM

    Great views from the rampart.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ralph P. LockeJanuary 11, 2020 at 4:10 PM

    Very dramatic contrast of views toward the outside and then toward the roofs and courtyards! Congrats on surviving the challenges of a long plane flight, unusual food, etc. (I remember getting some kind of food poisoning in Israel on one trip....) I look forward to your next set of observations, photos, and videos! Thanks for taking the time to formulate your thoughts and to upload all of this.

    ReplyDelete

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