Ir

Tr:  City

Stone of Unction

Took our weekend field trip on Wednesday this week, since we'll be staying put for Yom Kippur this upcoming Saturday.  Headed to Jerusalem.  We walked around the old city in the morning.   The history is mind-blowing.  There are Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Armenian quarters.  People were crying at several religious sites.  King David's Tomb, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The stone of Unction is where the women cleaned up Jesus's body after he was taken down from the cross. We only saw about 1/10 of what was in the old city. I wanted to walk on the ramparts, but we were getting hungry for lunch so I didn't.  We have a plan to go back many times this year.

 Then we went to a market area called Mahane Yehuda.  It was really beautiful and we had a lovely lunch there.  Saw rice cakes being made.  We then took a long walk.  We walked through an Orthodox neighborhood called Mea Shearim, one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem.  There were signs saying not to go in the neighborhood without long sleeves, but I did.  One woman talked to me about it, but she seemed nice.  I couldn't really understand what she was saying, but she was touching my arm, so I used my inferential reasoning skills.  After that, we walked quickly through.  I felt badly that I hadn't respected their rules, but I really wanted to see the neighborhood.  Sorry, Mea Shearim! My bad.

A great day.  Here are a few not great pix. I only had the iPhone and the place is kind of overwhelming so it was hard to stop and get focused. Mostly I just trudged along, goggling in awe.

Holy Sepulcher

Bread for Sale

Western Wall

Walls of the Old City