Jerusalem – Sunday 6th November 2016 cont. cont.

Photos at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/ffnord/albums/72157676432838135

We continued on our way and were led to the Tomb of King David, a small series of arched rooms which have now been converted in to a synagogue and so again, only the men were allowed to see inside. This too was a recent development, it was once open to all of the public but it since it’s conversion access is restricted based on chromosomes. It’s not the real tomb, it was built by the crusaders in a convenient location, likewise the Room of the Last Supper that we would go to soon after. The crusaders must have employed a lot of stone masons and associated trades as they are responsible for a huge swath of buildings in the city.

Nearby stands a statue of King David which was donated to the city, this somewhat controversial as the Jewish faith forbids the depiction of people lest they be worshipped as graven images. For this reason there is a constant battle against vandalism of the statue and many calls for it to be moved or removed entirely.

The next, and final, place we were shown was a Catholic church near the edge of the city and it was a welcome relief from the noise and bustle of the more popular places. The inside was decorated in a variety of styles as it was built with several alcoves left blank to be decorated by artists of all nations as a donation by their country. On display in the main chapel was a flock of paper birds which really draw the eye to the heavens in the quiet space.

We then headed out of the city wall and met up with our bus to head to the hotel where we would be for the remaining three nights of our stay in Israel. This turned out to not be as simple as we thought as the hotel we were meant to be in was full and had transferred our booking to another hotel but our driver was not entirely sure where it was so we had a bit of a mystery tour of Jerusalem’s congested streets before finding the place.

We were all still short on Israeli Shekels as there had not been a chance to get any money out during the day, although we had changed some at our lunch stop. We spent a good hour roaming around the city looking for a cash machine which accepted foreign cards as most are for domestic use only. Once we all had funds, the group split up to get something to eat and drink. Jerusalem is very much in the style of a European city, fast food restaurants and fine dining were in plentiful supply. The difference between Israel and Jordan is astonishing, Israel is a European nation in the middle-east, where Jordan is very much a middle-eastern country.

A few of us decided to go for a nightcap and through chance found ourselves in a backstreet bar where we settled in with some beers and a hookah pipe. A unique little place in the courtyard between some buildings with low sofas and a seemingly endless supply of 80s cheese and 90s dance on the sound system. After a long day of walking around such a historic city it was nice to settle back and rest for a while.