More Pictures from Jerusalem

Continuing from my previous post, here are some more pictures from our Jerusalem adventure on Saturday.

A five minutes bus journey brought us to our next stop, this time in the Old City itself: The Basilica of Dormitzion, where according to tradition, Virgin Mary died (or in the word of the Wikipedia, “passed into eternity”. It’s a beautiful church, very large and spacious, surprisingly nested between some tight walls:

We actually had to wait there for a bit, until they opened the basilica to visitors (after the service). If you ever get there, stay away from the coffee shop as the prices are really high. Then again, they do sell some interesting artifacts in their shop:

Pretty dried up for a rose, I thought. Ofer, this picture is for you and your dried rose petals site

Inside, the church was cool and peaceful, with its large octagonal central space and the many mosaics, statues and pictures depicting Jesus and the apostles:

A short walk out of the church brought us to the hall where the last supper was held:

And from there, we headed towards King David’s tomb. It being Shabbath, there were people praying there, so me and my short sleeves stayed outside and watched the Hassidic children run around:

Dan really liked the spot, so as soon as those kids cleared it, he decided to try and run his own street show. Following the example of street performers we’ve seen in London, he handed out his cap while dancing, hoping someone might award him with a coin:

Poor Dan. Not only was he ignored by passers by, but when our group finally arrived, one of the guys there snatched his cap away. He figured Dan was handing him his cap and played along. You should have seen Dan’s face, filled with contempt to these grownups that don’t realize there is a genuine performing artist here, looking for donations…

Our next stop was at the Maronite church which was literally hidden behind a door in a narrow alley. Our guide rang a bell and the door mysteriously opened into a small stonewalled backyard. We then went upstairs for a beautiful view from their rooftop:

From the Maronite church (it’s a guest house too, if anyone is interested – it seems extremely peaceful and located right inside the Old City), we walked through the streets of the market towards the Church of the Holy Sepluchre.  This time we went into the church without the kids. My father-in-law was kind enough to look after them outside, saving me the need to shout out things like “Dan, take your hands off the tomb of Jesus right now!” It also meant I actually had time to listen to what the guide was saying, so plenty more to talk about and I think I’ll do that in a separate post.

For now, I’ll leave you with some pictures from the market. I absolutely love the market of the Old City of Jerusalem. A web of narrow alleys with colorful shops, selling you every kind of souvenir you can imagine. These pictures don’t do it justice, but it’s all I have for Saturday. You can also see more pictures of the market in my post about Jerusalem that was still on the blogspot blog.

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