Feb. 29 - Exploring the Old City

Yesterday we spent all day exploring the Old City. We walked down to the 1st level of the Jerusalem Center and exited to the side street. It's about a 20 minute walk mostly uphill to the city. I took these photos from the road near the top before we reached the city. This photo shows the Orsen Hyde Memorial Park and to the right of the photo is the Chapel of the Ascension, supposedly where Christ ascended into heaven.

If you look at the above photo, you will see the Jerusalem Center at the top of Mount Scopus.

Along the way we saw a group of small children walking with their teachers. They were each holding a rope to keep them all together. Dressed as an American, I am very much in the minority. Nearly every woman on the street is dressed in a long coat-like dress and her head is covered. I can't imagine wearing this attire when it is summer but I understand nothing changes.

I laughed out loud when I saw how these cars were parked! How any car could get out of these spaces is beyond my wildest imagination. Notice the car parked on the sidewalk and the others are parked parallel along the road. This is not an uncommon sight in Jerusalem so we are careful whenever we have to park our car. We walked into the Old City and Garth got his hair cut. It cost only 30 sheckles which is about $7 and the barber did a great job.

We are fascinated with the many things we see every time we come to the Old City. We stopped for some lunch. I'll bet you can't guess how much this cost. Next time I think I'll just eat my hat! (The cost was 275 sheckles = $70.00 which included two drinks and hummus not shown in the photo.)