Walk to the Old City
May. 13th, 2007 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidIn the morning before going to Machaneh Yehudah, I walked to the Old City.
This is the view from the window above the bed crammed into the living room of the rental apartment for me. I should've waited until the light was more uniform, but this trip had no spare moments, just take what I could when it offered. We were half a block away from the King David Hotel, in a high-ish building that had a little mall of businesses on the first floor.
I was entranced by the sidewalk stones, worn smooth after so many years.
This is the view a couple of blocks away, looking towards the Old City. I walked down this street, amazed at how much construction was going on (partly because it meant that room had been found for new construction). It's an overcast day, so the light isn't the best, alas.
I climbed the hill from the valley to the Old City. These are the walls around the city, looking from the outside towards Migdal David (which I don't think I've visited yet).
I went in my usual gate, Shaar Yafo, though through the automobile entrance. There's a pedestrian entrance to the left, which is the direction I would come from when I lived here. For some reason I don't recall ever taking the bus that would take me closest to the Kotel; I liked the walk through the Old City.
This is where my deficiencies in taking pictures of people starts to become noticeable; I didn't take photos of the bustle just inside the gate, being too shy to take direct pictures of people who were close by. Instead, this is the continuation of the main road I entered on, which circles this part of the Old City, the Armenian Quarter, just inside the outer wall. Pedestrians walk on the left on this bit, and cars don't go too quickly. At least it's one way.
The twisty way I learned to the Kotel, through the Jewish Quarter rather than around the circumference, takes the first left from the street above, on St. James Road, which is pedestrian only (as most streets are in the Old City). This is the street sign.
This is the view down the street from that sign.
And this is the view at the first bend, where there's more evidence of the houses lurking in the walls at either side.
By rights, there should be photos looking down on the Cardo, and of the square with the Hurva synagogue. But I'd noticed that the camera battery was getting low, so I was conserving pictures, having only dead batteries with me, unfortunately. So the next photo I needed to take was from the top of the stairs (which are a street, of course) looking down to the huge cemetery on the next hill. I can see it because the space opens up for the plaza in front of the Kotel. This is the way the Yeshivat Ha-Kotel boys dance down for Kabbalat Shabbat every Friday afternoon.
The stairs turn, and I could see the whole plaza with the Kotel in it. New to me are the checkpoint at the lower left (with Shabbat-appropriate metal detectors), and the covered ramp below the Dome of the Rock and to the right, which cut off some of the women's section. On the other hand, it also offered more shade, which is a good thing, so a mixed blessing.
This is the one view of the Kotel I managed, looking from the women's section up and left, towards the men's section, before the camera died. I had so many other photos I wanted to take, closeups, different angles, and there wasn't time on that one day, too many plans crammed in, to return. This photo came out well, at least.
I decided to cut through the Arab Quarter on my way to Machaneh Yehudah, and was lucky enough to find a stall with batteries. I have no idea whether they were a good price or not; I got them, and started taking pictures again. I've figured out how to get from the Kotel back to Shaar Yafo through the shuk, and I think I could still find my way to the western gate, but I've never done it in the other direction, and I didn't want to get lost, even to try to get more Kotel pictures, knowing it would cost me the Machaneh Yehudah pictures if I wanted to make it to lunch with friends (finally found!) as planned. This is a main street in the shuk. The little ramps are for carts to go up and down the stairs.
Here's a street with more of the stalls open.
And a view of a covered street with wares ranging all the way up to the chandelier.
And a view from the uncovered street (higher up) through an archway into a more residential part of the Quarter.
This is the view from the window above the bed crammed into the living room of the rental apartment for me. I should've waited until the light was more uniform, but this trip had no spare moments, just take what I could when it offered. We were half a block away from the King David Hotel, in a high-ish building that had a little mall of businesses on the first floor.
I was entranced by the sidewalk stones, worn smooth after so many years.
This is the view a couple of blocks away, looking towards the Old City. I walked down this street, amazed at how much construction was going on (partly because it meant that room had been found for new construction). It's an overcast day, so the light isn't the best, alas.
I climbed the hill from the valley to the Old City. These are the walls around the city, looking from the outside towards Migdal David (which I don't think I've visited yet).
I went in my usual gate, Shaar Yafo, though through the automobile entrance. There's a pedestrian entrance to the left, which is the direction I would come from when I lived here. For some reason I don't recall ever taking the bus that would take me closest to the Kotel; I liked the walk through the Old City.
This is where my deficiencies in taking pictures of people starts to become noticeable; I didn't take photos of the bustle just inside the gate, being too shy to take direct pictures of people who were close by. Instead, this is the continuation of the main road I entered on, which circles this part of the Old City, the Armenian Quarter, just inside the outer wall. Pedestrians walk on the left on this bit, and cars don't go too quickly. At least it's one way.
The twisty way I learned to the Kotel, through the Jewish Quarter rather than around the circumference, takes the first left from the street above, on St. James Road, which is pedestrian only (as most streets are in the Old City). This is the street sign.
This is the view down the street from that sign.
And this is the view at the first bend, where there's more evidence of the houses lurking in the walls at either side.
By rights, there should be photos looking down on the Cardo, and of the square with the Hurva synagogue. But I'd noticed that the camera battery was getting low, so I was conserving pictures, having only dead batteries with me, unfortunately. So the next photo I needed to take was from the top of the stairs (which are a street, of course) looking down to the huge cemetery on the next hill. I can see it because the space opens up for the plaza in front of the Kotel. This is the way the Yeshivat Ha-Kotel boys dance down for Kabbalat Shabbat every Friday afternoon.
The stairs turn, and I could see the whole plaza with the Kotel in it. New to me are the checkpoint at the lower left (with Shabbat-appropriate metal detectors), and the covered ramp below the Dome of the Rock and to the right, which cut off some of the women's section. On the other hand, it also offered more shade, which is a good thing, so a mixed blessing.
This is the one view of the Kotel I managed, looking from the women's section up and left, towards the men's section, before the camera died. I had so many other photos I wanted to take, closeups, different angles, and there wasn't time on that one day, too many plans crammed in, to return. This photo came out well, at least.
I decided to cut through the Arab Quarter on my way to Machaneh Yehudah, and was lucky enough to find a stall with batteries. I have no idea whether they were a good price or not; I got them, and started taking pictures again. I've figured out how to get from the Kotel back to Shaar Yafo through the shuk, and I think I could still find my way to the western gate, but I've never done it in the other direction, and I didn't want to get lost, even to try to get more Kotel pictures, knowing it would cost me the Machaneh Yehudah pictures if I wanted to make it to lunch with friends (finally found!) as planned. This is a main street in the shuk. The little ramps are for carts to go up and down the stairs.
Here's a street with more of the stalls open.
And a view of a covered street with wares ranging all the way up to the chandelier.
And a view from the uncovered street (higher up) through an archway into a more residential part of the Quarter.