As I write this, I just finished an amazing trip to Jerusalem, Israel. I have been to Israel twice before this year, but never managed to get see anything else than Tel Aviv. Thanks to the wonderful AlphaCSP guys, I am here again and this time I made a trip to Jerusalem. In short: I don’t think there is a more photogenic city I’ve ever been to before. Normally I don’t take my camera on business trips, but this time I did do that, and I’m really glad I took that decision.
We (Stephen Colebourne and I) spent about 5 hours in the old city of Jerusalem and pretty much covered all quarters. I’m not a tourist that spends hours and hours in one church or site, but Jerusalem is a place in which 5 hours only gives you a very rough glance of everything; spending more time is definitely recommended.
We started by walking into the Muslim quarter. Next, we walked into the Christian quarters with its churches. We crossed into the Jewish quarter by passing by the wailing wall and finally we went to the Arminian quarter. I never knew Jerusalem was split up this way and that each quarter has its very own unique feel to it.
The Muslim quarter is essentially almost like one big bazar, with its in door shops. It’s really crowded there and I liked the atmosphere there a lot. Later in the day, we even walked on the rooftops above the markets, which offered some great views on this same markets from above. The Christian quarter is filled with churches, monestaries and other niceties. The Jewish quarter is very peaceful and quiet. This probably also had to do with the fact that it was almost Sabbat. We ate a hummus out on a square and walked through the narrow streets close by the wall. The Arminian quarter also is very peaceful and quiet, with similar narrow streets.
We saw the wailing wall, which was impressive, not because of the size of the wall or the architecture or anything, but just because of the meaning it has for Jewish people.
I called up my grandma while there. She’s been there a long time ago and is desperately trying to convince my parents to also go there. I think they should definitely go and take grandma with them. She’d really like that!
The first picture is in the Muslim quarter, looking at one of the in door markets. The second picture is taken from the inside looking up into one of the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposedly located over Christ’s tomb. The building of the church was begun in 326 A.D. Note that the pictures were uploaded straight from the camera to my blog and have not been modified in any way (I didn’t even do the white balance, as I only have iPhoto here while still in Tel Aviv).
I’ll spend some more time at home post-processing some of the pictures and uploading them to Picasa. Other than that, Jerusalem is a place that I’ definitely planning on visiting again some day.
