Urrghh. Patience with the parents is wearing pretty thin. Slept mostly ok. Woke up a couple of times in the night but otherwise slept from 10pm to 6am.
This morning the mother did more washing and stubbornly refused to close the bathroom window. *sigh*.
Our first stop was "The City of David" which is a region to the south of Jerusalem which was the old city of David (obviously!). There's a lot of archaeological stuff happening there at the moment.
Southern walls of Jerusalem
Photo by Dad
City of David entrance (from the inside)
Photo by Dad
Archaelogical excavations near Hezekiah's Tunnel
Anicent tombs in the Kidron Valley
Al-Aqsa Mosque from City of David
Southern walls of Jerusalem from City of David
We watched a little 3D film on some of the history of Jerusalem and the water tunnel that Hezekiah built. The screens weren't lined up properly though so it was a little hard to watch. I found it easier to just cover one eye.
Tour group in the 3D film theatre
Then we headed down down down past the Warren Shaft and down to Hezekiah's Tunnel. This was super cool! The water was thigh height at the beginning, but for most of the tunnel it flowed at mid calf height. There were some Swiss people in front of us and they were singing most of the way through and every so often they sang a hymn we knew so they were singing in German and we were singing in English, it was great fun :)
Heading down into Warren's Shaft
Hezekiah's Tunnel
Photo by Dad
In Hezekiah's Tunnel
Photo by Mum
The tunnel opened out into the pool of Siloam.
Lower exit of Hezekiah's Tunnel
Pool of Siloam
Then we headed back up the hill. Starting with some recently excavated steps that turned into a tunnel that was at first lit then not lit at all and we had to pull out our torches again. I'm not sure how open it was to the public, but it seemed like we were intruding on an archaelogical dig and that's what we actually found at the end.
Heading back up the hill to the City of David
Archaelogical site just under the south wall of the Old City
The group walking along the wall of the archaelogical site
Photo by Dad
Archaelogical site just under the south wall of the Old City
Photo by Mum
Next we headed up to the Zion Gate and into the Jewish Quarter of the old city. This area started off with just a massive parking lot and then lots of modern buildings.
Zion Gate, complete with bullet holes from various conflicts
The inside of the Zion Gate
After wandering through a bit we came to the "Burnt House" which is a house, probably of a temple priest, that they'd excavated which showed evidence of destruction by fire, possibly by the Romans. There was a little dramatisation film they'd made showing a possible scenario.
Inside the Burnt House Museum
Inside the Burnt House Museum
Photo by Dad
Cardo Maximus - ancient Roman street
Dormition Abbey
Dormition Abbey
Photo by Dad
Walked some more to the room that "traditionally" was the room of the Last Supper. Yah, sure.
Room of the Last Supper
Courtyard outside the Room of the Last Supper
Entrance to King David's Tomb
Then down to the "rooster" church (because of the rooster crowing when Peter denied knowing Jesus) which supposedly was Caiphus' house, which did in fact have a real prison and/or dungeon under the house which could theoretically have held Jesus the night he was arrested.
The Rooster sign
St Peter in Gallicantu (The Rooster Church)
St Peter in Gallicantu (The Rooster Church)
Photo by Dad
Inside St Peter in Gallicantu (The Rooster Church)
Photo by Dad
View down to the dungeon
In the caves under the house
Looking across to Palestinian territory
Lunch was at the Ramat Rachel Hotel, but it was super crowded and pretty unorganised. It was so bad that there were no free tables to sit at and the only tables were piled high with used plates and trays. It was a complete shambles. At one point one of the waiting staff that was cleaning up dropped some wine glasses which left shattered glass all over the floor. But instead of cleaning it up he just walked away and left it. When we all left at least twenty minutes later it was all still there. The only bonus was that previous tables had left bottles of wine behind, that obviously had to be drunk, and even an unopened bottle that the waiting staff said we could have! Go figure!
Next we went to a lookout at the south end of Jerusalem to see the view of the city from the south.
View north to the Temple Mount from Trotner Park
View north to Jerusalem from Trotner Park lookout
View towards the Mount of Olives from Trotner Park
Then it was back to the hotel for an early finish.
Little did we know but the original building of this hotel used to be an eye hospital, and just before the War of Independence they'd strung up a cable car across to the old city for transporting wounded. This cable car operated for a good six months without detection! The cable and operating mechanism are still there. Very cool!
Cable car at Mount Zion Hotel
Cable car at Mount Zion Hotel
Cable car winch system
After this I found a table in the lobby with a view and an electrical socket to do photo stuff, but didn't get too much done before some other people came down and bought me beer for copying their photos.. oops! So was a very pleasant evening with some beer, and the leftover bottle of wine from lunch and then a couple of drinks after dinner with everyone in the lobby :)
Coca Cola in Hebrew
Me in a big chair
Distance covered on the GPS: 20.5 km
Steps walked: 11253+?? (left the pedometer in my bag so not sure of a final count, calling it 15000)
Photos on the Canon: 257
Photos on the Sony: 19
Videos: 2