After venturing north to Haifa and Akko with Deb, there was one other “must do” and that was, of course, Jerusalem. But first we had to get there. All through our year-long stay, we had been awaiting the much anticipated launch of the new Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast train. Many deadlines had come and gone, the most recent being six months ago. Would it be ready?
Well, as the Times of Israel put it “The fast train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv isn’t fast and does not go to Tel Aviv.” It now takes two trains; a fast one, with a stopover at the airport, followed by a change to a slow one (or vice versa). The “fast one” famously got stuck in a tunnel for an hour and a half and had to be towed out. (Makes me wonder if Bombardier had a hand in this.)
We took the bus. So far, we were 0 for 2 on our train plans with Deborah.
Once in Jerusalem, our plan was to go first to the Mahane Yehuda market and then on a free two hour walking tour of the Old City, with a few stops in between to see some notable sights, like Mike’s workplace of over 45 years ago. We used the new Jaffa road light rail system to get into the city centre. There, the road was exclusively dedicated to light rail and pedestrians (this was nice) with no barrier between them (hmmm…where are the liability lawyers?). Seeing people meandering back and forth across the track, at will, made me pretty nervous I have to say.
The market: clean, covered and full of gorgeous things to eat… 
I so regret not giving into temptation!
After wearing out our will-power in the market resisting the gorgeous nut/fruit pastries, we dropped into a Jewellery store…need I say more…? Wisely, we took no incriminating photos.
Mike and I had not been in Jerusalem for over 5 years, and this was the first time we have been there when it has not been high summer. In the relative cool of autumn, we found it more pleasant than we remembered. Even the old city, which I used to find oppressive, seemed cleaner and less crowded than I recalled. It is still however, characterized by a heavily religious atmosphere, which local residents of all three Abrahamic faiths seem to demonstrate by wearing the least appropriate clothing possible for a warm climate; fur hats, black robes, and head to toe coverage prevail depending on which sector you find yourself.
Before heading to our tour, we walked through Independence Park where we were charmed by a flock of little orthodox schoolgirls playing on a stand up swing.
We were on our way to see the King David Hotel, which has a magnificent view over the Old City, and is also notable for the fact that Mike worked there as a night auditor for almost a year in the early 70s. This grand hotel was, (and arguably still is) the premier hotel in Israel; even in the short time that Mike worked there he saw such characters as Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir pass through on important government business. He’ll never forget waiting for the service elevator and almost stepping into Ben Gurion and his security detail.
Right across the street from the King David is a building affectionately referred to as the “imka” , known to us as the YMCA…they don’t get much fancier than this:
From there, we set off through the Mamilla Mall to Jaffa Gate to meet up with our group for the “free tour”. The mall is a beautiful open air stretch of stores and restaurants that leads to an impressive plaza in front of Jaffa Gate. It took 37 years to build (27 more than planned) due to a combination of bureaucracy, protest, and litigation that seems to characterize many big projects in Israel (see my post on the central bus station). Designed by Moshe Safdie, the mall incorporates the facades of 19th-century buildings from the original Mamilla Street, as well as the original structure of the Convent of St. Vincent de Paul. This gives it an historical feel despite its contemporary commercial focus.
By Navot Miller – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17204996
Sandemans free tours have become a feature in many cities throughout the world. They are free in the sense that there is no fixed price to book a spot; you simply tip the guide what you think is fair. In many cases this turns out to be about the amount you would have paid any way (or more)…but presumably you feel better about it when it is voluntary. It is a bit like the Remax of the tour business. The guides are independent and pay a booking fee to the company. Sandemans also offers paid tours and these are consistently (okay, relentlessly) promoted throughout the free one.
I found the quality of the tour to be better than I expected, all things considered. Like any tour, it depends on the guide that you get, and in our case we had a very knowledgeable and particularly talkative exemplar of the trade. He warned us in advance that his two hour tour often runs to three; and he was not exaggerating. He also warned us of how slippery the stone walkways are; “slip and falls” are apparently as common as in Toronto after an ice storm. So using our best ice-walking technique (penguins anyone?) we set off behind him. He was right about the stones.
The tour is best described as an overview and did not include entry into places of interest. As a consequence, we seemed to spend a lot of time in back alleys and up and down stairs, periodically emerging onto a rooftop or other high point to observe the bigger attractions from a distance like the picture below: a classic scene, made special by the fact that the IDF was inducting new young soldiers in the plaza in front of the Western Wall.
Even so the whole experience was interesting and worthwhile. We covered a lot of ground and were hustled around the city at quite a pace, which made it challenging to stop and take photos en route. Pause to take a picture and you risked being left behind which, given all the twists and turns of the old city, meant you were likely to get lost. Nonetheless , I did manage to get few in.
This is a living city: A glimpse of a residence. 
The Cardo, built in Roman times 
The old city is full of little streets like this: when on an incline, they have iron railings on the side walls because the stone road is very slippery. (even when dry)
Our last stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, considered by tradition to be the both the site of the crucifixion and the burial place of Jesus. We stood for quite a while in the square listening to its history, while I admired the Coptic door design which is featured in my current embroidery panel for the Torah Stitch by Stitch project.
The square in front of the church. 
The Coptic door.
After a while we realized the guide was not about to stop talking, and furthermore that he would not actually be going into the church, so Deb and I left Mike to keep an eye on things, and to pay when the guide finished up, and went inside to look around. It is not really a church as we think of it, but rather a cluster of what looks like small chapels and shrines, some very elaborately decorated. Inside, are also the last four (some say five) stations of the cross. It is quite dark and it seems that part of the building is always under renovation, no surprise given its age and number of visitors. The church is in the hands of six branches of the Christian faith,( excluding Protestants), and they each maintain and mange a particular section of the church. So disharmonious is their relationship that the keys to the church are actually held by two Muslim families who have opened and closed the doors for centuries…this is Jerusalem.
When we came out of the church, our guide was still talking and showed no inclination to stop; we were well over 2 1/2 hours in. Since we were pretty tired at this point, we paid him and set back off to Jaffa Gate, and through the Mamilla mall, where we sat overlooking the old city and had a snack and a glass of wine to fortify ourselves for the bus ride home to Tel Aviv.