Today I decided to play tourist and actually take some pictures while on my walk. I went the long way around from the apartment to the Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall/tourist trap and back. Following are just some of the pictures that I took along the way.
Note that some of these pictures were taken just to show an ordinary neighborhood here in Jerusalem. You will find that in many ways it is no different than any other urban area, but will likely note some differences as well. Please keep in mind that some of the terrain here is a bit hilly. I did the best I could to keep the camera level so you could see the slopes but it just doesn’t always come out right.
You can enlarge any picture by double-clicking on it.
The first picture is looking back down the main street near the apartment. The building on the right is the Museum of Islamic Art.
The next pictures are of a sign indicating that you are at the President’s house and a picture if the front gate area. I asked about taking pictures from up against the gate, but they said that was not allowed. Note that I sometimes have to walk around a different way when the President is coming or going, or is having guests. This is about a 5 minute walk from the apartment.
About 3 minutes from the President’s house is the street leading to the Prime Minister’s house. On the corner of that intersection is the Belgium Embassy. These are pictures of the Embassy and the intersection.
Continuing around the corner from the Embassy is the block before the Prime Minister’s house. I took pictures of the street leading up to the house, but no pictures at all are permitted on the section of the street with his house on it. As you can clearly tell, this is just a regular neighborhood. Unlike the White House, there are no tours or anything either here or at the President’s house.
The next pictures are at the corner of King George and Agron streets. Within 1 block of this intersection you can find the Great Synagogue (pictures previously posted, so not included here), the Center for Conservative Judaism, the Mizrachi world headquarters and 2 5-star hotels (the Prima Kings and the Leonardo Plaza).
While many people here speak English, those of you planning a visit might want to learn the Hebrew word pronounced she-roo-team. It is a most helpful word, and looking at the picture below i think you can figure out why. This one is on King George about 1/2 block from the Great Synagogue and the Leonardo Plaza. As you can see, graffiti is an issue here too.
I walked down Jaffa Street to King David. I thought you might be interested in the price of gas here, so took a shot of a gas station sign for you. Before you get TOO shocked, remember that the price shown is in New Israeli Shekels, not US Dollars, and that the price is per liter instead of per gallon. It is more expensive than you think. (At today’s exchange rate one Shekel is worth $0.2778. One liter is 0.26 gallons. That makes the price in US Dollars about 7.08 per gallon.)
A little farther down King David you come to a park area. This is actually only 1 block from the windmill that I posted pictures of earlier. I have 2 shots here, one looking up King David to the hills beyond and another of the walkway along the park. (Yes, it really IS November with all the flowers!)
Leaving King David I started to walk up Jabotinsky. And I DO mean UP. While you can see some of the incline in the picture, believe me it seems much more severe when you are climbing it.
We have heard much in our community about scooters or motorcycles being used in Israel to provide transportation for EMS personnel. These pictures are of a scooter equipped for exactly such a purpose.
Continuing along my path I came to the Jerusalem Theater. This is a performing arts center, and is 1 block from the Islamic Art museum posted above. There are 2 auditoriums here that I took pictures of. Those from Chicago may be surprised by the name on the second one. (I have no idea if there is a relationship or not.)
This last picture is of a typical strip mall here in a Jerusalem neighborhood. Note that there are apartments above all the stores. You can also see how wonderfully people park wherever they feel like it here.
While it has not been mentioned before, I should point out that people here actually use the crosswalks. All traffic stops as soon as someone steps into the crosswalk, and the pedestrians wait at the crosswalk when the crossing light is not on even when there is no traffic (except for the tourists, of course).
No comments:
Post a Comment