Travel• Winter

Winter Travel Style in Jerusalem

January 21, 2019

We just got back from our three-day weekend in Israel and I’m using today to play catch up with grocery shopping and laundry. We spent two of the days in Jerusalem and one day driving and hiking the fortress of Masada. Although it was a short few days in Jerusalem, I still feel like we got to see most of the major Biblical and historical landmarks in and around the Old City. Here I am standing outside the walls of the Old City. I was really impressed with how well-kept the old structures are despite all of the attacks Jerusalem has endured over the years (52 to be exact!) When we were walking around, my husband commented, “It’s hard to imagine how many people have died inside these walls” which sounds pretty gruesome, but he has a point! And with its long, complicated history, there are so many different groups of people who have had ties to the city that it’s hard to keep everything straight. My husband has a lot more background knowledge than I do so luckily he was able to explain a lot to me since we didn’t use a tour guide.If you look to the left of me, you can see old script still on the walls (see photo below for a close-up view taken with my phone).This is the Damascus Gate, which is so large we could barely fit it in the frame of our camera lens!We also stopped by the Western Wall, the holiest site in Jerusalem where Jews gather to pray. It’s also been called the ‘Wailing Wall’ (a term coined by Christians) since Jews have gone here to weep over the destruction of the Temples.The Old City surrounded by its stone wall is in the background.Have any of you ever visited Jerusalem? It’s a lifelong dream for many people, so I feel fortunate we were able to see it while living close by in Jordan.