Today we took a trip to Jerusalem with the whole family. This is the first time doing so since I was a baby when it was just my parents and I. We arrived and parked near Ben Yehuda St. where we started our adventure. When we reached the intersection of Ben Yehuda and Jaffa St. we saw the new rail system that had recently been installed in one of the busiest areas of Jerusalem. Happy-looking passengers peered out of the spotless windows, their seats still covered in their protective plastic.

Jerusalem's new rail system

After some time we had rounded a few corners and ventured down a few streets. On one corner a building stood with the title “Home of the Israeli Knesset” from back in the early days of Israel as a fledging country (the exact dates being March 13, 1950 to August 10, 1966). A passing old man (Israeli I presume as he asked me if I was a tourist in Hebrew as he saw me snapping pictures) informed me that the building of topic was built by a family immigrated from Europe and after some years when the Knesset decided to move their meetings from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem the capital this building became open for use. Now the old Knesset building serves as a Bet Din (Rabbinic Court).

Old Knesset Building (1950-1966)

Continuing with the sight-seeing, we found The Jerusalem Great Synagogue, an impressive building situated oddly close to the Central Synagogue of Jerusalem, another huge synagogue.

The Jerusalem Great Synagogue

Some time after seeing both synagogues I had bumped into an old classmate from Detroit. We were walking back towards Ben Yehuda when we spotted an odd spa feature. A man sat in a chair with his feet dangling in an aquarium filled with tiny fish that nibbled at him. He seemed to be enjoying himself as the fish snacked away. Fun!

Interesting spa treatment

As we turned onto Ben Yehuda again an unusual looking soldier was spotted. He was from the UN with a small Norwegian flag stitched to his sleeve. He fit well with the few UN vehicles we’d seen throughout the day, prowling the streets of Jerusalem.

Norwegian UN soldier

Another interesting feature of Jerusalem (Tel Aviv too) are the street performers. A man playing accordion performed on Ben Yehuda and another we found was a saxophone player in the Old City approaching the Kotel (Western Wall).

Accordion player on Ben Yehuda

Saxophone player in the Old City

To be continued tomorrow!