Amenian Tavern

We met with some friends visiting Jerusalem and went to an Armenian restaurent in the Old City. It's down in a basement so it doesn't look like much from the outside (as is normal for houses in the Old City), but inside is a big "cave" filled with Armenian Christian stuff and arts and crafts.
We had a mix of Armenian dishes (of course I've forgotten the names of them, but they were very tasty) and tried the Armenian dessert saussage made of grapefruit-gel and walnuts. We all looked very suspiciously at it when it was served, but it was actually very tasty.

Afterwards we went on a night stroll in the Old City, almost empty of all the people and bazaars and tourists and junk of the daytime. I was proud of myself that I could find my way around in the maze that is the Old City, and both A and I got to answer questions from our friends about the city and islam and judaism and christianity.

The very pleasant evening took a bad ending, when A and I came back to our bikes and found them punctured by the guy living behind the door close to where we had put them, and a "gang" of 3 guys waiting for us. The man living there was very angry and yelled a lot of us and tried to get a fight, but we managed to escape with some "we're sorry"s and "we won't do it again"s. This part of Jerusalem/Israel/Palestine I don't like; that people think it's ok to damage other people's things, because they think the others did something wrong.

Old City with old friend

I met up today with a British friend whom I met in Cairo two years ago (time's flying!).
We wandered around the Old City looking for things to see, and just enjoying the atmosphere and a falafel sandwich, together with her group of musicians. They are going to Nablus to give folk music and dancing workshops at the newly established ESNCM branch there. I might go there during the next week while they are there and listen and maybe join. There's always fun happening around her!

Ammunition Hill

The Ammunition Hill is just next to where we live, and today we went there to figure out what it was about. I expected a museum, as in the closed type inside a building of some sort, but this was open ground also. It's commemorating the Six Day war in June 1967, where Israel concured the rest of Jerusalem from Jordan (and whiped out Egypt's air force, and beated Syria too) after it had been divided for 19 years after the "War of Independence" in 1948. We joined in on a lecture and a movie next to the model of Jerusalem; the movie was very well done in the way that it showed with coloured and moving light on the 3D model of Jerusalem which areas which army held, where the Municipality Border was during the 19 years, and how the forces moved during the Six Day War.

I was a bit surprised to feel so... bad about seeing soliders and gunfire and tanks in a city that's not mine, but which I think I know it by now, even thought the pictures were in black and white. In Denmark we're so used to peace, last time we had war in our country was in 1864 (if we don't count the occupation in 1940-5), so this is the closest I've come to know how people feel, when they see their homes and city destroyed by war.


In the actual museum were, among other things, biographies of all the soldiers, who had fallen in the Six Day War. They were both on interactive screens (only in Hebrew) and on big metal plates as the ones in the picture above. I can't figure out if I think it's repulsive or nice with all these commemorations (not only here but all over the city), but the repulsive might be the aspects of war and extremism (wanting to kill the enemy and/or die for your contry), the nice part that other people remember them.

There also was a collection of rockets of the time, with describtions on the plates on how much TNT they carried, how heavy they were, how long they could reach, and other useful informations...

I'm happy to be a Dane, who don't need to think about war and despair and loosing my home. But I also want to visit a Palestinian museum about the Six Day war and see how they tell the story - only I don't think there is such a museum.

Museum on the Seam

Located in a former checkpoint house between the Israeli and Jordanese parts of divided Jerusalem, scared from gunfires from several assult, this museum now raises questions about socio-political reality and the various civil rights. It's not big, we went through it in a couple of ours, and some of the "art" is only art because it's in a museum. But it also had some nice pieces, that made me think. First of all that I still don't know the local history well enough. And I didn't know the razor-wire was invented in South Africa (an artist from SA had bended razor-wire into frames).


I liked the very expressive and composed photographies by Claudia Rogge - e.g. one with people in black robes, had they been white were it Ku Klux Klan, one holding a big silver cross supported on the ground - and the "invisible Man" photo bu Liu Bolin, apparently he's made many more, very impressive photographs. (Here's an article about him with many pictures.)


The best Israeli piece was a short movie by Doron Solomons (and normally I don't like movies in museums, I think they are too wierd), called "Blood brothers" in Hebrew and "Brothers in arms" in English. A repeating scene called "Brotherly love" was the artist as a siametic twin, doing worse and worse things to his other half - I interpreted it as Israelis and Palestinians who fight over this piece of land - ending with something like "maybe I can't control my own body, but he's not going to control it!" and the own siametic twin shooting the other in the head. And maybe dying also, because they share the same body, the same vital organs?

Hiking in Ein Gedi

We spend the second day of our little trip on hiking in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, leaving the bikes at the entrance.


We saw the David Waterfall (apparently David should have hidden there after fleeing from king Saul, the brouchure quotes Samuel I 23:29 - and then continues to say no archeological proofs of this have been found) together with other flocks of tourists, then walked of to the paths "for fit hikers only!", to the Dodim Cave, which is not the cave of doom (as we read it several times) but the Cave of the Lovers. The Wadi David (David's valley) in rich in water compared to many other places in the area, and with the Judean Desert just next to it, and we saw this in all the waterfalls and pools and dripping wet rocks hanging over us. Again, it was good we went here in the winter, cus already now it's hot [for a Dane], and we we're thankful for all the little clouds shading us.








Then on to a high point with great view over the Dead Sea, though still not the hight of the Desert Plateu (200m above sae level, which means 600m above the dead Sea), where we enjoyed the silence of the wild and could look down on ravens gliding far above the ground. We also saw the outlines of a 5000 years old Chalcolite temple up there, one of the earliest remnants found in Ein Gedi. Another old treasure is the "Oldest Synagoge" down from all the hills, with its marvelous mossaic floors.


We took the bus back to Jerusalem, luckily there were no problems in taking the bikes on the bus. The trip went too fast compared to our speed yesterday - but I was happy that I didn't have to bike up to Jerusalem. And also happy we biked the other way, and hence had the option to stop and enjoy the view.

Bike trip to Ein Gedi

Crazy Danes as we are, we decided to bike from Jerusalem to Ein Gedi (route on Google maps) along the shore of the Dead Sea on a small vacation, to get away from the city and enjoy some of the local nature in all her splendor.

We got up with the Sun and on the way. Highway actually, all the way from Jerusalem to the plane of Jericho. 27 km horisontal, 1000m vertical; from Jerusalem's 800m above Sea Level to the plane's 200m below Sea Level.

Jerusalem's surroundings were green, the morning air chilly. I was a bit surprised to see "shacks" in all their lasting temporariness of corrugated metal, and wondered if these were small refugee villages, and if the people living there really didn't have another option.

The road's declination varied from plain to steep, and we wheeled along at a great speed (thanks for good breaks!), but still had time to stop at sea level - a great tourist attraction (though without any souvenir sellers).

It was breathtaking to come out of the mountains and look at the flat, vast plane of Jericho (it might officially be called something else, but this is my name for it), finally see the Dead Sea sparkle in the sunlight, see the city of Jericho in the distance, and know that the next range of mountains must be Jordan.

The road along the Dead Sea offers a great view over the water, though a bit far away because the water level has decreased over the past years, due to less rainfall, more people using the water in the streams feeding the sea, and a block on one of the greater streams flowing from Jordan into the Dead Sea. Our roommate quoted some estimates saying that in 10 years it will only be Dead but no more Sea, if nothing is done to change this direction.

But it has left pools on the past-sea bottom with a great variety of colours due to all the minerals in the water. We could also marvel at the rocks and mountains on "our" side of the sea - as Danes we always find these big chunks of rock fascinating - and look to the distant and misty mountains of Jordan on the other side. And apparently we brought a bit of Danish weather [clouds], which cooled us nicely in the heat and made spectacular sceneries in the sky. Or was it Divine Presence here in the Holy Land?



It was a good ride, and I'm very proud of myself that I managed all 75km - though the first 30km downhill doesn't really count. The hills afterwards were challenging me, but I took my breaks when I needed and enjoyed the view while catching my breath again - and was happy that I got to know my bike and the gears, so I could climb as efficient as possible. We had forgotten sunblocker, so in the evening I looked like a Danish-coloured inverted panda (marks after my sunglasses), but thanks to moisturiser it doesn't hurt.

We came across some "desert street art" just after making the turn to road 90, but luckily we and our bikes didn't suffer a similar fate.

Next time we're going all the way to Masada (some 20km more), and/or making a longer stop in Qumran to see the Dead sea Scrolls Museum. But with the heat already it has to be latest in March!

Zedekiah's Cave

We were walking down to the Old City and came across Zedekiah's Cave or Solomon's Quarry (between Herod's Gate and Damascus Gate), and went in to get a break from the rain. Luckily they accepted my student card from Copenhagen (A had no problem with his student card from the Hebrew University), and we went in with a brochure on the place.

The cave is huge and man-made, and stretching under a great part of the Muslim Quarters of the Old City, and stones from it has been used to a lot of different, significant buildings in Jerusalem (though I don't know which). It is called Solomon's Quarries because tales go, that King Solomon used stones from this very quarry to built the First Temple on the Temple Mount - and the Freemasons, who consider Solomon as the first and greatest Freemason, hold their meetings in Jerusalem in this cave.

It is called Zedekiah's Cave, because another story (from the Bible; Jeremiah 52:7-8) tells that Zedekiah, the last of the Judean kings from Jerusalem, fled from the Chaldean troops through the cave - and the water dripping from the ceiling are called Zedekiah's Tears, because of the tears he shed when he saw his children executed.


The cave is worth a visit for people who're very fond of rocks, or if you want to get out of the rain or away from the Sun and warmth, or want a bit of quiteness in the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem. But otherwise I think the most interesting about the cave is all the stories connected to it.