Old City people

Something new in the Old City: a free tour! Sandeman does free tours in seven European cities and now in Jerusalem too. After a guided walk of over 3.5 hours you tip the guide as much or as little as you want. They start at the Jaffa Gate Tourism Office every day at 11:00.

The walled Old City is less than one square kilometer but everything is in it!
We walked through all four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian.
You might enjoy seeing some of the people we saw on Tuesday.
Greek Orthodox priests near the Jaffa Gate.

Meir was our Israeli guide. He spoke good English and knew his stuff.

This group of girl soldiers must have been visiting the sites as part of their training. Education about the country is given to all young soldiers.

Yes, they have to carry their gun everywhere.

Indian tourists, with women in the lovely sari.

Jewish kindergarten kids were running after their teachers in the Jewish Quarter.

All kinds of folks at the Western Wall Plaza. The ramp leads up to the Mughrabi Gate into the Temple Mount.

The narrow bazaar streets were packed with tourists. Sandeman guides wear red so you don't lose them in the press of the crowd.

Must be hard to take this lady in a wheelchair up and down the steps of the crowded streets.

A game of sheshbesh on the street.

School must have just let out.

Arab girls in their school uniform.

Ladies doing lunch in the Muslim Quarter.

Mothers out shopping.

Sometimes I wonder how the residents of the densely packed Old City feel about sharing their narrow streets with all these tourists all during the year. I wonder how it is to live there in the old stone houses, in all that intense religious history, to be at the very center of the world.

How would you feel about writing your address as, say, #10 Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem?