This bloc of three huge hotels on Jerusalem's Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard is downright ugly, no?The Olive Tree Hotel, the Grand Court, and the Leonardo.
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They are next to the site of the former Mandelbaum Gate, the checkpoint between the Israeli and Jordanian sides when Jerusalem was still divided, from 1949 to 1967.
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I think this area is called the American Colony, just south of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
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But the saving grace of this photo is the new tram that was passing by on its practice runs.
I can hardly wait to take a ride!
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I imagine it could have been worse, without the obligation to build using the same stone everywhere. Still, looks more Vegas than Yerushalayim.
ReplyDeleteRight, there is a red line under Yerushalayim when I write this.The Google spell checker gives me... wait for it...uncrushable! Fits!
It has its charm.. I would like to try the tram.
ReplyDeleteI agree the view is not very appealing! It could be any big city anywhere....There is a marvelous (to me anyway) novel by Muriel Spark called The Mandelbaum Gate, published 1965, in which the Mandelbaum Gate and "no man's land" appear more than once. It is one of my bookish treasures that I take out now and then and read again. There is always something there I did not catch the last time around.
ReplyDeletealways a safe road ahead. over here, it is the most used mean of public transport by me.
ReplyDeleteplease have a good thursday.
all aboard!
ReplyDeleteWarm Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
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They are rather bleak looking. They almost look like prisons. I'll bet it would be fun to ride on that tram.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot different from how I remember it. American Colony was a nice old fashioned hotel then, I wonder if it is still around...
ReplyDeleteRob, "uncrushable"? Cool!
ReplyDeleteSpiderdama, Robert, Cloudia, Kay, come over and we will all take a ride on the tram together.
Sara, I should read that book someday. Thanks.
VP, don't worry, THE old American Colony Hotel lives on, just a block or so east of these big monsters, near Nablus Road.
American Colony is also the name of the little old neighborhood.
I think you should have someone take YOUR photo on the new tram or boarding the new tram..... don't be "camera shy!"
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