day eight. jerusalem.

the day started at the mount of olives. the mount of olives, which is not much of a mount and the only olives to be seen are in being sold in a store, is a beautiful spot in the morning. it's immediately to the east of the old city and provides breathtaking views of the old city. 

and given that the mount is a popular tourist spot. there's camels. since we already rode a camel this trip, we opted for donkey. 

a note about the owner of the donkey in the picture. he made the mistake of not negotiating a price with me prior to the donkey ride, and assumed i was an american tourist...which i guess i am; he assumed i was paying for the donkey ride. i wasn't. my father-in-law, (who is from the middle east) was. the price of the donkey ride, after 10 minutes of animated discussion, ended up being a 75% discount to his originally quoted price. :) 

we then shot over to the jaffa gate, on the eastern side of the old city. the jaffa gate feels like it's about 6 months away from opening a starbucks. it's definitely the tourist hub for entrance into the old city. the damascus gate is just as hectic, but i enjoy the damascus gate much more. maybe it's just that the falafel is better near the damascus gate... 

we had lunch and did a bit of shopping in the jaffa gate area, but our primary goal was the short walk from jaffa gate to entrance of the western wall tunnel. 

i realize i'm starting to talk about several gates of the city. here's a helpful map for reference:

remember how jerusalem is a city built upon a city built upon a city? the temple mount was built in the first century before all of that building upon building upon building. if you want to see western wall of the temple mount as it was 2000 years ago, you can walk through a tunnel. there's lots of old rocks you can photograph; the old rocks tour 2014 continues... this is another must see in the old city. my favorites were seeing the 16 meter long rocks at the foundation (yep... 16 meters), and seeing where the foundation of the wall turned to solid bedrock further north, yet herod had his builders still carve the rocks to make them look like bricks. that's attention to detail my father could enjoy. 

we ended the day by walking through the muslim quarter, exiting through lion's gate, which is on the north west side of the old city. the bread here is awesome. and it's everywhere.