day six. jerusalem.

today we spent our first day in jerusalem. our hotel is a short walk to the old city's damascus gate. it's traditionally known as the damascus gate because the road leading out of the old city ends in...you guessed it...damascus. 

the gate as it is today was build when Suleiman the Great ruled Jerusalem. the old city walls from the times of Jesus still exist. the current walls were simply built on top of the old walls. 

i have anticipated eating falafel in the old city since the day we booked the trip. i've read that the best falafel in the old city is in the muslim quarter. as luck would have it, the muslim quarter is where you enter the old city when you enter through the damascus gate. (there's 4 sections to the old city: the muslim quarter, the jewish quarter, the armenian quarter, and the christian quarter). 

so the first thing i did when i went through the walls...you guess it...found a falafel vendor. and it was delicious. i might eat the same thing for lunch every day for the next week. it's also great street food, easy to walk and enjoy while eating. 

if you enter through the damascus gate and stay on the same street, you end up at the western wall, the "wailing wall." streets in the old city look like this: 

and there's a million vendor selling all sorts of fresh delicious treats.  we had some fresh pomegranate juice along the way. 

the western wall was a once in a lifetime thing to see.

if you stand in just the right place in the western wall area, you can see the dome of the rock as well. 

and in the highlight of the boys' day, there were pigeons in the plaza in near the western wall. it wasn't the highlight of the pigeons' day.

it was a good day. jerusalem lived up to my expectations. i'm really looking forward to exploring it more over the next few days.