Travelog for: Purple Bun

Happy birthday to my "mom" drakie !

I hope she'll have as much fun and adventures as all of her toyvoyagers!

Peace, love and joy!

~Purple Bun~

Today we had quite a tour! First we went to a viewplace on Mt.Scopus to see the panorama of Jerusalem with one of the most famous holy sites - the Dome of the Rock .


(we arrived by this lonely road)


The Dome of the Rock is a Muslim shrine built on a sacred stone which is believed to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended for a night-long journey to Heaven in AD 621, and in Judaism the stone is believed to be the place where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac






We saw also the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives - a Russian Orthodox church built by Tsar Alexander III in 1888.




And just a general view.

...to be continued...

Then we visited the Latroun Monastery, founded by a group of monks of Ia Trappe, a Cistercian monastery in Normandy, France. Latroun Monastery is also famous for its winery.


Around the monastery.


The park is blooming with flowers.



This is as close as we could get.


The neighbourhood.


A monument to 3 distinguished religious figures.


...to be continued...

We passed through Abu Ghosh - an Arab village west of Jerusalem whose inhabitants are known for their friendly relations with their Jewish neighbors.


So I stopped to see a mosque.


The place is a bit crowded because of a few restaurants nearby.

...to be continued...

And finally, Sataf gardens.






The place provides great views at the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The big building on the hill is the Hadassa Ein Kerem hospital.


There's also a monastery or church but we were not sure what's the name.



...to be continued...

It was fun to see and taste all the fruits growing here - especially grapes!

(whoa... 5th post for today!)

Today we had a nice walk around one of the new neighbourhoods of Jerusalem - built within the last 10 or so years.


All the houses in Jerusalem are built of special white stone, to maintain the consistent look of the city.



The place is quiet; the trees didn't have time to grow yet, but there are green lawns.


The architects try to design interesting and various shapes for the houses.


A view on the shopping center (permanently under construction).


The building on the background is a hospital.

...to be continued...

Further away from the main streets...


No skyscrapers here - these houses are among the tallest ones.



Still a lot of empty space - probably will eventually be turned into a construction site, which would be a pity...



The weather was too hot, grass had dried out.


A playground! so empty... probably it's too far and the weather is too hot to play.

...to be continued...

Purple Bun and Robinson - friends forever!





And here's another, bigger and more busy street.




A typical "big" house entrance.


And a small playground on our way home - the message says "for children under 3 years". Well, we just dropped by for a minute, so it's ok!

Well, my first travelling experience was nice, but it's time to move on... tomorrow I'm off to Finland!




Saying good-bye to Mooshie the Shadow Cat...



Last looks around...

I'm in the post office, starting my travel to Finland

I've arrived safely at Tampere, Finland. I'm a bit tired and ragged so I'll take a nap first, and look around and take some pictures later.

Sorry for not updating this in such a long time.

Right after I'd taken my nap, we went out to see the town. We went shopping for clothes, which was one of the things on my wishlist.

Here I am in the fitting booth.




And here's what we found that day.

The next day we (I and a pig that was also visiting aelina) were invited to a birthday / going away party. We got to taste some biscuits. They were nice.



Later on we went to see a concert. At first we couldn't see anything from behind people's backs, so we had to move to a better spot.



Two friends of aelina played in the band, but for some reason their faces have turned into smileys. Cameras do strange things sometimes.



The concert was nice, but we were so tired we spent the rest of the night in aelina's backpack.

One day we helped aelina with her studies. It was a nice day, one of the last days of summer, so we went out to the yard. Here we are, with Persikka the pig.