Travelog for: Robinson

We drove through the streets of Bruchsal and I saw the jailhouse, the hospital, the Damianstor (an old city gate) and the area of the palace.

Finally my "mum" found time to write the first update here. She is very busy with the end of the school year coming, but it is time for her to write something here and to upload some photos before I travel to alleycat in Jerusalem. I'm so looking forward to visiting her soon.

Yay! I'm in Jerusalem! I haven't seen anything yet, but at alleycat's home I already met 2 toyvoyagers - a beautiful lady rabbit called Purple Bun, who had come from England, and a cheerful penguin called Tux, who is still planning to travel.

Tux is leaving us soon, but it appears that Purple Bun is staying for 2-3 more weeks, and we'll go to all the interesting places together! I'm very pleased! it should be fun

Yesterday me and Purple Bun, my travelling companion from England, went to see the city center! Purple Bun is very interested in religious places, so we saw a couple of churches, which are really quite impressive.


This is The Notre Dame of Jerusalem, located not far from the Old City, is an international pilgrimage and cultural center. It has a web site: http://www.notredamecenter.org


And here is another one - the Holy Trinity Church, which is a Russian Orthodox Church. It's surrounded by trees, so it's difficult to make a picture. The photographing inside is not allowed, so it would't make much sense to enter even if our host were dressed properly for the occasion.

...more to follow...

We dropped by the municipal building, located in a spacey area surrounded by trees.




Lion is a symbol of Jerusalem, so everywhere you go you can see lion statues and pictures.


I love all these tropical gardens!

...more to follow...

Here's the Jaffa street - one of the central, busiest and oldest streets in Jerusalem.


No traffic? that's rare!


A typical house on one of the narrow side-streets - palm trees on the balconies, too!


Most of the buildings on the central streets are used for little shops, cafeterias, restaurants, clubs etc.

...more to follow...

We're on Ben-Yehuda street which is a pedestrian zone, with numerous shops and cafeterias.


It's quite green...


and bustling with life - exciting!


You can see all kind of street scenes. Here's a street musician playing guitar, and nearby the religious Jews are performing the ritual of laying Tefillin.


Here's a Jewish shop selling ritualistic accessories...


And an Arab shop selling gorgeous chess sets! and jewellery.


But it's time to go. We're on King George street (another one of the main Jerusalem streets) on our way to catch the bus. (The big building to the right is a bank).


Till next time!

Today I went with alleycat to her working place (my travelling companion Purple Bun refused to go because she've been there a few times already). We walked by feet (and by wings), it took about half an hour and I was able to see a typical Jerusalem living neighbourhood - not extremely fancy but not poor either.



We went by a small synagogue - doesn't look like a place of a religious worship, but the small ones usually look very utilitary and low-fuss.


A typical street - it's a fairly old and quiet neighbourhood, so there's a lot of trees.


Most of the houses here have 2-4 floors and a few entrances, so there are no private gardens - the garden around the house belongs to all the tenants. But most of the people are comfortable with sharing.




The lack of gardens is compensated by big balconies.


Whee, I'm on a vine tree!


A bird-eye view on the neighbourhood and a small park.




...to be continued...

The campus of the Hebrew University looks more like a park than a working place - so spacey, green and full of flowers.


One of the main alleys.


A promenade - hey, looks like a real forest here!


A local cat naps on the big rocks - it's a quiet and lazy place.


Most of the trees here are conifers - pines, cedars and similar.


And another cat, carrying some prey.


Just trees and rocks - but you still can see the big city on the horizon.

...to be continued...

Back from the forest, admiring the flowers which are all around the place.


I tried to get acquanted with one cat...


but apparently she's not interested in parrots.


Flying around the National Library building.


Another main alley, now with a temporary tent building built in the middle - we're not sure for what purposes, maybe it's some students' celebration or exhibition. The lawns are usual place for resting, studying and everything, but it's difficult to see on this picture.


A decorative pool, with some very weird decorations!

...to be continued...

Now this is something I couldn't pass - the exposition of birds!


Hello, pretties!


You can learn a lot if you just walk around and read notices!




I think I'm the best bird around. Maybe they will hire me to work here?


A brief look at some more palm tree goodness...


and at the Knesset (the parliament) building. It's not far away from here, but the visitors are not allowed - only tourist groups.

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.


What you can see in 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...