Jerusalem, the holy city by excellence, has been subject to subsequent occupations, destructions, remodelling and has caused several arguments all over the history, given the great importance of the site for the three Abrahamic religions.
It’s a bustling, noisy city mainly distinguished by being a melting pot, filled with Jewish, Arabs, and let’s be honest, tourists. Many of them. Any visitor around the country, religious or not, will eventually step by Jerusalem, if it was not already the main reason of its trip. The great number of visitors means conditioned sites of interest, high security and many accessible facilities, from restaurants to transportation at strategic points of the visit, which would be considered as “convenient” for most of the mobs of Christian pilgrims scouting the old town.
For the rest of us, we mundane, sceptic, new generation of travellers, this is extremely inconvenient when flying somewhere. Today, we only want to be able to grab our backpack (or trolley for the new trend of fancy travellers) and land in an unexplored territory, We are keen to discover the “hidden places”, taste the real food, talk to the locals and find some peace on our own, obviously.
Well, we are here to help. Why else?
In this three chapters, three spots editorial, we will share nine of our favorite spots in Jerusalem that are definitely worth a visit.
“On the Heights”
Why should you start from the bottom when you can directly start from the top?
If the old city of Jerusalem is amazing from the ground, wait to see these three incredible spots that will allow you to get a better picture of how complicated it must be to divide a city that just seems all the same. Bell towers, minarets, domes, hot-water tanks, parabolic antennas, thousands of pigeons, Russian Orthodox, Greek, Armenian and Latin crosses, flags and mountains. Not to mention the peace you’re gonna find over there.
If you step by Jerusalem, make sure you pay a visit to:
Located right in the Via Dolorosa, it was actually the first national pilgrim’s house in the region, mainly for Austrians and German-speakers, thus the name. Apart from the excellent rooftop views they offer to visitors for only 10 NIS, they also have a cafeteria on the ground floor, perfect to take a rest from the messy life in the city and indulge yourself with a good (not Arabic) coffee.
Just across the street from the new Gate to the Old City, Notre Dame is another pilgrims’ hospice. The restaurant located on the rooftop “Cheese and Wine”, though a bit pretentious, is one of our favorite spots to relax after an entire day of walking the city. You can either sit and enjoy a refreshing glass of white wine with the night views of the dreamy Jerusalem, or just take the elevator, go up, check the views, take the statutory picture and leave in silence.
Ok. This is not another pilgrims’ house, we know. Besides it’s a highly touristic spot. We know too. Wait a second, let us explain ourselves. Even though almost every tourist step by the Mount of Olives before or after their visit to the city, they do not stay too long. This said, if you are looking for stunning views of the Old City, wanna breath fresh air and are willing to spend some of your spare time just relaxing in the mountains, this is your spot. It is accessible walking, even though it’s a long walk from the city, UPHILL. If trekking is not your thing, we recommend taking a taxi or an urban bus.
From Jaffa Gate, lines 1, 3 or 255 operate every 5-10 minutes.
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