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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Jerusalem, Jewish and Christian, Kosher and non kosher, and pictures of the tunnels

Jerusalem - city of peace, if only it were, from the point of view of tourists and tourist boards. I have made various forays into Jerusalem. One of the places I have never visited is the tunnels, but at last I've found a website which shows them.

At the World Travel Market I visited many stands from tourist boards in the region, including Israel, Jordan (see my previous post), Quatar and Palestine.

Magic business card thumb drive
At the Israel area I picked up a plastic business card with an inset thumb drive. It took me about an hour to work out how to use it. It looked raised so I thought it must slide out. No. It didn't. Eventually I pressed on the edge and instead of sliding out. It flipped upwards, still attached.

I called my nearest tame computer expert. They tried it one way up. No luck. So they turned it over. Hey presto, I have the Jerusalem hotels site.


Nifty, isn't it. Israel is known for gadgetry, inventions and start up businesses. Medical advances. Highest readership of books. Technology. All kinds of religious buildings. Mosques, synagogues, churches, a Bahai temple in Haifa.

In Jerusalem, I look at hotels. Guess what - the first thing which catches me eye as surprising is the YMCA hotel. I know from the YMCA in Singapore near Dhoby Ghaut MRT on Orchard Road (like Oxford Street in England, right in the city centre) that the YMCA has a reasonably priced restaurant and if you are lucky enough to secure a room, the building also has an all year, all day, indoor swimming pool. What about the YMCA hotel in Jerusalem?

The Jerusalem YMCA was built in the 1930s and seems to have everything you would wish for in a hotel, including an indoor swimming pool.

Regarding the restaurant, they warn that it is not kosher. If you want the full Israel experience, you will want to try kosher food at some point. However, if you are not bothered about kosher food, this place might suit you. (You could also stay there and eat elsewhere, or eat vegetarian food.)

The thumb drive directed me to the website which lists a whole range of hotels as well as cultural attractions.

Here's a look at the back of the plastic card. I went back to it later. You can see that the back is mostly sealed.



Western Wall Tunnels
I found the one attraction I had never been able to visit. It had been closed on my last visit to Jerusalem. The tunnels. The Western Wall tunnels. What a delight to be able to see them clearly as an armchair traveller.

So if you are planning a holiday or business trip to Jerusalem, want to look at historic and modern hotels, or think you will never go there this year but would like to take a look at events and cultural attractions, here's a good website.

http://en.jerusalem-hotels.org.il/category/the-western-wall-tunnels

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