Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast which is coming to you from a slightly noisy

McNuhuda market in the western side of Jerusalem and I'm delighted to say that my guest today is Ruth

Bell Ben Ami. Ruth, very nice to talk to you.

You're a tour guide.

In a place like Jerusalem where you've got so much going on in the old city,

just one square kilometer, it must be an absolutely mad job, isn't it?

Yes, it is, it's an amazing job to do.

You can see always different people and to talk about different subjects and it's always

interesting and colorful and crazy and this is one of the most interesting things in Jerusalem

and one of the most delightful in this crazy city and I love it.

But tell me about the old city, divided into different quarters.

You've got the Jewish quarter, the Christian quarter, the Muslim quarter and the Armenian quarter.

It's also, from what I have seen, really quite busy

with pretty much the Middle East's entire annual quantity of tourists, all trying to get in and around

at the same time. Yes, I feel that this is in a touristic area all over the world, that everybody wants to get to one place, in the same place and the same time.

Yes, and it feels like a crazy Middle East area, and I must say there is a huge influence from the Middle East because the Turkish

rule here for so many years and we can see it and feel it and taste it.

Many people come here because they are devoutly religious, whether Jewish, Christian,

Islamic.

But is there a lot for people who perhaps are not so spiritual?

What about them?

Can they enjoy Jerusalem, even though they're perhaps not as religious?

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