Floor Tiles

• The store selling office supplies and other things on KKL opposite the Rehavia Gymnasia (hard g) has been there since the first houses were built. If you need gift wrap, printer paper, envelopes, a newspaper, notebooks, string or any one of umerous other things -- this shop has it. You can ask in English. Not the tiles paving the wmall area between the door and the sidewalk.
• In the shouk, between Etz Haim and Mahaneh Yehuda Streets, at the end of the alley where the knife sharpener sits, is an unlit staircase. A flashlight reveals that the tiles on its landings are lovely examples of the art. It leads to a roof where floral-patterned tiles form rectangles reminiscent of rugs I have seen in genteel English houses. When the British ruled Jerusalem, this was (I'm told) a popular cafe.
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/tiles.html
• Tiles have these advantages over rugs: In summer they are cool. To clean them you pour on water and squeegee it away (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/august-sun.html ). Sometimes "away" is onto the heads of people below.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox