Jerusalem

Today I hit the history, hard. I went to Jerusalem; here is the Mount of Olives. It was really pretty.

I drove into the Old City of Jerusalem. Did you know you could drive through it? Turns out you can. I even parked in there. Lots of stone buildings and narrow little streets.

First stop was the Western Wall/Wailing Wall, which I touched, on the women's side, of course.

There were a lot of people there praying, all kinds of people (see how the women are all squished into one small side).
From the site of the Western Wall I got a good view of the Dome of the Rock. I hear there are 85 kilos of gold up on top.

Then we walked over and into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is rather amazing. This is the location where Jesus hung on his cross.

First we stopped to touch the hole in the ground where they stuck the crucifix. (hmm, there's a picture of me under the table but I don't have it)
Then we walked downstairs, where you can see the rock that split when lightning hit.
Next we went to over to touch the rock that they laid Jesus on after he died.

All in all, it was hard to believe that I was actually there, seeing all of this that is so famous and worshiped by so many around the world. But I was there, and now I feel kind of important.

On our way home, we stopped at The Borderline Pub, and drank Palestinian beer. Didn't get hit by any rockets. Then we stopped at Abu Gosh, an Arab village, and ate really good hummus, and a lamb dish.

Now that the sun has gone down, Shabat has started. This means that Jewish people cannot create a spark until Shabat ends at at sundown tomorrow. This includes driving, turning on lights, cooking me hot meals, and touching an elevator button, so the elevator works automatically. It goes up and down floor by floor, opening by itself. Makes for a long trip up to the 12th floor...

Just kidding, they only do that for one elevator out of the four. They designate it with a sign:

...don't get in that one if you are not Jewish.