we made it...

Shrine at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

This will be short...I haven't slept since 6 hours on Wednesday night. We made it safe and sound this afternoon, and we're now at our hotel in Jerusalem (we're ten hours ahead of the west coast). They drove us through the West Bank on the way here; the highway was completely blocked off from Palestinian villages with tall walls and barbed-wire fences, so they really have no access to highways, Jerusalem, or anyplace in Israel in a timely manner. We learned how to tell the difference between the flat-roofed houses of Arab villages and the red slate rooves of the Jewish villages.

We glimpsed the Dome of the Rock as we drove to our hotel in Old City Jerusalem near sunset. We dropped off our bags at our hotel and walked through the windy alleys to change some money and ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is thought to be built on Golgatha, where Jesus was crucified. Tomorrow we'll go more inside the walls and gates and temple and all that. I'm so tired! :)