A special day of my life in Jerusalem

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Remember when you read about Jerusalem in School?, remember all the things you have seen and heard about this city?, remember the stories in the news through the years?, well when you finally meet her, it brings a peace of mind and a humble feeling towards time, space and religion. There she is glowing in the sun with the limestone walled houses, calm, tolerant, beautifull and very much alive! FANTASTIC!

Thanks Shlomo my friend for this special day! you where the perfect guide, the Religious Population Quarters, I did not know that these people devote their whole life to their religion and to their god. Most do not work, and consequently, they are very poor. The small slots in the walls of their houses where one can donate coins to them and their families, the walk through this area was a very special time travel, it could have been another century of the past, except for the odd car parked there.

Mountin of Olives, Shlomo said, - from there you will understand how the city is laid out, before, it is confusing. We entered from the west over the mountains, pine forest, cypress trees and green vegitation, it looked like Tuscany or Piemonte or parts of Greece. Then into the city, always going down-hill crossing the Kiron Valley to the Mount Olive´s Road.

Now I see what you mean Shlomo, Now I understand that the City is sloping from 800 meters above the sea-level down, down, down to the Dead Sea which is several hundred meters below sea level, thus the green pine forest in the west and the arid desert in the east of the city.

To be burried in front of Jerusalem on the slopes of the Kiron Valley is sacred to both Jewish and Mosleem Population, thus the big cemetaries just below us when we look out over to the Old City.

For every Jewish person, to come to the Wailing Wall or West Wall, is like coming home, Shlomo tells me, it is a magnet for all and it has been like this since the year 33 AC.
I am not a religious person myself and therefore I am stunned about the people praying at the wall, It is a very special moment and I just stand there and look and listen to what goes on around me, a life so far away from mine, so different, but I do repect it by all means.

I suddenly get a strong feeling of precence, you have to be there to understand.
We made it before sunset, and the wall is now shifting in golden colours infront of us.

If it was not for the fact that Shlomo and I talked intensly in the car on the way back, I would have fallen asleep right there and then.

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