al-kuds

S and I just spent a beautiful four-day weekend in Al-Kuds (Jerusalem in Arabic). Of course we traveled around to Bethlehem and the West Bank as well, but my favorite morning was our last one spent in Jerusalem. We woke up at the wee hour of 5:30a to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We had gone the day before, but the line had been outrageously long to see Jesus' tomb so we went back early in the morning to be able to see it without the crowds.


It was surreal to be praying over the Jesus' tomb next to a nun at 6a.


Then we strolled through the souk over to the Dome of the Rock. We also wanted to be there early enough to see it without massive crowds. As you can tell, we were really excited to be the first ones in line...