Happy Easter!
I wish we could tell you that we are sitting in the balmy luxury of the American Colonial Hotel however we are not. Due to utter fluke (or alterntively one of us really is the messiah (*see below under Jerusalem syndrome) this weekend sees a rare conjuction of the celestial stuff which means that the jewish christian and islamic major festivals coincide raether then stagger neatly across a 6 week period. Thus my friends, no room in the inn last night for us weary travellers. we showed up all hope at the Jerusalem hotel optimistic and glowing from the joy of our pilgrim sucess at entry to fort Israel and a bit windswept from the nail biting sheruck ride from tel aviv (the driver clearly needed some mental lhealth professionals on board, permanently.)

However all's well etc as last night was glorious in a kind of deliriously exhausted way - the nice man at the J hotel sorted out an alternative place and drove us there direct to the stable door. It is actually in the thick of East Jerusalem residential area. Next to the mosque. Jolly fine thing that Liz remembered the ear plugs.

Neither of us have any idea what we wrote in last night's post. Um, we probably mentioned the hysteria of some parts of the Church of the Sepulchre, provoked by, let's not go there, I don't want to feel ashamed of our fellow pilgrims.

Also (not the distance I place from the hysteria (oh, really it was very funny)

More space...

The Ethiopian monastery, which forms a dignified adjunct to the church of the holy sep was full , crowded even, but almost entirely by the white muslin draped figures of Ethiopian pilgrims. The atmosphere was ethereal, very spiritual, light and - we are struggling for words to describe it... prosaically, we had to squeeze ourselves up tiny stones stairs lined with pilgrims and punctuated by chapels of packed muslin forms - they looked as if they had grown there, very sculptural, listening with intense peacefulness to their priests... when we emerged from the final doorway onto the roof there was a view over more calm ethiopians and out over Jerusalem. They had brought there own marquee covered with fine African textiles and a splendid looking chap in gold cloth.... we didn't go in there, feeling a bit intrusive.... one of the few other western people we saw said he had attended a service of the holy Eucharist earlier in the day and it did not coming close in terms of the expression of dignity and spirituality.

there are more kinds of Christians than you could shake a stick at in that Holy Sepulchral complex.

Liz and I were tempted to form our own sect.

Maybe we already have.

* Jerusalem syndrome: medically recognised psychological disorder in which previously mentally stable people become overwhelmed by the historical and religious significance of Jerusalem, and so convinced they are the Messiah that a short spell (7 days) in required before they are afflicted by acute embarrassment and ask to go home now please.

We are watching each other closely for the first signs.