Security is a growth industry in Israel. We had to pass a checkpoint before entering virtually any public building, including our hotel. I think "Do you have a gun?" was the one sentence the guard outside my hotel could say in English. I am trying to get used to seeing young men with machine guns on the street but I still hesitated before asking a pair of heavily armed soldiers for directions.

The State Department emphatically discourages embassy employees from visiting the Old City after dark or during Muslim prayer times on Fridays, so we quickly scurried off to the Old City to get a glimpse before dark. Starting from Jaffa Gate, we meandered across the alleys of the Old City. We would have accidentally wandered into the Al-Aqsa mosque right at evening prayer time except that the security guard fortunately stopped us at the perimeter of the Temple Mount/Haram El-Sharif.

We managed to find our way down to the Western Wall right as dusk was falling to end Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath). After passing through another security checkpoint, we were treated to a spectacular view of the Wall at sunset. Most of the visitors were religious Jews, mainly Hasidim dressed in black outfits that look extremely uncomfortable in this Mediterranean climate. We quickly snapped a few photos before were politely asked to stop by a couple of religious young men because Shabbat had not quite finished yet. I wonder how they manage to operate the metal detectors without violating the Sabbath?