Rampart Walk

For a mere £3 you can walk the walls of the Old City. This is a handy way to get used to the heat and for me to impress Lucy with all I've learned.

I expected to see little else but religious sites but here's a shot of a basketball (left) and a dusty football field (right) with the Dome in the not so far distant, as taken from the Muslim Quarter. I've got a similar pic from the Jewish Quarter. (trying to be even handed).

St Anne's was one of the many churches on a lunch break last time I walked past so I was a bit miffed to find it closing and walked in the exit. It works well to walk either as a stupid tourist who doesn't know any better Or as a Local who owns it all anyway and just keep walking until someone bigger than you says stop (see also local politics, oops).

There's a priest in the church, putting out chairs, and he invites us to sing, Go on Sing! So verse 1 of Tell out my soul. Marvellous, it slowly resonates all the way up, gathers itself and then booms it back like a hundred angels singing. Also here are the Pools of Bethesda (see John 5). Here Jesus healed a man who'd been an invalid for 38 years.

This is what's called Ground Zero by some pilgrims, a real spot, with real certainty: Jesus did that here. Right here, not making it up, not guessing of all places maybe here, not competing with other possible venues. Solid. Whilst the photo looks really dull, this sort of thing does something tingly funny to me, possibly even louder than a hundred angels.

Lucy's socks have been walked off. The Beard continues. Alas for Germany losing, I'm owed another packet of M&Ms.