A quiet day so far, following an unquiet first night. I was awake for a few minutes every now and then. Jerusalem Old City remains noisy at night and I have to get used to this.

Today we've seen David's Tower, the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall). The panorama view from David's Tower was slightly better than the view from the Petra hotel, but not that much. I loved the late 19th century maquette of Jerusalem, placed in one of the tower's dungeons. It provides one with a very interesting view of what the Old City looked like just over one century ago.

We're now sitting on the steps of the Dome of the Rock, and we're both wearing dresses. We're not ashamed, either. You see, it is prohibited to enter the parks around the Dome bare-legged.

The shopkeepers swarming the streets of the Old City appear to have a common tactic, a method to their madness, for selling tourists junk. I have attempted to draw up a flowchart of how this tactic works in practice.

Coming up

Back to the hotel for pita bread, cheese and something that looked like chunky tuna fish. After this luxurious late lunch it was too late for the next item on our programme: Yad Vashem, the memorial museum for the Jewish victims of the second World War. Time for plan B, which consisted of the purchase of a small alarm clock (color: purple), followed by some wonderfully refreshing fruit juice.

Once again we found ourselves sitting on the roof of the hotel, where we met an Australian named Chris, with whom we had some Carlsberg. After dessert, I called my parents ("Please keep your passport with you!") and my ex-girlfriend ("Wow! Jerusalem!"). When I hung up I felt that there was just no time to develop a feeling of being homesick.