Israel with the Pope

Two days ago I saw the Pope ('s car... I think). Because I so badly wanted to see the Pope, I sat on a rooftop overlooking the Jaffa gate for three hours without sunscreen (airport security confiscated it for being too large of a quantity - something about "if there's a difference between weight ounces and fluid ounces, we don't care. You only get 3 fluid ounces, so you only get 3 weight ounces. This isn't a science fair..."), so I'm a little more than slightly sunburned. The upside of the whole "waiting on the roof for hours" is that I have gained the following picture, which definitively shows the vehicle in which the Pope may have been riding around Jerusalem:


The Pope's presence in Israel has stirred up a number of mixed responses from the various political and religious groups in Israel and the West Bank. He presents a strongly pro-Palestinian argument in most of his speeches, and yet he speaks out against Islam as an enemy. He spends a significant portion of his time here in Israel visiting religious leaders from Judaism and is establishing good relations with Israel, and then he criticizes Israel for their treatment of the arabs. It will be interesting to see how his visit influences world opinions and relations between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.


Today is the last day the Pope is in Israel. He is visiting the church of the Holy Sepulcher - the traditional site where Jesus was said to have been crucified and buried. We'll see if I can manage to get close enough to see the Pope's cool hat and snap off a picture or two.