The helicopter was scheduled to land at 11 am. I knew what could be expected after that, so I made plans to get out of the city.

Carol was delighted with the idea, when I told her the day before, even though she didn't really know the implications, and could only imagine them.

We met at 9 am, and we traveled east, out through the Judean Desert, past the Bedouin encampments. All the while we talked about what we saw along the way. I told her about the issues around the area, which after all is a little stretch through what is known as the West Bank.

About half a hour out we finally could see the north shore of the Dead Sea and Jericho. She had been to the Dead Sea before, but from the other side, the Jordanian side.

We came to Qumran, and I decided that she should see it, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls had been found, but also where the people who wrote them had lived and possibly written them. The Dead Sea Scrolls are still, 60 years after being found, the most important biblical literature to come to light.

Carol wanted to climb up to one of the caves, and I knew exactly which one would be the easiest for her to reach. She was delighted.

We continued south along the shores of the Dead Sea, and were lucky to see some of the wild animals of the desert - some gazelles and ibex. After passing Ein Gedi we arrived at Masada. The visit there took us about 90 minutes plus, and it was now time to go to the spa, so Carol could once again experience bathing in the Dead Sea. I could finally relax a bit, even get a little shut-eye.

4 pm. Time to drive back to Jerusalem, both of us wondering what will meet us there. After all it had been quite a few hours since the helicopter had landed.

To my great surprise the roads seemed normal, even a little quite. The first indication of the grand visit was when we passed the Notre Dame Hotel, where the distinguished guest was staying. Talk about police and security (sorry I forgot to take pictures).

And then it hit us. The traffic jam. What should take 5 minutes to get Carol to her hotel took 20 minutes. As we came closer to the hotel, I realized I would not be able to drop her off right in front of the hotel, as I would normally do.
But Carol is a sport, and got off to walk the two minutes. How wise.

From there, total snail crawl. If I was able to get to 20 km that was speeding. All the traffic seemed to be concentrated in that end of the city. No wonder, as all the other streets had been blocked off by the police. After all at some point soon the honorable visitor would pass that way for his meeting with Mr. Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel.

Still I thought, I will beat it. I will take the longer way around, but in that way avoid the traffic. Thought I. The police had the same idea that all the traffic in Jerusalem must go the long way round, with the result that we once again were cruising at a max speed of 20 km per hour. Even the highway was blocked, until the final exit from the city.

After one and a half hour after dropping Carol off at the hotel, I got home. Twice the time than what it normally takes me.

This of course was no ordinary day. This was the day of arrival and first day of visit to the Holy City of Jerusalem by His Excellency, Pope Benedictus XVI.