Just after I sent off the last blog, Philip and I went for an afternoon walk. Our plan being to walk the road along the top of the Mount of Olives through the Muslim village there. (Our hotel is at the end of the road along the top of the Mount of Olives.)

We soon came across a long stream of people waving palm branches and singing exuberantly. The Palm Sunday procession. That I thought was being walked along the Via Delarosa which is a narrow road inside the Old City.

I got it all wrong. Don’t believe any of the facts that I ever tell you in this blog by the way! Even my opinions and thoughts are highly suspect and liable to change!

The Palm Sunday procession has thousands of people in it. Not hundreds. Thousands. Maybe ten thousand. And they walk from the Mount of Olives down to the Old City and right around the old city, passing by all the gates. They will finish at 8 o’clock tonight. Walking for about 7 hours. The roads round the Old City are all cordoned off.

First up were several Israeli army with machine guns drawn and pointing forward, constantly glancing round. I did find that a bit unsettling. Even momentarily frightening.

Then the crowds of people. Mostly in organised groups. Waving palm and olive branches. Singing their songs of faith in their language. From so many different branches of the Christian faith. A lot of Palestinian flags were also waving, as well as their national country’s flags. Some of them exuberantly dancing, clapping and singing. Hope they’re still as exuberant at the end of their procession. I’m sure they’ll be hoarse.

At the very end of the procession was a group of high end clerics. I’m making up that they’re probably Archbishops or something like that. And to close it all off, more police and Israeli army with guns.

And I’d said that Philip and I weren’t going to do the procession. We had to in the end. To move from our position on the top of the hill. It was fun to do. But we didn’t know the songs they were singing. We were mainly with a Filipino Catholic group and they were singing in Tagalog.

Just as I said. Life is an Adventure. And you never know what’s going to happen next! Like walking in a Palm Sunday parade in Jerusalem.