I thought a lot about this comment. I can't imagine what it would be visiting as German. I definitely agree about the Old City feeling like too much to take in. Looking back I wish I had let it overwhelm me the first time, instead of trying to modulate how much I let myself perceive.

With the monks and nuns, though, surely it must be a different story? When they read all this stuff about the Pharisees being wicked, and the Temple being such a bad business, and many parts in John... I imagine if that's what a person studied and thought, it would be a very different experience seeing people cry at the Kotel.