Leaving Jordan in the desert dust, we then set our sights for the King Hussein bridge: destination, the Israeli side of the border. The reason for this change of locale had more to do with the fact that the Hajj is now complete and the Muslims who have been visiting in Iraq are now on their way home. Also, today is a day of celebration and holiday for all the Muslims, so the Allenby Bridge will also be either closed or very very busy.
Now, in North America, crossing a border is a procedure that can last a painful two minutes for those who are really closely being examined (except of course in the case where you're pulled over and the entire car can be ripped apart, but that is less and less the case). Borders in the Middle East though are a different matter. Even with Canadian passports all, crossing this border still took us a little more than three hours.
A bit of research reveals that three hours is indeed a very reasonable amount of time for this crossing. Others, such as residents of the Palistinian Authority can take up to an entire day to cross the same border (assuming of course that they can afford the associated fees).
By the time we'd found our way back to Israel, it was 4:10 pm local time, and we still had a two hour drive to reach our destination in downtown metropolitan Jerusalem. Needless to say it was dark by then, and we had no choice but to bed down for the night.
Plans for visiting En Karem had to be delayed, at least for the moment. More on that score to come.
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