Urbs Sion aurea

I am about to go off to to Jerusalem for a tour of the Holy Land, taking in Bethlehem. There are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea
a) I am a very anxious person; I get upset by college meetings let alone actual oppression and violence
b) yesterday I felt a bit overwhelmed in an Anglican church full of about 300 people sitting down in pews; I'm not really very good with crowds or noise
c) they are having a really rough time there -- see this
d) it's actually seriously f***ed up and no one seems to care
e) I get very car sick
f) I don't much like travelling
g) I really don't like travelling with other people
h) one of the people I am travelling with is, like my dad, an enthusiastic observer of plants, so this will probably involve long hearty walks with Latin names which I am supposed to get excited about; another of my companions is a keen natur(al)ist and I have a suspicion that he might be into long hearty walks as well; though at least the bloke we're visiting is more of a cocktails man. (Me I like nature but I'm very very lazy, and besides I've never got the hang of going for walks without a dog, though happy men are the next best thing I suppose. I can't really go for anything more energetic than an amble.)
i) I know no Hebrew or Arabic except what a half-Egyptian bloke called George whom I work with taught me; he says "Shakrun" is Arabic for thankyou. But I probably got the vowels wrong.
j) I'm rather a podge so they'll probably think I'm American and hate me, though having said that it's not much better to be British these days
k) I either won't have enough time to read, which will make me fretful, or I will run out of books, which would be even worse; I hate running out of books; once I only took three books for a few days in Paris (work trip) and I had to read each of them twice through
l) the political situation deserves another mention at this point

On the other hand it is absolute heaven not to have to buy any Christmas presents.