Summary

This story opens with the narrator airing his frustrations regarding the vacation he and his wife took to Jerusalem. His wife does not share in his frustrations. He leaves to walk the dog and recollects the experience.

The couple hired a guide to show them around the town. They came upon doors with markings on them, and the husband asked what they meant. The guide explained that the markings welcomed pilgrims home from their pilgrimage to Mecca. The husband told the guide that no one makes pilgrimages to London (their hometown). The guide also explained that the city should be bombed completely in order to solve the Palestine-Israel conflict. The guide explained the Jerusalem syndrome - a strange mental illness that is only contractible in Jerusalem and disappears once someone leaves. The syndrome causes people to wrap sheets around their bodies and preach (about...