Day 16: Bethlehem and the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ

Place: room 314 Abraham Hostel, at the desk near the window

Thought for the day: “ That which is man made is temporary – but God’s Kingdom will last forever.”

We started off the day with a nice jog around the city of Jerusalem at about 6:30am. A beaut morning but a bit chilly. We soon warmed up as this city has a few challenging hills… Taking photos as we ran and scouted out the place for new places to see. An awesome warm shower after that and then off to some well-earned breakfast. The hostel put on quite an awesome spread of continental produce from fruit, yoghurt and muesli to nutella on toast – this was a firm favourite and not surprising to see that all cultures get stuck in!

After breakfast we went down stairs to wait for our tour bus, which would take us to Bethlehem on the west bank. An interesting day lay ahead of us not only historically but politically as well. We arrived at Bethlehem only to be greeted by huge, concrete unfriendly walls, which enclosed the west bank due to massive conflict and terrorist attacks in earlier years. In March 2002 there were 15 suicide bombings in Israel. That month was known thereafter as ‘Black March’. Soon after that Israel called up 30 000 soldiers to move into Ramallah, Bethlehem and 4 other towns on the west bank, to neutralize the situation and take out any person or organization connected with the attacks – this was the biggest operation since the 6 day war in 1967. 130 Israelis died and 283 Palestinians.

 The gates are patrolled by soldiers armed with very heavy artillery and bullet proof vests. No –one from Bethlehem or the west bank can go to Jerusalem freely. Very hectic to witness and you can feel the tension inside these walls as the Palestinians loathe the conditions in which they live.

We feel more relaxed in Jerusalem and honestly it felt like we were back in Egypt while we were in Bethlehem.

While in Bethlehem we visited the shepherds field where the shepherd lived and first saw the star which guided them to the birth place of Jesus. The original shepherds caves are still there with skylights and all. See photos below.

This was probably the coolest part of the trip. Instead of following a star we jumped into a taxi as our bus had a mechanical problem, and went to the Church of the Nativity.

I quote the tour guide with his Palestinian accent(sounded a bit like Borat): “ We will now go to the church of the nativity where the shepherds found a baby rabbit in swaddling.” What he meant to say was, “ a baby wrapped in swaddling”. Dons and I joked about this for the whole trip and couldn’t understand where this rabbit came from.

We arrived at the church of the rabbit and our tour guide pulled out another beaut. “ Here at the church of the baby rabbit in the swaddling they make a mess 3 times a day each morning. Once for the Catholic, once for the Armenian and once for the Greek orthodox. Each one come to the church and make a mess.”

What he meant to say was ”mass”. For those not familiar with church jargon this is a church service.

With this new joke in our arsenal Donna and I continued to rip off our guide and keep ourselves entertained on our very long wait to see the actual place where Jesus was born. The reason for this was due to the Armenians making a big mess as it was the day after their easter and they probably had a lot to pray about. Our guide wasn’t stoked as making a mess usually takes 45mins and this took up to 1 hour and 30mins. Eventually we got to go inside and see the area where Jesus was born – it was a bit of a let down as the area was enshrined and as kitsch as can be. If they had left the cave in its original state it would have been more authentic. Anyway, it was still cool to be there and check it out.

A mosaic below from the Byzantine era. This church was built on top of the caves where Jesus was born.

Fed up over waiting to see the birth place of Jesus - no disrespect.

Then back to the bus to go back to Jerusalem. On the way out of the gate an Israeli soldier with a massive machine gun boarded the bus looking for anything suspect. He took one look at the beginnings of my ginger beard and struggled to take me seriously. The rest of the people looked non-threatening as well and he bid us good-day.

We jumped off the bus near a shwarma place down the road from our hostel. For 15 New Israeli Shekels(about R30) we got a shwarma with all the trimmings. A massive wrap, hummus, fresh salad, chilies, chicken, egg plant, fries etc And all this washed down by an ice cold coke for 8 shekels – for the 20 minutes that I buried my face in that shwarma I couldn’t care about rabbits or the mess that I was making… it was amazing. I hardly had supper as this was a beast of a meal. I really love a good deal!

We headed back to the hostel for some shut eye. 30 mins we said. No 1 hour we agreed on – over 2 hours later I surfaced and felt the bed coaxing me back into a very comfortable slumber. My lovely wife, not surprisingly won the battle and managed to get me out of bed to go for a stroll. We bought pita at the market for supper to go with yesterday’s avocado and sipped on a coffee as we browsed the market for lunch options tomorrow.

We came upon a long wide alley, flanked with shops and centered with tables and chairs which overflowed into walkways – filled with people eating and chatting and some just smoking and sipping an espresso – very European. 

Some trendy Yamakahs for the secular jews.

We just sat on a bench and soaked up the friendly atmosphere and then made our way back to the hostel to do our washing. They are very jacked up here and within 1hr and 30mins we had all clean clothes again – some shrunken shirts but nothing too serious.

It is now time for bed and Donna cant wait for me to finish the blog and switch off the lights.

Tomorrow we will go to the old city and see the traditional area where Jesus was crucified in the Christian quarter. Should be cool – and the tour is free.