Having gone through the ‘Separation Barrier’ we picked up a
Palestinian guide, not strictly necessary, but done as a courtesy by the tour
company to keep everyone happy. Relations between our Israeli guide and the
Palestinian were excellent. He was very interested in football especially the
Premier League and Spurs!
In the good old traditon of the Berlin Wall, the 'Separation Barrier' has graffitti on the other side, some of it by Banksy who seems to be a big supporter of the Palestinian cause.
We parked the coach in a multi-store car park and set off on foot. There were two lots of good news and one lot of bad news about our visit to Bethlehem. The first bit of good news was to find that the Church of the Nativity has just been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The bad news was that this meant that money is pouring in to restore it and there is scaffolding etc everywhere you looked.
It had been very clearly pointed out to us when we booked the excursion that it didn’t include a visit to the cave where Jesus is aid to have been born. Queues are usually 2 hours long and there weren’t enough hours in the day to be able to do that.
But the second piece of good news was that the queue at that time was only 20-25 minutes long so did we want to take a gamble on it? Such a silly question! And thus we found ourselves in the queue to see to birthplace of Christianity, so it was a case of girding our loins for the crush ahead to squeeze into a cave hat is now only 10% the size of was it was 2000 years ago ....
In the good old traditon of the Berlin Wall, the 'Separation Barrier' has graffitti on the other side, some of it by Banksy who seems to be a big supporter of the Palestinian cause.
We parked the coach in a multi-store car park and set off on foot. There were two lots of good news and one lot of bad news about our visit to Bethlehem. The first bit of good news was to find that the Church of the Nativity has just been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The bad news was that this meant that money is pouring in to restore it and there is scaffolding etc everywhere you looked.
It had been very clearly pointed out to us when we booked the excursion that it didn’t include a visit to the cave where Jesus is aid to have been born. Queues are usually 2 hours long and there weren’t enough hours in the day to be able to do that.
But the second piece of good news was that the queue at that time was only 20-25 minutes long so did we want to take a gamble on it? Such a silly question! And thus we found ourselves in the queue to see to birthplace of Christianity, so it was a case of girding our loins for the crush ahead to squeeze into a cave hat is now only 10% the size of was it was 2000 years ago ....
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| The "Walled Off" Hotel, set up and financed by Banksy - see www.walledoffhotel.com |
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| By Banksy - the dove of peace wearing a bullet-proof vest with a target mark on its chest. Got the feelng that our US friends had never heard of him - no surprise there - and didn't take to him as he's sympathetic to the Palestinians |
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| The approach to the Church of the Nativity - under reconstruction! |
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| You have to be keen to get in! |
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| Our Palestinian guide |
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| The "queue" for the grotto where Christ is said to have been born |
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| Inside the grotto - scrum in progress! |
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| Elizabeth touches the most holy spot in all Christendom |
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| The area said to be the site of the manger |
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| 4th century mosaic discovered during the refurbishment |
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| Before and after cleaning |
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| The Catholic Church on the site |
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| St George - with his dragon! |
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| Shot from the coach of the entrance to the gardens "Where shepherd watched their flocks by night". It was getting dark and we didn't stop |
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