West Bank - Bethlehem

Yesterday, we headed out to Bethlehem to visit the Church of Nativity, where Jesus was born. We didn't know how to get there so I went to the Tourist Information Office and asked about lodging and buses. I guess I asked at the wrong place. The guy wearing a yamaka and a star of david necklace told me, "Take an Arab bus. That's all I know." And so, we headed out to the Arab bus station and off we went. We decided to just make a day trip of it.

Before passing into the West Bank, we had to go through a check point in the Separation Wall. Since we were tourists, we were promoted to the front of the line. On the other side of the Wall, the taxi drivers were all over us for rides to the Church. They started out at 80 shekels but we finally got them down to 8 total. Quite a reduction but I think they are really hard up for money in Bethlehem, much more so than Ramallah.

Below are some photos of the Church of Nativity. Here's the outside.

Two photos of the inside...

Then here is the birthplace of Jesus, represented by a 16 pointed star.

We think this is his crib because a lot of people were taking photos next to it. I decided to do so as well. Swindell, I think you would have liked this place. Oh I almost forgot, while we were waiting in line to see the birth place, we were talking about all the decorations for the birth place of Jesus. Freddy, one of the guys who was with us, said, "But guys Jesus was born in Bethlehem." We gave him a weird look and said, "Where do you think you are?" Then he remembered that we were in Bethlehem. Strange guy and he's a teacher in Milwaukee. I feel sorry for those kids.

Then we grabbed some dinner and they told us that in Jerusalem we would have paid double the price. We told them we were thankful. The Wall has some graffiti on it and I took a photo. Going through the check point to come back to the Israeli side was much more intimidating. It was kinda like a prison in there with many doors and channels. We were directed through a metal detactor by an omnious voice from no where. We couldn't see this girl at all but she could see us and was telling us exactly what to do. "Go to your right. Proceed.... etc." We made it through without hassle though.