After the yipee hurray we made when we reached Manger square of Bethlehem, we finally navigated our way through buzzling local areas into the heart of the tourism district of Bethlehem. This was the very spot where every year, Christians from the world over packed to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the ancient West Bank Town where he was born. Next to us, stood a medium sized church, the Church of Nativity. Ironically, not as peaceful or quiet as I thought this place would I have imagined or portrayed by the lyrics in some of the Christmas carols, the birthplace of Jesus had protestors roaming the street with loudspeaker fighting for human rights. I seemed to have digested alot of history all in one day, first to start off with was one of the masterpiece in architecture, the Dome of the Rock, now I'm setting my foot on another Pilgrimage route in Palestine. I was super eager to see the silver star that marked the spot of where Jesus was born.
ironically, unlike the lyrics of o little town of Bethlehem, the heart of this town was busy with loudspeakers and protestings
Positioned next to the Pace Centre is the Church of Nativity
recently listed under UNESCO world heritage in June 2012
So we once again, pulled out the maps that each of us brought from home, trying to locate the entrance to the Church of Nativity. The wall somewhat resemblance the Old City of Jerusalem. We were walking around like headless cattle, and after 5 minutes, we finally saw the tiny small entrance that leads to the inside of this Church.
my three new Japanese friends posing in front of the small entrance
As you can see, the entrance was very very small, not visible at all. And how would one spot it if they were trying to find "an entrance to the church". But this famous entrance, the four-foot-high "Door of Humility,"
was built not to make pilgrims bow but rather to repel looters on horse-
and camel-back after the Crusades. As I "crawled" inside the church, I've noticed how dimly lit inside was, the walls were dark with wooden floorboards and wooden truss structure. It was a very modest church indeed, no grand glittering interior, but a rotting roof and holes in the timbers sitting above some precious paintings and mosaics below. Being one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world serving over 1700 years, miraculously, it has survived various invasions, regime changes, fires, earthquakes and recently in 2002, the siege of Bethlehem when armed Palestinians hid in the church from Israeli forces for weeks.
Inside of the church - looking back at the tiny entrance
very modest and worn out interior - looking down at the nave
Fragments of high-quality wall mosaics dating from the 1160s decorate both sides of the nave.
Once we were inside, I noticed 4 rows of pillars and the wide nave carried Crusader paintings of saints and the Virgin and Child, although age and lighting conditions make them hard to see. On the floor there were trapped doors revealing sections of floor mosaics surviving from the original
basilica. The mosaics feature complex geometric designs with birds,
flowers and vine patterns, making a rich and elaborate carpet for
Constantine's church.
After roaming around the nave, we saw a long queue starting to build up from the altar, so we made our way through the limestone columns and joined the queue. At this point, we hoped it was the the line for viewing the grotto. This was where we travelled all the way for, to view the silver Star that marks the spot where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. As we waited, the crowds got bigger and bigger, and it took us almost 2 hours before the queue made it through into the altar.
The altar and it's decor had a very Christmasy feel to it, with lots of colourful balls dangling down from the ceiling. I can imagine the atmosphere here in Christmas and the room filled with carols singing and joy. There's also no way you can go out to take a wee wee or a food break, so make sure if you come next time do not drink too much water before you go into the site. The space was jam packed by the time we got pushed into the altar section. It was only midday when we were inside, and the crowd started to get out of control. It must have been the long wait and frustration when a large tour group behind us starting to push and squeezed in front of us.
As you can see, it was packed with people all trying to squeeze through the narrow corridor at once
Christmasy chandeliers suspending from the roof
At one point, we asked each other, when are we going to reach the Grotto.... it took us 2 hours or so just to make it through into the altar, how long more to go.....
After helding our hopes high still, we finally saw the stairs to the grotto, well barely but we saw the crowd moving down and disappearing beneath the ground, so we knew immediately we still have hopes in making it through maybe in another half an hour time. The queuing up would be a smoother quicker process if everyone behaved and enter down the Grotto by the stairs one by one instead of pushing and shuffling.
We almost ran into a fight with the group behind us, as they were physically pushing our back forcing us to move forward, when there was no gap or way to do so. But that will be another story to tell. So after two and half hours of frustration, we finally step our way down into Grotto of the Church.
the line has lost it's queue, people were just pushing their way down to the Grotto
crowd moving down to the Grotto
The Grotto of the Nativity was a rectangular cavern beneath the church and it was the church’s focal point. Entered by a flight of steps
by the church altar, this was the cave that had been honored as the site
of Christ’s birth since at least the 2nd century. And once again, we finally accomplished this DIFFICULT task, there we were at the crypt under Church of Nativity, we crawled underneath the Altar, and kneel on the "Star of Bethlehem". This star was the silver star in the floor marking the very spot where Jesus is believed to have been born. It was chilling cold when I kneel down, since the floor was paved in marble and above my head were 15 lamps hanging about The Star （with 6 belonging to the Greeks, 5 to the Armenians and 4 to the Latins).
as you can see, it was a very tight space to crawl through, and on the marble floor there's a silver star with lamps hanging about it (see right pic in this assembled pictures above)
After crawling back out, I thought to myself, man that was tough... I would never have thought that Jesus was born in such a tight small space. But yippee, one item is now checked off on my list of things to see before I die. And of course the veneration of the grotto is based solely on tradition, we
don’t know the exact spot where Jesus was born. And quite possibly we
never will, unless we find another bunch of apocryphal documents hidden
in the desert somewhere. In my opinion, where Jesus was born is not in question, this site can be appreciated on many levels even though you are not here for pilgrimage. And this is as good a place as any to honor that birth.
What would one do with a half a day to spare? And I told myself this trip in Israel wouldn't be complete without visiting the Palestinians' West Bank. Yep, Palestine. With the daily news on the internet, there were stories about this ongoing conflict between the Palestine and Israel, and some bombings in the Gaza strip, I knew there could be threat crossing to this area but on the other head I have also heard stories from the locals confirming that Bethlehem was perfectly safe for visitors. So I took chances once again, and made my way to Damascus Gate to catch the Arab Bus number 21 which will take me to Bethlehem in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
Damascus Gate
woohooo - I got my bus ticket for Arab bus no. 21
I had to say the Arab bus had surprised me, it was cleaner than expected and with vacant seats. There were only couple of us waiting at the bus station next to Damascus Gate. In fact, I recognised a few familiar faces which I met before. It was the same Japanese group I saw at the Jordanian border crossing before, what a small world. So we nodded to each other and made our own way into the bus. I sat myself next to the window and a few stops later, a local young lady sat next to me. I could tell she was quite curious about me, as she sat down she smiled and said hello. It was when the bus came to a sudden haul due to some crazy pedestrian crossing and everyone was forces to hold onto the handrail to avoid bumping their heads into the headrest in front, the curious lady utilised the chance and started a conversion with me. And from the ride, I found out she was a university student, good English because she got that from school, family still resides in West Bank etc. But I couldn't remember her name and she told me I can just walk from Bethlehem bus stop to Church of Nativity. She also gave me some useful advice, " don't take the taxi, just walk", "walk through the souq, everyone knows where the church is". "remember don't take the taxi". So after a 20 minute ride, I said farewell to this brief acquaintance, and tried to remember her bits and pieces of advices.
As I hopped off, there were cars beeping, the street traffic was going crazy, and there's no sign of the Nativity Church. The West bank or the Palestine was alot more chaotic than Israel. Just before I got into a panic mode, a Japanese girl approached me and said " do you remember us? I think we met before...". So yep, they were definitely the same group I saw at the Jordan Israel border crossing. They had kindly offer me to join them since they planned a similar itinerary as me.
Palestinian Taxi
After you get off the Arab 21 bus, you will see this bank of Palestine atm machine in front of you
So why not, it's always nice to have accompany for a little advantage, as our little asian group walked past every street and alley way, we really made an entrance. Everyone were starring at us as if we were aliens from outer planet. Either they haven't seen alot of Asian tourists or they felt we have intrude their area. Unlike Israel, where occasionally I could spot one or two Asians, here we were the only ones and this could also be because it was an off peak season for traveling into Palestine.
navigating our way through the narrow alleyway to find the church of nativity
lots of shops selling all sorts of things, scarfs, pillows, 80s toys
weird looking cabbage, they were flat and oval in shape and big too
some very pink looking cake slices for sale
walking under "BLANKETS"
Arabic Tea Man
I had to say walking through the local area was an experience, you get to see so much more then your usual souvenir stores. Before we knew it, we finally arrived at Bethlehem Peace Centre.
The Peace Centre wasn't at all peaceful as it sounds, there were protesting going on, we talked to one of the man on the loudspeaker and he told us they were trying to get one of the prisoner to be free or something. Anyway, it was very noisy in this main square, they were playing some songs, shouting out something in Arabic. And the man on the loudspeaker invited us to take more photos because they want the world to know what's going on in Palestine.
But hey, say cheeseeeee, we have finally made it to Manger square of Bethlehem!!!
After leaving Temple Mount from Lions Gate, I continued my journey at steep climbs. Yes, I decided to walk my way up to Mount of Olives to see the rumoured best view of Jerusalem. I had to see if it was said to be that good. The locals told me it's best to see it at sunset, but because of my tight itinerary, I had to do it straight after Dome of Rock while it was still early in the morning. At that time, I totally felt like exercising, so instead of taking the public transport up there, by foot was the best way to go. As I was venturing out from the Gate, trying to read the map I got from information centre before, a Holland couple came up to me and asked me for directions to Mount of Olives. Since I wasn't too sure of the way either, I invited them to join me in my little navigation adventure. I told them I was looking to get up there too and was happy to have accompany if they don't mind walking extra miles if we were to get lost. Without hesitation, they agreed to team up and next minute we were chatting our way while puffing and climbing the hundreds of stairs to the top of Mount of Olives. Before reaching these stairs, we had to cross some busy windy roads with great views of the Old City from a different side.
breathtaking view of the Old City as we walked our way towards Mt of Olives
windy roads toward Mt of Olives
Mt of Olives view with many beautiful Pine trees
This was the road leading up to many stairs to the top of Mt of Olives
On our way up we stopped at one of the sanctuary, inside there was an Olive tree farm. The Olive trees were lined up in rows, and they must have been there for many years, as their trunks were wide and wrinkly. Sorry, I'm no tree expert but these trees looked like they've been standing there for a while.
Olive tree farm inside the Sanctuary
Olive tree close up
I couldn't remember how long it took us to reached the top as we got carried away with chatting. But it was definitely not an easy one, we had to stop for two breathers as there were just stairs after stairs and more stairs until we saw a wide road at a T-junction with couple of tourist buses and taxis parked along side the kerb. We knew that was the end of the steep hike, so we made a right turn and there we were, breathtaking view of Jerusalem from Mt of Olives. So the locals were right, the view was not to be missed, and I can imagine how beautiful it would look under sunset.
panorama view of Jerusalem
panorama view of Jerusalem 2
panorama view of Jerusalem 3
As we were stepping out from the stairs, people were starring at us, they must be thinking where did these people came from? Don't tell me they walked all the way up?!!?? haha oh ye, we walked all the way up. There were handrails running along the sides of the road, and it was packed with tourist groups. So I said good bye to the Holland couple and I continued with my journey. The good thing with travelling alone is you get the choose where you want to go without negotiating with anyone, and you can easily squeezed through any crowds without getting worried about loosing your buddies. As I was walking along the side walk, I tried to find a best spot to take a rest and to intake this amazing view of Jerusalem. Bear in mind, this hill is part of the cemetery , so there were graves just below the handrails.
just realised there were graves in the background
one of the oldest Judaism Cemetery in the world
Police station at Mt of Olives
And I had to say I was so proud of myself for walking so far, from where I was standing I could see the glittering gold dome a far. Yep, the Dome of the Rock, and I wondered how I made it this far.
donkey and bedouin busking for money
breathtaking view overlooking Jerusalem
Ok, so it was not a myth, the lookout point on Mount of Olives was definitely one of the best in the world and the view was definitely worth the energy and the hike. And there were couple of places for visiting on the way, so if you considered to go next time, why not go there by foot?
