Bethlehem

A long and mixed afternoon. We started at the shepherds' field, where we visited one of the caves and then the church of the angels, a small chapel with very good acoustics. Naturally Mike took advantage of the latter and had us all singing Christmas carols. Fortunately the other tourists present seemed delighted rather than irritated by this and many of them were joining in and/or videoing it on their phones. Once again it felt like a bit of a flash mob moment. A group of Brazilians were particularly charmed and responded by singing Silent Night to us in Portuguese. (Yesterday, I think Ibrahim got a bit fed up when he had to wait for Mike because another group of Brazilians had asked him to play Amazing Grace.)

Next stop was the church of the Nativity which in many ways was the most frustrating part of the day for me. We queued for over an hour to get into the actual grotto (the place of Jesus birth), and towards the end it felt like it was shaping up to be another Hillsborough football stadium disaster as we neared the narrow entrance down into the grotto itself. No matter that we were in the holiest Christian site in the world, there was a decidedly unholy altercation developing as a group that had bypassed the queue tried to make their way in ahead of ours. When we did eventually get into the grotto, I confess to finding it a bit of an anticlimax and I think that was partially due to the tensions just referred to. After over an hour in the dark, crowded and stuffy church, it was also a relief to get out into the open air.

From there we walked a short way up the road to a shop owned by a Palestinian Christian named Angela, who is a friend of Mikes. (For st C's readers, this is the shop where our beautiful nativity set came from.) We all did a bit of shopping there, and had a bit of a talk from Angela about life as a Palestinian.

Two doors down from Angela's shop was St George's restaurant, where we were served a sumptuous and wonderful meal. I wonder if they might have been a bit too generous with the wine because the bus ride home was pretty raucous, but I think it might just be that I am getting into tired and grumpy mode again after another long and full day. I have been feeling very tempted to pass up on the trip to Masada tomorrow and just have a bit of space, but Ibrahim and others have told me that Masada is not to be missed and I do not expect to come this way again, so I think I will go, and will just aim to claim some introverted moments to myself on the drive down there and back, a good hour or so each way.Read more