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  • Day 6

    Bethlehem

    November 24, 2019 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After just a few hours of sleep we got up to the morning mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was a lot more quiet but at the same time as the mass some other congregation decided it would be a good time to scream their prayers through the halls. We could barely understand anything the priest said and left after half an hour frustrated. Next stop was the Temple Mount with the magnificent Dome of the Rock. Yesterday we couldn't go because it's closed to the public on Saturdays. Also on the other days the access it restricted to certain times. Therefore we were one of the first ones to enter it by 07:30, we had almost the whole area for us until 08:30 when the tours entered. From there it was a short distance to the Gizimaneh Garden (where Judas betrayed Jesus), and the Mount of Olives. Later we went to some rental companies to check for available cars and rates to get on the road the next day. The rental company we chose recommended to go to Bethlehem by bus/taxi because it can be a hassle to cross the border to the Palestinian Territories by rental car.
    It went pretty smoothly until we arrived at the taxis, just after the border crossing. Actually we just wanted to go the Church of Nativity where the birth place of Jesus was. But he offered to take us to other places as well, which we refused and he still did... Among them was also one of the most famous graffiti from Banksy. At the Church of Nativity we just walked around until we encountered steps leading down, which we checked out. It turned out we took the exit from Jesus cradle and skipped like 3 hours of waiting time... It was by accident but we wouldn't have stood in the queue for hours anyway. When the taxi driver brought us back he expected three times the initially discussed price. After some reasoning he accepted the doubled amount because he drove us back. It was still an unpleasant experience...
    When got off the bus from Jerusalem earlier to visit King David's Tomb. A structure right outside the inner city walls where Jesus had the last supper. This room was rather disappointing as it was just a small room with four arches in the middle. The Benedictine Abbey right next to it is run by German Monks who also hold masses there. In the crypts was a mosaic of the Virgen of Guadalupe and a tourist group from Mexico that sang a song in her honor. This was way more touching than our previous experiences in the Church of the Selpuchre.
    Afterwards we had planned to go to the Southern Walkway on the walls but it was already closed. As we had bought it yesterday and it was only valid for two days we couldn't use it anymore :( So we just went out into the city later to explore some more and found an alley with some cool bars. On the way back we visited the Western Wall - aka Wailing Walls - again and watched the people praying there.
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