Top The church of St Catherine
Bottom City of Jericao, Jordan Valley is behine me
Day 8 Bethlehem and Jerico
I booked a tour to these 2 places yesterday from the taxi driver. A 16 person mini bus picked me up at where I lived. It continued to pick people up at different hotels. End up there were 15 people in this group. Two languages were spoken, English and Spanish.
The first sight was Bethlehem . It is now under Palestinian administration. Our bus stopped at the check point. Passengers got off the bus and gathered at the entrance of the separation wall. The bus went another way to get through the wall. Passengers are led by a guide and crossed the border. You don’t need a passport to go, but you need that to come back! I reckon it is much easier than crossing the China - HK border.
Once on the other side of the wall, you will see lots of yellow taxi stay there waiting for business. For us we just hopped back to the bus and carried on our way. On the way off to Bethlehem it was really Arabian atmosphere. The tourist guide hopped on the bus. Her name was Almel. She is a Christian. She speaks English and Spanish.
Bethlehem is only a very small town. We went to the famous Church of Nativity . This is one of the oldest functioning churches in the world. At the underground of this church was the Grotto of Nativity and Jesus was believed to be born there.
Inside the church there was a long queue of people waiting to go underground. While we were queuing, the guide talked a lot of history about this Church.
When I went underground, there in fact was a cave. In the old days people in fact was living in natural caves. People would live in the upper part while living stocks were kept at the bottom which was so call the staple. You remember that the Chinese version of a Christmas song, it said that Jesus was born in “horse staple”. In fact there was NO horse at all. Yes there were animals such as donkeys, sheep, etc.
We also visited the St Catherine’s church. Every year, the mid-night mass held here is broadcasted to all over the world. You probably have seen it in the TV.
We also visited the nearby chapels. The guide also told us the story about the split of the church.
Then this was very important. She brought us to a souvenir shop. We stayed there for almost 45 min. right at this time; I talked to my dear wife over the phone. Technology is great.
The visit of Bethlehem stopped here. The bus went back to the wall. And we went back to the Israel side. The bus continued to go to Jerico. It is also a West Bank city. Vehicles going to Jerico don’t need to stop. But when they come back, they need to stop at the check point for inspection. The road was beautifully built. We passed through a tunnel, then kept going down an down. The bus stopped at a place. There stood a stone said that the ‘height’ there is at sea level. Now you know that Jerico is the lowest city in the world. It is 260m below sea level.
And it is the oldest continuously inhabited city. As we go further in, in fact we were went into the desert. On the way, we saw Bedouin people’s camps setting up on hills and slopes with their sheep and camels. At the bus stops some of them will carry camels there. They take photo for you, using your own camera, with their beautifully decorated camel, for bucks.
We had lunch at a small town of Jerico . It was 55NIS for an all u can eat. Food was sort of OK. We then walked to an archaeological site of early Bronze Age habitation.
From here I could see the Jordan Valley and part of the Dead Sea . And at here you will understand what Oasis is about.
We drove up hill, still under sea level. We stopped at the foot of a hill, looking up the hill. There is the mount of Temptation, and the Monastery of Temptation was built along the hill, like the ‘ Po da La palace’ ( I don’t know the English name) in Tibet . It was there Jesus was tempted by Satan. Then we went to the down town of Jerico .
On the way back to Jerusalem we saw the Zacchaeus tree. About the story of that, I have to check the video. I can’t remember this right now.
And that is it.
Tomorrow I will go the Masada and the Dead Sea
.
Have a nice day.
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