O Little Town of Bethlehem...
After visiting a
museum with the Dead Sea Scrolls, we visited Bethlehem. This is why we had to have our passports with us on this day, when we didn't need it any other day except the days we traveled to and from Israel. We made a few stops within the city, and I took many photos. I almost aimed to make a single posting, but we spent most of the day in the city and went to a few sites. So this post covers the arrival and first few things there.
We weren't allowed to take photos near the border crossing between Israel and this part of the West Bank. Israel built a tall wall many years ago to limit crossings between the two territories. This may make sense with Jerusalem just a few miles to the North, but Bethlehem is trapped.
I took some photos of the city throughout my time in the city that day. I'm posting all of those photos in one grouping.
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| Bethlehem Apartments |
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| Graffiti |
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| Part of the City on the Hill |
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| Lots of Apartments...and trash on the hill |
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| View Out the Window |
Most Christians are Palestinians. Thus, a town where Christianity was born (in a way) has a Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center.
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| Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center |
Some photos aren't of major religious sites. This building just looked beautiful, whatever it was.
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| Random Building |
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| Higher View of Bethlehem Area |
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| A Typical Street |
They leave trash just about anywhere. I'm not sure how long this car has been there, nor do I know how it got there. It looks like the two cars missed each other, but I'm not sure.
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| Trash Grows on Trees |
Near the city wall, there's a hotel called the Walled-Off Hotel (sounds a bit like Waldorf Hotel). This is not the hotel, but just the wall.
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| Border Wall |
Moving on...
We ate in Bethlehem. I had to have some bread, since Bethlehem means "House of Bread". There are a few ways to break up the word. When Jesus reveals himself as the Bread from Heaven and comes to us in the Eucharist in what appears to be bread, the first place to be his home being the house of bread is so fitting.
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| Bread in the city that is the House of Bread |
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| Dining in Bethlehem |
After eating, we arrived at the Shepherds' Chapel area, dedicated to the shepherds to whom the angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus. It continued to rain while we were here, but it wasn't as windy.
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| Entry Sign |
The trees here have an odd slant. That's typically a sign of unstable ground.
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| Trees Could Use a V8 |
There were caves near the chapel. It's dark. Some religious gatherings occur in the caves, but we just listened to the tour guide.
Then we went into the Shepherds' Chapel.
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| Altar with Angels Below |
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| Altar Preparation |
I took some photos of the art on the walls. Mass in Bethlehem took place here, so I wasn't sure how much time we would have afterward to take photos. So I took a few quick shots beforehand. Then had time for more photos later.
The dome of this chapel appears more like a starry night with angels.
I'll close this post with the door to get out.
We would head to the Church of the Nativity. But there will be one post before that, because we saw an amazingly vivid rainbow in Bethlehem. The next post will be very short, since it's a collection of photos of the rainbow. But then the Church of the Nativity accounted for nearly half of the photos I plan to share from my visit to Bethlehem. And then there will be a fourth posting about my visit to this city.
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