10th March: Oh little town of Bethlehem

Instead of taking an expensive guided tour we decided to make our own way through the security wall to Bethlehem and the West Bank. We caught the bus from just outside the Damascus Gate to the checkpoint at the entrance to the Palestinian Territories. It was a short ride and we could soon see the grey panels of the massive wall separating Bethlehem and the West Bank from Israel.  We were not asked for our passports at the checkpoint (going in is easy enough, apparently) so we went through quickly. In great need of some exercise, we decided to walk to the Church of the Nativity a few kilometres away (although John was sorely tempted by the taxis waiting at the exit from the checkpoint).

Church of the Nativity overlooking the city

We started our walk going along the intimidating wall. Completely grey as we arrived on the Israeli side, it was covered in graffiti on the Palestinian side. After a hundred metres or so we left the wall behind and entered a more lively part of the city. Lots of souvenir shops were lined up along the main street and it was not clear to us how they could survive given that we had heard from taxi drivers that times were tough.

Stories of Palestinian struggles

Graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall

We soon realised that some were doing better than others when we saw huge tour buses parked in front of the souvenir shops.

Tourist filling up on souvenirs

When we finally reached the Church of the Nativity we were horrified to see the queue composed of hordes of tour groups. We tried to get around the side but were not allowed by the guard. We decided to start our visit with the Shepherds' Field instead and to return to the church at around 12.30, assuming that most tour groups would then have a lunch-stop scheduled.

Church of the Nativity

Inside the Church

The golden iconostasis

The queue to go see the birthplace of Jesus and the manger

Massive entrance door in wood, with the "Door of Humility" that obliges one to bow down on entering

We decided again to walk, and although it was rather further than we had expected we eventually managed to find the Greek Orthodox Church around Shepherds' Field thanks to directions from people on the street. The best was when a worker stopped us and pointed at the red roof of the Church which was in a different direction, i.e., open your eyes dear tourists. Close to the main Church was a little cave decorated with icons, and which supposedly contained the tomb of the shepherds who visited Jesus on the night he was born.

Inside the main Greek Orthodox Church

Cave dedicated to the shepherds. Mosaics under the glass floor belonged to a 4th century Byzantine church

Tomb of the shepherds

Ruins of a 4th century Byzantine church on top of the cave

The Roman Catholic version of Shepherds' Field was a natural cave where they believe the shepherds were staying when they were visited by an angel. Contrary to the Greek Orthodox cave, where we were alone, several bus loads of tourists were queuing to walk around the cave.

The Roman Catholic church at Shepherds' Fields

Inside the cave, in a brief pause between tour groups 

Wandering around the excavations of ancient churches nearby (4th-6th centuries AD)

We found a taxi to take us back to the Church of the Nativity, since we were now in a rush to get back to the centre (and couldn't quite face the long walk back up the hill). He dropped us by the "Milk Grotto", which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is believed that Mary and Joseph stopped in this cave to escape Herod's army while on their way to Egypt; while she was breast-feeding, a drop of milk fell on the floor and turned the stone white. Women looking to conceive or to increase their quantity of breast milk come to this sacred site.

Inside the "Milk Grotto", with a statue of breast feeding Mary

The queue inside the Church of the Nativity was still remarkably impressive, frustrating John's reasoning that they should be off at the restaurant, so we decided to have lunch ourselves and come back. If we were going to wait, at least it would not be on an empty stomach. When we came back the queue had diminished somewhat but would have still taken around an hour. Thankfully a tour guide told us that since we were only two, we could enter from the other side. This time the guard let us in and we were able to skip the queue. We managed to make our way through the flow of people to stoop beneath the altar to see the silver star marking where Jesus is believed to have been born. A few steps down in the cave opposite was an alcove commemorating the manger.

Silver star marking the place where Jesus is believed to have been born

Site of the manger

Going through the church of St Catherine next door, we were able to descend to the caves and see the tombs of the Innocents (babies supposedly slain on the orders of Herod), as well as the cave of St Jerome. Those caves linked up to the grotto of the nativity; through a tiny hole in the door we could see that the flow of tour groups had stop and a priest was sitting by the altar speaking to a large film camera. It would have been rather frustrating if we had come back a little later and had been unable to enter!

St Catherine's Church, through which we accessed the caves that are also linked to the grotto of the nativity (you can peek inside a little hole to see the continuing flow of devotees)

Memorial to St Jerome

After leaving the church we decided to walk back to the checkpoint to catch the bus back to Jerusalem. I managed to convince John to stop a few times in souvenir shops. In the last one of those, the very kind shop manager, realising that we had not visited Herodion, the ruins of Herod's palace, offered to take us there for a cheap price (which it certainly was, at least compared to the prices suggested by taxi drivers in the morning). When we arrived the site was unfortunately closed but his friend who was on duty, prepared us some delicious tea; he did however resist John's attempts to persuade him to allow us in for a quick peek. Our new friend also told us all about the settlements nearby, which he said were mostly populated by Russians.

View from Herodion

One of the settlements in the area

Goats on the slopes of Herodion

Settlement of people coming from Russia

On the way back, he drove us past the Aida refugee camp, also referred to as "the village".  We stopped by the wall to watch some British guys doing some "art work" on the wall. Our guide told us that most of the graffiti on the wall were done by foreigners. He also showed us one of the Banksy paintings, which we had earlier looked for in vain.

Entering the refugee camp

Aida refugee camp to the right, security wall to the left

Art work by Banksy

The Interconti, right next to the refugee camp

On the way out of the checkpoint we had to show our passports and our bags were scanned, but it was nevertheless quite smooth.

Empty checkpoint

Leaving the wall behind us

The bus arrived soon afterwards and dropped us back at the Damascus Gate, two minutes from the convent. We had a short session before going out for dinner in a restaurant nearby. The terrace was full and very lively. Next to us, a Belgian guy was talking about his visits to the West Bank; I particularly enjoyed hearing the accent.