israel post 8

Wednesday, May 1

A new day begins! Our first stop was not on our scheduled agenda...but they were able to arranged it for us to go to Bethlehem. We were excited to get to see the birthplace of Jesus, but there was a bit of uncomfortableness surrounding it as well. Bethlehem is not in Israel territory, it is actually Palastine. Our Israeli tour guides and bus drivers had to have a special license to even enter the city. And, our bus driver and guide did NOT have that license. So, our bus stopped at the border and our Yuval and Moshe got off the bus and the Palastine driver and guide got on the bus. That was one of two times during our trip when I felt very, very uncomfortable. There was a moment where I thought, um, if the guide is getting off this bus, I'm getting off with him! But, it all turned out fine.

After the new guide and driver got on the bus, they took us to a parking lot, where we got off and walked to a chapel that is built over the location of the nativity. We entered the church and it was very, very ornate. It was interesting to hear a different tour guide tell us about the site. The church is built on top of the site where the manager apparently was, and below I'll notate the area where they think that actually took place.

No Israeli citizens

Light a candle...

Loved this ceiling, so nice...

A very ornate chandelier; things like this were everywhere

Beautiful stained glass

I really loved this guy! I'm not sure he liked me taking the photo :)

Thanks to Neeley, I was able to get this photo -- he was the one who spotted it...God light coming down...

Behind this grate is where they believe the manger was located...while we were there, they were having mass though so we were not able to go back to see it. This is as close as we could get.

A shrine to the Virgin, with the baby Jesus below...

Me by one of the pillars inside the chapel...

I love love love love love love this little man!!!!!!!

This made our whole bus laugh! A play on the American "Starbucks" -- Stars & Bucks :)

Turquoise everywhere...love that!

There was quite a lot of graffiti in the entrance to the city, and throughout.

Bethlehem was good to see, but there was a definite uncomfortable feeling while we were there. We pulled over, and Yuval and Moshe got back on the bus and we all felt so much better. Back to normal!

From there, we headed to two museums. Of the week, these were my least favorite sites, simply because I am not a big museum person. And certainly two in a row was a bit much!! :) But, there was good stuff in each one to see. The first one we went to was the Holocaust Memorial (Yad Vashem) -- it was a sobering site, full of evil and horrible acts. We weren't able to take photos inside, so there isn't much to show from our time there. I'm sharing a few below...

The entrance of Yad Vashem

The best part of the museum was at the end...you walk out of the dark museum into the bright light of a shaded area that overlooks a beautiful panoramic of Jerusalem. The museum was designed so that after witnessing the horrors of Hitler, you would then be bet with such a positive, hopeful site. It was gorgeous.

After exiting the museum, we had a meandering walk back to the exit. Along the pathway, there were memorial blocks that listed the names of people who helped the Jews during the war -- hid them, helped them escape, etc. There were so many names and it was so wonderful to see that the good of humanity was still at work, even in one of the world's darkest times.

After that museum, we headed on to the Herod the Great Museum, which discussed everything having to do with Herod's life and his construction. Again, no photos.

After all of the museuming, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. That evening, we were able to enjoy our one free evening of the trip. We had three choices -- we could stay at the hotel and relax; we could go into the Old City area of Jerusalem for shopping and dinner; or we could go to Ben Yehuda Street for shopping and dinner. We decided on Ben Yehuda and we had a great evening!

Our tour bus took us to the area and would be back at a certain time. So we headed off with Neeley in search of something yummy for dinner! We decided that we wanted PIZZA!!!!! Walked around a bit until we found Big Apple Pizza, and decided that sounded good to us. It was DELICIOUS!!!! We placed our order, and went up to the second level to find a table. We shared a medium black olive pizza and a medium mushroom pizza. Since the jewish people don't mix meat with dairy, there was no pizza that had any meat on it. But I must say, those pizzas were pretty incredible. We really enjoyed our meal! From there, we just walked around at our own slow pace and just enjoyed being able to meander. Oh, and we also had some delicious dairy ice cream from a cute little shop. * Please note, I did not take my camera during our evening outing. My coworker Darrel is going to share his photos with us, since they ate at the same place, etc. I just don't have those yet, so the photos below are from the internet.

Ben Yehuda Street

Yummy yummy pizza!!!

 So that was Wednesday. We have Thursday and Friday left to go!! Hang in there with me, because the final two days are full of wonders!!!