Palestine or O' little town of Bethlehem

    Although warned by Israelis and other westerners that the Palestinian territories were incredibly inhospitable, we ventured there too. We did however, avoid the Gaza strip and the territories bordering Lebanon, feeling that might not warrant a safe visit (or enjoyable). Our journey into Palestine took us into the lovely town of Bethlehem where we spent two lovely days wandering the city of the Nativity.

We got a kick out of these knock off stores. We have seen the like all over the world, this store was particularly interesting because everything in it was a complete knock off, down to the napkins. 

This was in the Church of the Nativity, which in on the site where Christ was purportedly born. The mosaic on the wall is of a saint that spent 30 years of his life translating the bible from Greek. He supposedly never left this room for the entire duration.

This is the Chapel in the Church of the Nativity. We were invited to join a Catholic mass by a visiting Irish clergyman. Finding out that we were Mormon, he laid his hands upon us and gave us a blessing. It was a first for us.

An angel outside a church that marks the traditional location of the Shepherd's Field, where angels declared the birth of Christ. 

A grotto at the Shepherds field that some believe is the actual site of Christ's birth.

The supposed location of Christ's birth at Shepherds Field

An apropos photo of the Jerusalem in the distance on the Palestinian side. 

Palestine is far less developed than neighboring Israel and allows you to see a lot more open countryside, which is above all quite lovely. In this photo you can see a small cave that shepherds probably use as a respite from the sun. These caves (grotto's) are all around and make for a good argument as to the proverbial manger being in a cave.

Below the modern church at the Shepherds field there lay the remains of a byzantine church from the 3rd or 4th century. The church is no more than a series of tunnels, cisterns, and alcoves that allowed early Christians some safety to worship unseen.

In the church if the nativity, this is the spot where they claim the Christ child was laid to bed.

Wandering through Bethlehem we found a lot of wood shops where men were skillfully producing Christmas ornaments and rosary beads from olive wood. 

While walking around I started talking to this fellow and he insisted that I try my hand at the lathe.  He was excited that we had not come with a tour group and that we were walking around alone and gave us a full rundown of how all the woodwork is done in Bethlehem.

Stone carving in the Milk Grotto, supposedly the place where Mary and Joseph initially stayed on their flee to Egypt. There while nursing the baby a drop of milk escaped Mary's bosom and landed on the floor, turning all the stone to a milky white. People come from all over to eat a rock chip from the cave in hopes that they will be blessed with fertility and nutritious breast milk.

We finally had a bathtub of our own while in Bethlehem, so we washed all of our clothes that we had not been able to wash in some time. That is the color of the water just from soaking the clothes, we hadn't even began washing them. Needless to say, we are looking forward to having a washing machine at our disposal when we get home.

Chelsea touching and some lady kissing the spot where Jesus was supposedly born.