约旦 以色列 10a - 伯利恒

五月九日 上午

今天早早的俺就把两个队员轰了起来，因为俺们今天要去伯利恒。按图索骥，俺在网上早闹清楚了线路，俺们一路急行军，于七点半赶到了大马士革门。门外不远就是去巴勒斯坦行政区的汽车总站，找到21路车，车上已经坐满了人，问了司机是否是去伯利恒，他点头称是，就是他了。车票是大人8.5谢克尔（两块多美子）孩纸6.5谢克尔，便宜！要是包车得好几百谢克尔。

到了终点站全部下车。昨天俺已经把马槽广场在手机上定位了，所以俺就可以在不数据漫游的情况下用手机导航了，呵呵，该省的还得省！下车时有出租司机要11谢克尔送俺们去。貌似只有一公里俺们决定自己走。街上人不多，可能因为还早得缘故，商铺正在开门，送货什么的。很快俺们就来到了马槽广场，很小的个广场俺们差点走过头了。可能是因为广场上搭了帐篷和舞台准备搞什么商业推销活动。

再走几步就是圣诞教堂church of nativity了。外面没人，进去一看里面已经在做弥撒了。问了个教堂的人说总共有三场弥撒，还得有一个钟头才能完。不想在那傻等，俺们就去看看隔壁的圣凯瑟琳教堂，在这里是个什么圣人呆了多少年把圣经翻译成了希腊文（？）。之后俺们又去了喂奶洞the milk grotto。等再折回圣诞教堂时弥撒还没完。俺们于是决定先吃饭。

兜了一圈觉得广场餐厅不错就坐下来了。跑堂的小伙子 - 说起来有一丝忧伤不知啥时开始已经看着谁都是小伙子了，唉！- 说他在海法生长，父亲是巴勒斯坦身份，母亲又以色列护照，有九个兄弟姐妹，家里其他人都在美国。他自己感觉离开了巴勒斯坦就像鱼儿离了水所以坚持在这里呆着。说他有很多犹太人朋友，但是对以色列政府满腹怨言，巴勒斯坦人太受压制。问他都表现在什么方面，他说他小时候被抓过，为啥？往以军坦克上砸石头！

吃完了饭再回到圣诞教堂，那边已经排起了大长队。俺的亲娘啊这得啥时候才能看见那颗十四角的银星啊！好在天无绝人之路，有个导游过来说20美子他能带俺们走家庭通道，真的？ 真的！他带着俺们从旁边直接下到地下室看了银星和马槽遗址。就这么简单！说是这么说，俺们当时的感觉挺不好的，因为有那么多的人在排队。后来在网上查了，貌似的确有人提起这个家庭通道，那么是否不该收费？搞得俺几天几夜睡不着觉！唉，出门在外有些事情奏是搞不明白！

看完圣诞教堂俺们找了个出租车去看隔离墙，准备从另外一个关卡坐124路车回耶路撒冷。结果司机装糊涂直接把俺们拉到21路车站。俺跟他说俺什么都清楚别耍了，他大笑不止，带俺们去了隔离墙。然后还是坐21路回的。故事梗概基本这样。

说起伯利恒，大致情况是这样：玛利亚怀上了圣种后，当时的罗马管理机构要搞个人口普查之类的东西，所有的人必须回原籍去登记。约瑟夫的老家在伯利恒所以他俩连夜坐高铁奔伯利恒来了，结果高铁晚点，到了之后旅店都客满，没地儿住，只好跟一家旅店商量在马棚里对付一宿。可耶稣他老人家也不是好伺候的，当晚就决定要出来！没辙啊，玛利亚只好在马槽里垫点干草铺上单子把他放在马槽里。三个智者（牧羊人?）知道耶稣是神马来头就带着礼物前来祝贺。当时的省长觉得事情不妙，您想，这耶稣是上面派来的，这要是成了气候哪还有他省长神马事儿？于是下令把方圆也不知多少里地的两岁以下的男孩斩尽杀绝！天使这会儿又来给圣家三口报信儿了，赶紧走！所以他们一家三口决定逃亡埃及躲避追杀！途中在喂奶洞将就了一宿，圣母喂奶时有一滴奶掉到了地上把一块石头染得雪白，此乃喂奶洞！

21路大巴

这就到了伯利恒

圣诞教堂的牌子

马槽广场

圣诞教堂入口，得弯腰进去

内部在装修

地下还有马赛克，这里遍地是遗迹

弥撒，有好几拨

远看圣诞教堂

喂奶洞

广场餐厅。广场上在搞什么活动，音乐声音很大，阿拉伯话一句听不懂。

在这里喝上了此次旅途最好喝的啤酒，巴勒斯坦金啤，有一丝比利金啤的风格。啤酒厂就在伯利恒，后悔没当时就去一趟。在此俺还得到了婆娘钦准抽个阿拉伯水烟，可跑堂的跟俺说只有普通烟丝，不是地道的加了口味的烟丝，那就木啥意思了。

巴勒斯坦拼盘

酒足饭饱，抓拍广场上来往的人们

饭后回到圣诞教堂

马槽遗址

十四角银星，耶稣就是在这个地点诞生的

街景

墙上的阿拉法特头像

隔离墙

5/9/2015 jerusalem bethlehem

armed with knowledge i gained at this forum i hurried my two team members to get up early today for we were going to take the famous bus 21 to bethlehem this morning!

around 7:30am we were at the damascus gate. right out of the gate the bus station weren't immidiately there, not as some described here "right outside the damascus gate". i guess i took the words too seriously. the bus station, however, was located about 300 meters to your front left if you just stepped out of the gate.

we got there at the right time - there was a bus 21 full of people and ready to go. we got on and checked with the driver if this was for bethlehem and got a confirmation. the tickets are like 8.5nis for adult and 6.5 for a child. so round trip we spend 45nis on transportation. much cheaper and easier than i thought. it wasn a pleasant ride taking about 40 minutes to the last stop. you won't miss it because everybody had to get off there!

we were approached by a couple of taxi drivers offering 10nis taking us to the manger square. we wanted to walk so we didn't take their offers and they weren't pushing hard, either. with the help of my phone gps (off line map again) we arrived at the church of nativity without trouble. the walk is little more than 1km judging by the scale of the map - a pleasant walk taking you through shops and neighborhoods.

the manger square was not very obvious. we got there and almost walked past it, partially because there were a stage being set up and a large tent sitting in the middle of it for some kind of commerical promotions. we witnessed that later on while we had lunch at a restaurant by the square.

we went into the church and only found out that there were like three masses on-going, to see the silver star we would have to come back in more than an hour. so we just took a little tour of the adjacent st catherine's church. nice little church. afterwards we wondered over to the milk grotto. there was a group of believers from india on site. took them a little while to go through their prayings and singings. we saw many groups like this from india at other places, too. i never knew there were that many christians in that part of the world. after the indians left we sat there to rest and comtemplate a little bit. very nice!

we then came back to the church of nativity again and only found out the masses were still in session. so we decided to have lunch first althought it was a bit early. but, we didn't have breakfast, it was just fine. we settled with a restaurant by the square by the name of, well, the square restaurant. it turned out rather nice. i had a palestinan sampler. and the real bonus is that i, for the first time, had a taste of the taybeh beer (golden) - the best beer i had on this trip. later on i got the permission from wife to give it a go on the smoke pipe. but the waiter told me it was just regular tabaco smoked through a pipe, not really worth for an experience.

our waiter is a palestinian young man (sadly i started to call people young man more frequently a few years ago), born in haifa, his mother has an israeli passport and father without it. he has 9 siblings - all live in the states except him. by his own words, he did want to live in the states becuase he would be like "fish without water". said he has many israeli friends but resent what their government does. had a nice time chatting with him.

after lunch we went back to the church. by now there was a huge line waiting to get to the basement. we were approached by a tour guide offering us 20usd to go through a "family line". we felt pretty bad to cut the line but if we didn't we would be spend at least the next three hours or longer in the queue. so we went with him. but we didn't feel very good. it was very crowded in the basement and the line moved very slow. we ran into the indian group here, again. i understand the importance of this spot for the belivers and tourists alike. i just hope there's a better way to let everybody see this spot. the whole thing was kind of rushed. i did see the star, but i didn't get a chance to give the silver star a good stare because i felt i was interrupting the faithfuls waiting in line.

after that was done. we took a taxi and asked him to take us to the other bus station, bus 124 (?), coming back from a different route with a stop at the separation wall. but the cab driver pulled a fast one on us. he took us straight to the stop for bus 21. upon our protesting he laughed and drove us to a section of the wall and took some pictures, and took us back to bus 21. we still paid him 20nis. but if you are looking for the experience to walk through that check point seen on many videos you will have to insist on what you pay for.

on our way to bethlem noboday had to get off at the checkpoint. but on the way back all the palestinians had to get off the bus and be checked before getting back on. our passports got looked at by an israeli soildier, no questions asked.

back to jerusalem, we took a nap and headed out again to check out the dormition abbey and david's tomb, which went very successful this time. i was told not to take photos at david's tomb where no signs could be found. one guy was pretty intense seeing me carring a camera.

we hailed a cab on the street to take us up to the viewing point on the mount of olives. he told us that one way would be 45-50nis, round trip 120 with half an hour waiting. we finally agreed on 110nis. since the sun was against us we couldn't get a good family photo taken he took us to another spot and got us a good family photo. to reward his nice act we told him that we would take his ride to the airport tomorrow night.

i am getting tired of saying this by now: this turned out to be another nice and successful day!