Trip: Part 3

This post has 36 photos in it and I could have added so many more.  Day 4 of our trip was a Saturday, we started in Jordan and crossed the Jordan River into Palestine.  So, here we are on the move:

 The countryside was just fascinating.  The following are just a few glimpses of what we saw on drive:

 The Jordan River valley seemed to be very fertile land with banana groves, and fields of other vegetables.

 Cameras are not allowed at the border crossing, so I snapped a quick photo of the blue sign saying we were at the King Hussein Bridge Crossing.  Oh, and I should say, the Jordan River was more like a creek - I think I could have jumped across it and there's no way I could have taken a picture from a moving vehicle.

 Crossing the border took about 4 hours.  We got out in Jordan, then loaded onto a big buss to be driven over to the Palestine/Israel side.  Then we were checked by the Palestinian officials and the Israeli officials.  I was the only one to get questioned from an Israeli guard about why I was visiting Palestine.  I'm not sure if I gave the correct answers or not, but he let me go through.  Then we met up with a new van driver who took us into Bethlehem.  So, all of that took a good 4 hours - lots of waiting and waiting and waiting.  On the drive to Bethlehem we spotted the Dead Sea, do you see it below?

 That's as close as we got to the Dead Sea.  Below is a poor quality photo, but the city in the background is Jericho.  It is said that the road in the photo is the same road that Jesus found the Samaritan who was left on the side of the road after being beaten by a band of thieves.

 My insides felt different while I was in Palestine.  I'm not sure if the road in the picture above is the exact place that the Jesus found the Samaritan on or not.  I don't need to know that and I don't need proof of it.  It was much more important to me to keep in mind that Jesus actually walked around in the same space I was in.  Maybe not the exact square foot of space, but the general area.  I was floored by that, the harshness of the topography, how close the cities are to one another.  I was sickened by the amount of injustice that is also so predominant on the same land Jesus walked on.  More on that later....  Below is likely where a family of Palestinian refugees has made their home.  It could be a Bedouin family as well, but the structures are more permanent then most Bedouin's.

 Mount of Olives

 Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock

 This road used to be the Green Line (the border between Jordan and Israel) back in 1967.  Now it's part of the Occupied Territories of the West Bank.  The red tiled roofs in the background are Israeli settlements.

After arriving at our hotel, we walked through the old streets of Bethlehem to Afteem's for a quick lunch.

Check out how narrow the streets are.  There's only width for cars to go one direction and it's really tight.

Afteem's serves freshly squeezed mint lemonade and it was quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted (and I'm not exaggerating).

After lunch, we met a tour guide for the Church of the Nativity, the place where Jesus was born.

The door is short, so everyone has to duck to get inside.

Our guide gave us tons of information and all the while there were guards yelling and clapping at everyone to be quiet.  The place was humming with people and apparently a bishop was going to be coming through for a particular service.  It was really interesting to see the building and take in the space.  The pillar below is from the 4th century, that part I remember.

The church sits on top of the cave that is said to be the place Jesus was born.  The golden sparkle that abounded inside the church was not at all what I was expecting, but it was important for me to remember that Christians around the world all hold some claim to that spot and that's pretty remarkable.

The white spots in the bricks on the photo below are from bullet holes from the 39 day Siege of the Church of the Nativity in 2002.  Over 200 Palestinian men took refuge in the church when Israeli troops invaded the city of Bethlehem.

Cindy, Dawn and I explored some of the shops on our way back to the hotel.  It was fascinating to see the food, candies and scarves available.

In the foreground of the photo below you can see black tanks.  Those are water tanks on top of a Palestinian home.  In the background, is an Israeli settlement.  Israel is known for turning off water to Palestinian homes without announcement and for unknown amounts of time so almost all Palestinian homes have black or metal water tanks on their roofs.  The Israeli settlements, however, do not run out of water and in fact have swimming pools and green lawns.

At dinner that night we got our first up close experience with the "Separation Barrier" or wall (what I'll call it).

This particular portion of the wall is around Rachel's Tomb, a Jewish holy site.  Sadly, the house above is now surrounded on three sides by the wall and Israel will not allow the Palestinian owners to use the top floor because it provides views to the Israeli side of the wall.

Just across the street from the picture above is Central Restaurant (pictured below).  It used to be a popular restaurant, but then the wall went up and basically cut off their customers from getting to them, therefore shutting them down.  They were in the midst of building a hotel on top of the restaurant, but that also came to a halt.  Now the restaurant isn't open to the public, only by special arrangements for groups.  We were served a wonderful meal by gracious hosts.