Israel 2019 – Day 3, The Fastest and the Slowest

/ By / Journal

November 9, 2019

This was a really cool, but really kind of insane day. Bethlehem and Jerusalem were on the agenda.

To Jerusalem! …Kind of

I was pretty tired from the night before having arrived late at night and then staying up a little more. We had breakfast at 8AM and headed out the door at 9AM.

In previous trips to Jerusalem, TJ likes to park at Mamila Mall near the Jaffa Gate of Old Jerusalem. Lots of paid parking available. We parked there, then walked over to the bus station at the Damascus Gate.

I let TJ know that it hasn’t quite hit me that I’m here in Jerusalem. And that it would probably hit me later.

Once at the bus station, we found Bus #231, which directly goes to Bethlehem. Tickets are only 7 shekels. At about 10:30AM, we departed.

To Bethlehem, actually!

On the bus ride, we talked and struck up a conversation with a German man standing near us on the bus. He was doing a solo pilgrimage, which was impressive since he looked to be older.

The entire bus ride took about 30-40 minutes, and we arrived in Bethlehem. TJ has a contact from Bethlehem that the other expatriates they know use named Nabil. He owns the Christmas House souvenir shop off Manger Square in Bethlehem. After leaving the bus, he met with us, and we hop into his car to drive over to Manger Square.

During the car ride, he was yelling at other drivers for foolish maneuvers and decisions. And he was also being a tour guide of sorts giving us fun facts like… no new roads or bridges can be made in Bethlehem. Even though it kind of needs it badly in some places in order alleviate traffic.

In Which Nabil Is Exceedingly Clutch

So…Nabil seems to know everyone including guards and tour operators and guides. When we neared Manger Square, he got the guards to open up blocked areas so we could pass through. And another guard to let us park in a blocked area just in front of the Church of the Nativity. Turns out he’s buddies with these guards. Even had one of them for a drink at his house just the other night. Go figure.

Nabil hooked us up with a particular tour guide…and this tour guide, OH MY GOSH, somehow did the impossible.

Church of the Nativity

The Church of the Nativity is a church dedicated to the spot where Jesus was born. It is a large church built over the cave where Mary and Joseph stopped at when they couldn’t find room at the inn.

Our tour guide, named Issa (which apparently is “Jesus” in another language), got us through the front door. He pointed out that there have been three front doors built over the centuries that progressively got smaller.

Once inside…after some few minutes of talking and negotiating with the attendants inside the church…we literally cut in front of thousands of people waiting in line to go to the crypt level of the Church where the place of Jesus’ birth is.

WOW. It was crowded in there.

Because Issa brought us through the exit, I was able to sneak in-between some of the other pilgrims and touch the spot where Jesus was born and pray for the intentions I carried with me (where everyone is focusing on in the picture, but it’s on the ground).

Across the way, off to the right in the picture, is where the manger was. They have a little alcove/side room dedicated to it. I think the actual manger is in St. Mary Major in Rome currently.

Anyway—this all happened really fast and just as fast as we got in, we were out of there, too. Back on the main level, we went out the normal exit passing by a church full of pilgrims.

I felt kind of bad because we basically cut all these people in line. Umm…oh well.

Another fun fact is…you see those pictures on the wall on the right side under the windows? These are frescoes from old church that have been uncovered. We were told that they recently uncovered them and this is the first time they have been on display. That’s pretty cool.

After the Church of Nativity, we headed to Nabil’s shop across the street. Basically.

Christmas House

So Nabil’s family has owned the Christmas House specializing in handmade olive wood goods especially related to the Nativity…for multiple generations. It’s right of Manger Square, and it has a wide and varied selection of religious gifts and items. And Dead Sea beauty products, because of course.

After window shopping here, Nabil brought us over to the workshop where they make most of the olive wood carvings. It was neat to see how manual of a process it is, and to have the process briefly summarized for us.

We didn’t stick around for too long because we headed to…

Milk Grotto

The Milk Grotto is a grotto and chapel dedicated to a spot where the Virgin Mary supposedly had dropped some milk while nursing the infant Jesus.

Many miracles for infertile couples are associated with the grotto. I wanted to stop and pray here as a goal for this pilgrimage because I have friends that suffer with infertility.

Because it’s not as widely known, we didn’t encounter many tour groups inside.

A convent next door has a perpetual Adoration chapel attached to the grotto, and we spent a few moments praying there.

Once done at the Milk Grotto…we returned to the Christmas House workshop.

Actual Shopping

TJ and I picked up a few things at the workshop. And Nabil’s brother runs the workshop so he hooked us up with some cold drinks and the ability to bag up what we wanted here to be rung up at the main Christmas House.

We walked back there…and did more shopping. Then paid for our goods.

Nabil drove us back to the bus station, and we took #231 back to Jerusalem.

I caught this picture of a Popeyes that recently opened in Bethlehem, and Nabil mentioned that he likes it way better than the KFC in town. I’m just surprised that a Louisiana-based fried chicken chain has made it to Bethlehem!

No, I didn’t ask if they had chicken sandwiches in stock…

To Jerusalem! …but for real!

We returned back to the Damascus Gate. Ate lunch. Walked down to the Lion Gate to see the Kidron Valley and Garden of Gethsemane across the way. We then entered the Old City through the Muslim Quarter in order to pick up the start of the Via Dolorosa or Stations of the Cross/Way of the Cross.

The goal was to participate in the Franciscan procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at 4PM. We got started with the Via Dolorsa at about 2:30PM.

Using a map, and entering in some churches along the way, we followed the Via Dolorosa.

TJ told me that they seemed to have added new bronze sculptures depicting each of the stations, which weren’t there a few months ago. Previously, only Roman numerals denoted the location of the stations.

Getting closer to 4PM, we started encountering crowds trying to get to the Holy Sepulchre.

Today’s Major Struggle

We finally make it to the square in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but it was filled with pilgrims and tour groups. They actually didn’t let us in because some minutes before 4PM, the Greek Orthodox patriarch or some other bishop walks out.

I was standing shoulder to shoulder with …everyone. But finally they opened up the inside allowing us to start heading inside.

I literally got squeezed through a bunch of people!

Once inside…TJ was quite anxious because they know that 4PM is usually when the procession starts, and we were nowhere near the meeting point because many people blocked the way. We tried going around a back way, but were stopped because…

An Armenian procession was under way, and they were blocking areas to let that procession pass.

Long story short, the procession we were trying to get to happened in the morning, and we didn’t know. So we missed it.

We decided to hang around in the Holy Sepulchre to catch a Mass, and we caught wind of a pilgrim group having an English Mass at the Chapel of the Apparition (a Roman Catholic chapel dedicated to the tradition of when Jesus appeared to His mother after the Resurrection).

Because Mass didn’t start for 45 minutes or so…we had some time to sit in the chapel.

However, at 5PM no Mass started in the Chapel!

We figured out at 5:05PM that the group was actually having Mass at the altar just outside of the Chapel! We headed out there to join them.

It was really hard to hear with the huge crowds in the background.

Here was my view during Mass (specifically, homily)

The part that really stood out to me about this Mass was the fact that…we’re having Mass JUST STEPS AWAY FROM JESUS’ TOMB!!! (You can see the structure of the Sepulchre in the background behind the columns). That’s freakin’ wild.

Mass ended, and we then headed over to…the other chapels in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

So…in case you didn’t know, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church built over where Jesus was jailed, executed, and buried. And they have chapels dedicated to these particular scenes (or for you Catholic devotees—the different stations, but ACTUAL).

I got to see the slab that Jesus was anointed on in preparation for burial, and we also stopped in front of the Sepulchre to pray a little bit. We tried visiting the spot where Jesus was hung on a cross, but they closed down that chapel for some Greek Orthodox to come in and do evening prayers.

After all this, we headed out towards the…

The Wailing Wall

I claim much ignorance, but I don’t know much about the Wall other than it’s the remaining part of the Jewish Temple that they have access to.

TJ and I went on the men’s side to go up to the wall, and it was really cool to see many of the Jewish men dressed traditionally and praying constantly. We had some moments of silent prayer at the wall.

And…I’m sure it looks pretty cool during the day, but I thought it looked pretty cool at night when we went.

Men’s side is on the left, women’s on the right

Whew…after Wailing Wall, we started heading back to our car.

But before going home, we ate dinner and dessert!

Near the Jaffa Gate is Mamila Mall, and TJ wanted us to eat here before heading back home. For dinner, we ate at Cafe Rimon where I had a garlic calzone, salad, and beer.

For dessert, we stopped at Rondalia for cake and coffee.

All very delicious, and good way to end the day.

Then…we drove home.

A Few Thoughts

So Bethlehem was fast and furious. And Jerusalem was super slow with all the waiting around.

Honestly, as freakin’ amazing it is to be at these places and sites related to Jesus…it was hard to take a moment and reflect on what I just experienced. I’m hoping that I’ll get to contemplate that more in the coming days, after the fact.

I’m also really grateful that we caught that Mass. And just typing about it just now made me realize that…we would NOT have caught that Mass had everything leading up to it had not happened with all its fast and slow happenings. Wow, crazy. Well played, God, well played. I guess You really wanted us at that Mass!

Current Stats

Total Cost So Far = $393.96 (+$160)

  • $57 on gifts at Christmas House
  • ~$103 for dinner for all three of us

Lessons Learned

TJ kept saying, and even the priests and brothers at the Holy Sepulchre, that today was the busiest they have ever seen it. And I have no baseline to compare…so…sure, it seemed really busy. But I think the lesson learned here is that Saturdays may not be a good day to go. A brother mentioned to us that Mondays are pretty good.

The Franciscan procession we attempted at going at has been happening daily for hundreds of years. But we didn’t know they changed it to the morning. The lesson learned here is to find a way to verify and check the time for it before attempting to participate.

Which do you prefer—see many things in a short amount of time or see a few things for a longer amount of time?

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