Today we left our Hotel in Jerusalem. I didn’t sleep well last night and hearing what sounded like gun shots into the night.
Our first stop before heading to Bethlehem was to see the Dead sea scrolls in the Israel Museum. The museum also has an amazing scale model of Jerusalem in AD 70. After having lunch at the museum we stumbled on an amazing collection of original Impressionist paintings including Monet and Van Gough. It was surprising to see so many great masters in a museum that has car park security guards to check your boot for bombs.
To get to Bethlehem, we needed to drive through a west bank check point. It was a huge concrete wall about 2 stories high. After crossing the border we were meet by Sami a local Christian. He isn’t allowed to cross the border because he is a Palestinian. Also it is illegal for him to travel in a vehicle that doesn’t have Palestine plates (even our bus). So basically people here are completely cut off, 65% of people are unemployed as they can’t travel to Jerusalem for work.
We did manage to find a quiet spot in a field to read some of the stories from the bible about the coming of the messiah, such as Luke 2.