Day 8, Ashod, Israel

The second day at the port of Asdod we did a tour of Jeruselem and Bethlehem. It was a bit of a ride on the bus to get there. We had a Jewish/ Israeli tour guide that really knew his stuff, but was quite biased toward his culture. At one stage he said that it would be boring to live somewhere peaceful!!!!
This is the view from the mount of olives across to the old city of Jeruselem, looking from the south west. The bit in the foreground is a massive "active" cemetary, everyone wants to be buried within site of the old city to be ready for the first or second coming (depending on what you believe).

We went in to the old city and did a whole lot of walking. This is at the West Wall or Wailing Wall. It is separated in the the mens section and the womens section. All the action was happening in the mens section, there were a few barmitzvahs going on.

We walking along the stations of the cross, which was the path Jesus took on the day he died. It was along narrow alleys like this, mostly with shops all along the way. There were a lot of people the whole time, it was a very popular place to be. We nearly missed the bus to lunch because we stopped to buy a drink pourer that will pour six ports at once. Luckily they were waiting and looking for us, so we didn't miss lunch. Then we went to Bethlehem which was an eye opener. Bethlehem is in Palestein occupied Israel, and it is walled off and we had to go through a checkpoint with guards with really big guns (which is meant to make us feel more safe - and not bored). We even had to change to a Palestine/ Israel guide, and were taken to a Palestine souvenier shop (where prices weren't hiked up - yeah right).

This is going in the nativity complex built on the site Jesus was born. There are 3 or 4 chuches here because everyone wants a piece of the action. There were still a lot of people here, but not as many as Jerusalem. I guess it is a bit harder to get to.

As we were leaving Bethlehem this graffiti was on the wall just before the checkpoint. The one that stuck with us was "to exist is to resist". Give us good old NZ any day.

Another sleepy bus ride back to the boat.