Shepherds' Field

Chuffed to bits with myself for getting a bus into Bethlehem. You have to flag them down, they don't just stop and wait but they come regular enough. And when you get off them you have to sort of jump as the bus doesn't completely stop.

In the Church of the Nativity a guide offers to give me a tour, so I tell him about why the star of David is 14 pointed and why Matthew starts his gospel with a threefold 14 dynasty, he didn't know that - "no charge" says I.

I walk 40 mins to where the Angels appeared to the Shepherds. So now you can guess how long it took fit shepherds to run to the manger. There are 2 churches that make this Angelic claim, they've both been here since 300ad-ish but this one was a shepherd's cave for long before that.

I walk the 40mins back to Nativity Church and then another 30mins, passed the Stars and Bucks shop, to find a shop I've been looking forward to coming to. Its closed. Unbelievable. "Open tomorrow" proposes a man guarding the car park.

So over the road I go to buy some stuff - I got 50% off because I'm a pastor who brings tour groups out here and he'd like me to bring the next group here. Its a gambit that works for me (50% off!) and it works for him (I bought way too much).

The guard at the Checkpoint can't find my airport stamp and gets all flustered but in the end he pushes me through the cattle market that they call security. The soldier manning the X-ray machine is away with the fairies, so I tried not to wake him up.