Thursday 14th December
Up early to scribe away, tap water is cold so coffee pretty disgusting.
What to do today la di da ?! All my washing was returned on my return to hotel the previous evening – beautifully done, all for 56sh. which I still owe Out at 5.45a.m. – clear skies. Down to Arab Bus Station, not a lot moving at this time of day. No coffee shops open. Board first bus to Bethlehem, the 6.05 a.m., which arrives at 6.30a.m. Am the only passenger by the time we reach B. Up hill to central square. Israeli army still in their pen but less frantic than 4 years ago. Ask one of them where I might get a coffee ? He shrugs, bemused & gestures me to north end of square. Aha, settle in café to enjoy a coffee/cardamom & secure a can of ‘Pip’s Cola’ for her stocking.
To the Church of the Nativity at bottom end of square – am first (?) grockle to enter through low small door that day. Drawn to far right corner where flowers, pictures & a crib lie above portal leading down to grotto from where emanates chanting of robed man. Fire extinguisher in left corner.
Ground floor level to immediate left of Mother & Child icon/painting and right hand column of grotto’s stone door frame steal my attention. 2 or was it 3 photos in the candle light before one of my throat spasms hits me again – coughing sporadically I seek the outside air in adjacent courtyard cloister into whose flower beds of impatiens (?) I retch and spit thrice.
Some Italian nuns, “buon giorno” one says, are scurrying to their service at St. Katherine’s which lies alongside the Church of the Nativity. One more photo as my composure returns. Bright sun greets me on return to main square.
Short morning stroll around the back streets following children on their way to school & then back to bus stop. Return journey to Jerusalem marred by over-efficious young soldier who checks virtually every car, demands I.D. papers from nearly all our bus people. Somewhat rudely I thrust my maroon passport in his direction, “British”, I say, muttering about how unnecessary all this over zealous check-point Charlie stuff is.
Road to J. Jamming up so driver takes good short cut which lands us at base of Zion Hill..
Get out here & discover by Alexander Café a mini museum explaining the 3 man operated (by hand) cable car system which crosses the valley to the Old City. Devised in 1948 or earlier by brilliant engineer whose name escapes me – URIEL that was it !, manned by the British during the mandate to restock the western Jewish sections of town. Kept a total secret, the cable wire being lowered to valley floor during the day, and not revealed until 1972. Mossad must be clever.
Walk up Zion through lovely gardens past King David’s Hotel being done up, past the dreadful design of the imposing YWCA and head for breakfast. 9.25a.m. am past official time but kindly given all I need. One hour’s kip. 10.40a.m. catch the 27 to Jaffa Road & descend to look for bank to get dollars cash & travel agent to reconfirm my flight home.
Score on the former at main Israel Discount Bank but it turns out that agent I seek is at 108 Ben Yehuda in Tel Aviv not Jerusalem / Good bloke at IDB branch had helped me here. Turns out there is a BY Street in every town. BY invented Hebrew language in 1920’s.
Walk all the way up to Central Bus Station, central is hardly the word ! Stock up with caramel/mocca milk, an egg salad baguette, Israeli strawberry chocolate bar & a ½ litre mineral water, Neviot. Am now ready, I hope, for an afternoon’s stroll from Bet Shemesh to Ladrun.
Get off bus one stop too soon which adds a kilometre or so. Down to where the last trek had ended then across country Ladrun bound.
Suffice to say that some 5 hours later, through thicket, groves of olive, peach & orange, along paths tracks and road, through villages new & old, with sparrows, falcons, wagtails, pipers and a kingfisher eyeing right then left then right again, threatened by a Rottweiler (wooden stick came in handy but wasn’t needed), I ultimately reached my destination. Yet again I had taken the great circle route. Oh for a 1” Ordnance Survey map !
Under the Tel Aviv ↔ Jerusalem motorway to Mehlaf Latrun & the ruined Church of the Beatitudes.
Overgrown park/garden on north side holds more magic. 2 photos in the virtual darkness. Time to return. Thumb out for 35 minute in cold weather. Hebrew only man in smart car drops me at Nevaresset Junction. Toda (thanks). Espy ‘one of my favourite things’ (Julie Andrews) – a shopping centre ! Quick wash & brush up of self & mud clodded shoes after an expensive expresso. Prices here are quite a bit higher than in Jerusalem but enjoy my sojourn in more stylish surroundings. Visit to large Co-op yields mini sacks of chocolate shekels, a cheap pan scrubber & yetanother doughnut !
Bus back to J. Also goes via the great circle route through smart suburbs. Then the old 27 back to base camp.
13 shekels for my supper of 2 white rolls (not enough wholemeal bred in the diet here), one tub of aubergine pâté, one tub of red cabbage salad, one low-fat honey yoghurt and a can of the marvellous Mitzli peach nectar. Now that’s what I call value, although my guts could use more roughage.
Wash hair. A pretty good day all in all. At last I had completed my Ein Kerem to Emmaus walk. Tiring at times but worth it I wonder ?
The deed’s been done anyroads ! To sleep 9.30p.m…