"So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David"

For most Christians making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there are a couple stops that one has to have to make. The Via Dolorosa for one, the church of the Holy Sepulcher for another and a host of other sites. Also up there on the list of places to go is the city of Bethlehem. As the birthplace of Christ, this city hosts millions of pilgrims every year, each one wanting to see the birthplace of Jesus.  Well…. One would expect a cave or something, not so.  The original Church of the Nativity was built over the site  by Constantine and his mother St. Helena in the fourth century, until it was destroyed by Justinian in the 6^th and rebuilt it into a much larger church.  The original mosaic floor Is still intact underneath the modern one and many of the crusader mosaics and paintings are still partially intact.  We entered the nave and stood in line with  all the others that were waiting to see the lower level and the silver star that makes the exact spot of Christ birth. I wasn’t able to get a good picture, but it was nothing like I expected. The star was set in a marble floor underneath something akin to an altar. We saw that and the milk grotto, where supposedly a drop of Mary’s milk fell and turned a black rock white… couldn’t actually find it, but I don’t doubt its there.            In a spur of the moment decision after exhausting Bethlehem, we found a taxi and decided to go to the ruins at Herodion.  While haggling for the cab, a man came up to us and offered to translate, which was pretty much a godsend. Then, he wanted to practice his English, so he stuck around and was our tour guide for the rest of the trip. We explored the ruins and the tunnels that were underneath Herodion… which seemed to go on forever! The ruins were kinda reminiscent of Masada, which makes sense since they were both built by Herod but it was still cool to go see. Then our new friend invited us to his house and we went and met his sister, his neighbors and their kids. It was really a lot of fun and probably the most spontaneous since getting here.