In Christ's City

The next day, we headed to Nazareth.

This was the supposed birth place of Jesus so we had high hopes of what we would see there.
Aside from some nice side streets and alleys, it was a massive disappointment.
This was quite clearly a tourist town.

It had been a tourist town for a LONG time as well......

The churches that were there all had a manufactured feel to them. Most of them also appeared to have been built relatively recently.

The main church was enormous.

A huge building that had apparently been built in the 60s.

It definitely had that 60s feel to it, with lots of exposed concrete, sharp edges and a complete lack of any real emotion.
Even the other churches in the area that were reported to be older felt a touch too sterile.
Further up the hill, there were some nice views. But aside from that, there really wasn't that much to the place.

It was the down season after all. So with few tourists, there were few other people there. There was evidence of shops and vendors everywhere, but thankfully they were closed, thus saving us from the screams of the hawkers.
As the day came to a close, I said my goodbyes to Adam and Jesse.

They were heading onto Galilee, while I had to head back South towards Tel Aviv.

Travelling with them had been fun, with Adam's biting sense of humour particularly entertaining.