Best of the West Bank: Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority

We continued our way towards the city of Bethlehem, not without first stopping to admire the Flower Thrower, one of the many paintings by the elusive British artist Banksy.

Banksy has used the West Bank in multiple occasions as the setting for his paintings, many of them with a very strong political message. If you're a fan of Banksy or street art in general, you won't be disappointed.

As we arrived in Bethlehem, I realised that the city had absolutely nothing to do with the small village depicted in the Bible and that we're used to seeing in Christmas paintings. Modern Bethlehem is a buzzing and modern city with a population of over 25,000, clearly much different than the small village of shepherds from the New Testament, but equally fascinating.

It was here where Jesus was allegedly born and as such, the main highlight of the city is the Church of the Nativity.

The church was built in 327 by Constantine the Great and his mother Helena above the cave where it was believed that Jesus was born. The church was rebuilt, modified and enlarged on multiple occasions over the centuries.

We got another local guide to visit the interior of the church. Sometimes the queue can last for hours, especially during high season, so I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to see the Grotto of Nativity ever since I booked this tour. Fortunately for us, there weren't that many people visiting that day, so we waited patiently until it was our turn to go down to the grotto. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).