Public Transport Christmas (4)

 A Long And Tiring Journey 1

From Nasareth (above) which has a bus stop ...

... and an occasional bus! It is south of Caernarfon, but

Frankly, there's not much to it as can be not seen on this old map.

It hasn't grown much since.

Back then it was spelled with a "Z"! There is no "Z" in the Welsh language, hence the "S"!

Bethlehem, is also not much of a place ...

... just a few cottages, a farm or two, a chapel of course ...

...and a few modern houses.

It also has a splendid recently replaced bus shelter ...

Again it is largely unchanged today.

The nearest town (certainly not a city) to Bethlehem is Llandeilo.

It is a picturesque little community ...

... and has buses which stop near St Teilo's Church ...

... after which the town is named.

You could get between Nasareth and Bethlehem by public transport, possibly with a walk at each end.

But it would be a long and tiring journey of about 100 miles.

It would be an even longer and more tiring journey if you had to walk!

A Long And Tiring Journey 2

Just over two millennia ago, a teenage girl was told by an angel that she would become pregnant. She was not married but her future husband stood by her much against the conventions of the day.

If an angel wasn't weird enough, hubby Joe was summoned to register with the Roman authorities at the town of his birth.

Nazareth was a small insignificant village ...

... 2000 years ago so the couple would have to walk the 100 miles (slightly less) to Bethlehem. 

Walk? What happened to the Donkey?

Drop the Dead Donkey? 

There was no donkey.

Isn't technology clever?

There was no donkey anywhere in the Bible texts. No one is quite sure who invented the donkey, but there wasn't one. It is highly unlikely that a jobbing builder could even afford the hire charge for a donkey for such a long journey!

So they walked to Bethlehem ...

... an insignificant hamlet not far from the 'city' of Jerusalem.

City? It was quite small, the dark shaded b8t in the map below.

The light area was added after AD43, long after Jesus' demise. The "city" was about three quarters of a mile north to south and a but less east to west - similar in size, broadly, to Llandeilo.

But it really was ...

A Long And Tiring Journey

... but their problems were not yet over ...

No, we did NOT book on line

  Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Tues 23 Dec 

Public Transport Christmas (3)

 We Could Be Going Here ...

... which is famous for this ...

... and used to look like this!

Or, Alternatively ...

In fact, we will going here ...

... which used to have trains (and scenery) like this ...

... but more recently had trains like this.

... and now looks like this!

But Which?

The German Bakery shop (headline picture) is in a building ...

... which was a pub and once looked like this.

So well known was this establishment that it has given its name to the station and, in general, to the area which surrounds it - viz part of Islington in London.

Do you know where it is yet?

It is also one of the mid-blue ones on the Monopoly Board!

The link is Angel, with our two locations; one being The Angel Islington with its Underground station ...

... which has the longest rise/descent of any escalator in London and, until relatively recently, retained its original island platform. It how has a new station tunnel with the old island platform bit being used for just one direction and having a very wide platform where the other line once ran.

The second location is Angel Road station.

... which stood on ...

... a thoroughfare named "Angel Road". Clever name, eh?

There will be more from Angel Road after Christmas.

But Now, Angels For Real (?)

You can understand how scared Mary was when she met the angel ...

... especially if he looked like the one above. Or even more scared if the emissary from God looked like this!

Or even this!

Would this be more believable?

Or even this?

In Biblical accounts Angels on earth are never female, always male and they never have wings. The most ethereal characteristic occasionally described is "white clothed" or "shining! 

Angels only have wings in heaven and, according to Ezekiel at least, there they have six wings.

Now that is very scarily scary!

But an angel on earth might look more like this!

The one in the hat is Clarence an angel sent to help George Bailey (James Stewart).

However we might understand Mary's encounter with an angel, she was told firstly not to be afraid; then, scarily, that she would be pregnant by Divine insemination; then,  even mere scarily, that she would give birth to The Messiah, Immanuel, God on Earth.

Mary accepted the words of "the angel", praised God (The Magnificat) and readied herself for the birth.

But it was far from straightforward. There was a problem.

The problem was 90 miles long!

A 90 mile journey for a heavily pregnant teenager? CHRIST-mas is not pretty!

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Mon 22 Dec 

Public Transport Christmas (2)

 Where Am I?

I had two stations, the above looking very different today!

It is a Tesco Extra innit?

The other station ...

.. was closed but re-opened in 1993.

It had trams and a canal ...

... and a tram depot ...

... which became a bus depot (now closed).

Until privatisation it was served by two very different bus operators ...

... with very different liveries.

It was the setting of a famous TV show ...

... but much more importantly, the first home of Mrs fbb, aged 0 to 2! 

Hew Hill, the Laird, of Gairbraid, had no male heir and so he left his estate to his daughter, Mary Hill (1730–1809). She married Robert Graham of Dawsholm in 1763, but they had no income from trade or commerce and had to make what they could from the estate. They founded coal mines on the estate but they proved to be wet and unprofitable.

Yes. Maryhill, Glasgow.

And So To London

And we are looking at the school above which has growed quite a bit!

There are bus stops nearby ...

There are four daytime bus routes that pass along Beulah Hill in West Norwood. For the record, they are:-

!96

249

468

But by far the most unusual is:-

SL6 ...

Or you could have it in brown!

... which used to be:- 

X68

The X68 and SL6 are unique in that they are "Express" with a long non-stop leg as shown in the current Robert Munster timetable ...

... non-stop between West Norwood and Waterloo.

Last journeys are 0850 from West Croydon and 1850 from Russell Square. It is therefore unique (???) in London Buses being a peak flow service with no running in the opposite direction.

It is also restricted in that passengers may not be set down until the second half of the journey.

The SL6 blind makes it Crystal (Place) clear!

Oh, yes! The School on Beulah Hill is St Josephs.

Mary and Joseph - gettit?

Mary and Joseph

Matthew's Gospel tells us, almost as an aside, that Joe was a carpenter. The Greek word, apparently, means a bit more than just a bit of carp; Joseph was the jobbing builder at Nazareth. in fact, Matthew's passing remark is the very last we hear of Joseph but tradition suggests that he had died before the crucifixion; which is why Mary is left alone to be cared for by John the Disciple.

It is utterly reasonable to speculate the Jesus (Yeshua Ben Yusuf) would have shared the work with 'dad'.

The significant things about Joe, however, was that he was related to King David.

There is no Biblical evidence that Mary was particularly beautiful She was most likely a teenager, as her role in the society of the day was to produce children to carry on the family line. Infant mortality was high so the wife needed to start early.

But NOT before marriage. Pre-marital sex would, usually, mean the woman was expelled from normal societal acceptance and would end up begging for her survival.

Very few pictures show Mary heavily pregnant, as she would have been for the tortuous journey to Bethlehem.

But things were really tough for Joe. 

A long journey to comply with yet another Roman burst of disruptive administration; the shame of having a pregnant wife-o-be and, to cap it all, those angels.

She was scared witless!

And who wouldn't be?

And his decision to stay with his betrothed?

That's another angel story.

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Sun 21 Dec