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