We got to stop at a place that manufactures 65% of the Holy Land olive wood sculptures and see their workshop.
This dude was doing finishing carving and varnishing. No mask, and a cigarette burning. It was a tad unnerving, wondering about his lungs and whether or not he might “woof” himself at any moment.
This is a wood pile that was aging. I don’t think I uploaded a picture of the machine that does the rough cuts for the carvers, it was hard to see in the picture. Anyway, we then were able to haggle for goods in their store. You don’t want to pay sticker price like a shop in America would be. They’d rip you off. You want to barter and negotiate. Evan rather enjoyed watching me do this…he had the biggest grin on his face when we were done. Mom too!
Here are a couple really cool pieces we saw.
Very neat nativities.
This one was HUGE. I think they were asking like $12,000 or so. Negotiable of course.
This was my favorite piece in the whole store…super expensive but SOOO cool!!! Solomon’s temple! With a calculator in it… Wow was that a neat piece though. I didn’t even ask how much it was. Evan and I each got a necklace with Eliad??? Stone? A stone that is only found in Israel. Very cool. If I think of it tomorrow, I will take a picture of them. After that, we went to lunch. They served us pita with plates of stuff to stuff them with, and then a huge plate of rice and fried chicken. There are American drinks too…Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite etc. Coffee and tea, and other good drinks that are less familiar but yummy.
One last thing…Israel does not have Starbucks. They have Squarebucks, and Stars and Bucks in Bethlehem. : )
OK, next up is the Church of the Nativity.