The Patriarch's yearly visit was meant to kick off Christmas festivities but this year, as in others, the spirit of the festive season is uniquely intertwined with the fate of all Palestinians, who say the city has suffered from years of Israeli occupation.
And like previous years, despite a boost in tourism, celebrations in Bethlehem have been marred by a poor economic and security situation. While Bethlehem is the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ atop a hill just 10km away from Jerusalem, the site of Christ's crucifixion, a 10-meter high concrete wall put up by Israel and several military checkpoints keep the two cities very much apart.
Fairy tale Christmas
It is such barriers and restrictions borne of Israeli occupation that has made Christmas bittersweet for Palestinians. Maxim Sansour, founding board member of Open Bethlehem, an international campaign to address the state of emergency facing Bethlehem, said the city's greatest problems largely go unaddressed every Christmas. He said: "Christmas comes and goes, but our problems remain."
Issues of growing Israeli settlements which lie immediately on the border of Bethlehem and demolitions of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of the city have made life difficult for Palestinians.
Sansour says Bethlehem will always continue to struggle as long as such Palestinian issues of statehood, economic viability and sustenance under occupation remain unaddressed.
Sansour also believes that visitors and pilgrims who do come show support but at the same time many are also in Bethlehem as part of "the fairy-tale story of Christmas".
Father Garret Edmonds, a Franciscan monk from California who works with pilgrim groups in Palestine and is spending his fifth Christmas in Bethlehem, said: "There are moments of hope but then everything returns to the status quo. It goes on and off like this all the time."
Father Edmonds also highlighted the increasing erosion of the Church and the increasing number of Christians choosing to emigrate from Palestine.
"It's important to have a viable, living Church, but if things continue the way they are in 25 years there might not be a living church. Bethlehem could become one giant museum," he said.
Life under occupation
In 2006, Open Bethlehem released the results of a questionnaire which examined the reasons behind the high rate of Christian emigration from Bethlehem.
Of 2000 Palestinians surveyed in Bethlehem, 76 per cent said Israeli occupation was the main reason for leaving. Sixteen per cent of the Christians in the city said they are in the process of emigrating, compared to eight per cent of the Muslims.
Many Palestinians also said that foreigners and pilgrims coming to Bethlehem do not experience daily life under occupation.
Palestinians who have Israeli permission to travel between Bethlehem and the West Bank say they are subjected to fingerprint and document scanning, full body searches, and long waits before they are let through.
Some are not even allowed to visit friends and family simply because they live on the wrong side of the wall or in some cases the soldier manning a checkpoint might not feel like letting them through.
Brother Jack Curran, Vice President of Development for Bethlehem University, said: "I have colleagues who haven't been to Jerusalem in years and I can come and go as freely as I want. I feel ashamed of the privilege I have and it's easy to take for granted, I always have to remember that."
"But it is also a privilege that the Palestinians deserve."
Brother Curran, a member of the Lasallian order, felt that Christmas in Bethlehem is not truly reflected because of what he says are the injustices being heaped upon the Palestinians daily.
"The story can't be told without looking seriously at these things," he said. "Without foreigners," Curran explained, "it would also be a lot worse. We must act as the witnesses and truth tellers, but not just once a year."
Sustain support
Thousands flocked to Bethlehem in hopes of a better Christmas this year [AFP]Christmas generates a great deal of positive media attention for both Bethlehem and Palestine every year. It is a chance for the world to show the Palestinians some sympathy and solidarity but Sansour said that it never carries on.
"We love good feelings and the Palestinian people deeply appreciate the show of support, but it must be a sustained kind of support."
Bethlehem is a small town; according to the Palestinian Central bureau of Statistics its population in 2006 stood just shy of 30000, and has a very small and localized economy which is dominated by the tourist industry.
According to Open Bethlehem, tourism accounts for 65 per cent of Bethlehem's economy. In November, 80,000 visitors arrived in the city. This was boosted by a further 20,000 in the days leading to Christmas.
Sansour said that while tourism represents a significant portion of Bethlehem's economy many of the tourist operators are Israeli which means that most of the tourists who do come stay for only a short time and promptly return to Jerusalem. "They come here, take their Disneyland photos and drink some tea from a local shop and go back to Jerusalem," Sansour said.
"Maybe they'll stop by and buy some wood carvings from a shop where the Israeli operators get a commission, but that's about it," he added.
Christmas surge
Most of Bethlehem's local businessmen wait all year just for the Christmas season to come in hopes of boosting their incomes and providing for their families.
It's not surprising given that the poverty rate stands at 60 per cent while unemployment stands at 55 per cent, a slight increase from last year but not overly significant according to George Saadeh, Bethlehem's deputy mayor.
Abed Ibrahim, who works at a sweets shop, said: "Christmas [is] the only time of the year that anyone makes any money."
"It's good for now. But next year it will be bad again until the next Christmas. Nothing will change," he said Ibrahim added: "Fast dollars won't solve our business problems."
Ameer Jaber, who operates a stall selling boiled corn and roasted peanuts, feels the Palestinians need the kind of media exposure they received for Christmas year-round and not just in Bethlehem, but all over Palestine.
He said: "You foreigners come and help us, but then you leave when you have your pictures and reports, but we're still here and you'll have the same story next year unless we get your help."
MUNICH, Germany -- Winter was cold and dark in the Bavarian Alps during the mid-19th century. Still a few people who ventured outdoors at night would sometimes see a mysterious, bright glow gliding silently through the pines and firs.
That would have been Ludwig II, the youthful king of Bavaria, traveling in his elaborate sleigh -- undoubtedly the only sleigh in the world equipped with an electric light. It was powered by a large battery placed under the seats.
Winter or summer, Ludwig II was known to spend much of his waking hours moving around the countryside between dusk and dawn. In his short lifetime, Ludwig II was declared officially insane, and he is widely known today as the "Mad King" of Bavaria. Part of the evidence given for his psychotic condition was that he spoke openly of his belief that man would some day fly.
A sensitive and poetic romanticist, he was also talked out of trying to construct a cable car at the mountaintop castle he was building. It would have connected to another nearby castle, one that was built by his parents and the summer home he knew and loved as a child.
Ludwig II cared nothing for the affairs of state. He commissioned avant-garde art and experimental music, much of which was too advanced for the time. These included the operas of his socially inept and generally unpopular friend, Richard Wagner.
On top of everything else, the king was homosexual and unfortunately trapped in an age when none dared emerge from that condemned closet.
Today he might be considered an artistic eccentric, and one who would fit neatly enough into respected elements of society. But this is now and that was then, and he ended up dying tragically and mysteriously.
He was found dead, floating in a shallow lake on June 13, 1886. A strong swimmer, the king did not drown. Many believe he was shot, simply as a result of political intrigue. He was 40 years old.
Thousands of visitors today hike through the Mad King's unfinished Neuschwanstein, the most famous castle in Germany. Visitors sometimes look up to see hang gliders flitting around the sky near the ramparts and turrets, a sight the royal dreamer and wannabe flyer surely would have loved.
The castles of Ludwig II are among the most popular sights for tourists of today. However, there are actually dozens of palaces and castles extending from Munich to the Austrian border, whether Gothic, Baroque, or Neoclassical. Some are open to the public.
Starting from Munich, I joined a small group that set out to examine some of these sumptuous constructions, cramming as many as possible into a week's time. It was like dining on beer, sausage and "apfelstrudel" daily -- but a Bavarian feast for the eyes instead of the stomach.
Our eyes glazed over when we tried to grasp the complicated family tree of the Wittelsbachs, rulers of Bavaria for 700 years, including their relationships with their wives, husbands, mistresses and lovers. So we concentrated on the art and architecture. Here are highlights of this short but fascinating exploration.
Munich
The incredibly large and opulent Baroque palace of Nymphenburg, one of Munich's most popular attractions, was built to celebrate the 1664 birth of a royal heir, Max Emanuel, a long-awaited baby who grew up to become the great-grandfather of Ludwig II. The palace continued to be occupied by the Wittelsbach family for several generations.
The first King Ludwig dallied there and his grandson, Ludwig II, was born there.
A popular room in the palace is devoted to dozens of portraits of the first Ludwig's mistresses -- trophies in oil of conquests that included the notorious Spanish dancer, Lola Montez.
I was more impressed with the fact that Mozart played in the palace at age 7 -- not with toys or blocks of course, but on the piano.
We also visited three other palaces in Munich: exquisite, 18th-century Amalienburg, with its circular hall of mirrors; Schleissheim, now the official state gallery for Baroque paintings; and Lustheim, which contains a beautiful collection of Meissen porcelain.
Prien
From this attractive Bavarian village on the shores of Lake Chiemsee, we took the passenger ferry to the small island of Herreninsel to see another of Ludwig II's "mad" creations -- the unfinished palace that he built in an attempt to duplicate the French palace of Versailles.
On display among the gold, porcelain and cherub-bedecked chambers is Ludwig's king-size golden bed with its moon-shaped night light, which once contained a single candle. There is a secret spiral staircase that led from his bed to an indoor swimming pool on the floor below. Construction on the palace was halted after his death, and today the unfinished portion is almost as interesting as the remainder.
Oberammergau
The fairy-tale-like village is famous for its Passion Play, performed every 10 years since the early 17th century. The theater, built expressly for that purpose, is an interesting tour itself. Next year, 2008, tickets will go on sale for the summer performances in 2010.
A half-hour's drive from Oberammergau is Castle Linderhof, the only one of the Ludwig II palaces and castles that was completed during the king's lifetime. Like Herreninsel, this was Ludwig's homage to France's King Louis XIV, with many elements copied from Versailles. The surrounding gardens are as famous as the palace itself.
FuessenThe village of Fuessen is the usual headquarters for visits to two nearby castles, Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein, with its occasional hang gliders, and the neo-Gothic Hohenschwangau. The latter, the childhood summer home of Ludwig II, is credited to Ludwig's father, Maximilian II, who renovated a 12th-century fortress, keeping the medieval style but modernizing it to comfort standards of the early 19th century.
In later years, Ludwig II used the castle to keep a telescopic watch on his construction of Neuschwanstein, until enough of it was completed so that he could move in himself and continue his nightly ramblings through the forests and nearby mountain villages. Today Neuschwanstein is famous also for serving as the model for the Sleeping Beauty castles of Disney amusement parks throughout the world.
In this spectacular Alpine setting, I concluded that Neuschwanstein, the magnificent edifice of Bavaria's celebrated Mad King, will probably remain the standard by which all romantic castles are judged between now and, well ... kingdom come.
