Ramleh
The journey to Ramleh was not long. It was a good introduction to the vicissitudes of pilgrim travel in the Holy Land. Roberto managed to get into an argument with the donkey-boys with the result that the whole party lost three hours in getting started. It was difficult for European nobility to learn not to be arrogant toward people whom they regarded as their inferior in every way. But if the donkeys did not cooperate, no one made much progress, and so Roberto eventually had to back down.
Conditions at Ramleh were much better. In the 15th century, the Franciscans operated a very nice monastery there and travellers were accorded the luxury of hot water in marble bathhouses. Conditions were not so luxurious in earlier centuries, but they were much better than sleeping in dung-coated caves!
Ramleh was not important in the Bible, but it played a large role in Crusader history. Here it was that King Baldwin of Jerusalem barely escaped with his life after a nearby battle with an Egyptian army. The Muslims were in the process of taking the town and the tower in which he and his comrades were hiding had actually been set on fire before they escaped out the back. The King spent the night fleeing through the hills amid Egyptian patrols until he managed to reach Jerusalem.
The Franciscan abbot was accustomed to giving a sermon to the pilgrims before they set out for Jerusalem. The sermon amounted to a guidebook on how to behave and is worth repeating here at some length.