Galilee

Today was a very full day. We headed out early for a drive around the Sea of Galilee. Our first stop was Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Of course, there's a church there now. It was a nice church, but not the best one ever. 

Along the path, there are stone markers bearing the beatitudes. On the one about the poor in spirit, the r had fallen off (or had been removed), so it said "blessed are the poo in spirit." We giggled like children and took a picture.

Next was Capernaum, where Jesus lived for a few years with the mother-in-law of St. Peter. There's no longer a town there, just ruins. 

We got to see the ruins of the house where he lived (guess what - church now) We also saw the ruins of the synagogue where he taught. A newer synagogue was built on its foundation, but even that one is ancient.

The house where he lived. The thing above it is a church straddling the ruins

We were supposed to go to Tabha next (the site of the loaves and fishes), but it was closed for Christmas, even though Christmas is still 2 days away. 

The sign for Tabha.

So, Orna and Gaby took us to St Peter's Primacy instead. That's where Jesus is said to have appeared to Peter after he (Jesus) was already dead. 

The best part of that was that the site has a beach on it (since Peter was a fisherman), so we got to go put our feet in the Sea of Galilee. We also grabbed some shells and rocks. Orna said we could.

We got back in the bus a drove a few minutes along the coast to a kibbutz that gives boat rides in the kind of boat that Jesus might have been in. I doubt Jesus's boat had a motor, but it was still fun. One of the crew gave us a demo of ancient fishing techniques. When it was over, we got a certificate that said we had ridden on the Jesus Boat.

Then it was time for lunch. We headed to Tiberius to a restaurant that serves St. Peter's Fish. Luckily, they also serve chicken Schnitzel. We could choose between the two. We also had a wide variety of salads (in Israel, a salad is pretty much any vegetable dish) for the table, as well as hummus and pita. Em and I both took a bite of Mom's fish, just to say we had eaten fish from the Galilee, but we both found it pretty vile. The lunch was a lot of fun, though, because we had about 12 people to a table, so we got to know some of our tour mates a bit better. When. You have over 30 people in a tour, it's hard to know anybody.

Em's reaction to the fish

After lunch, we headed to the second baptism site on the Jordan River. Remember, for a long time, Israelis couldn't get to the original site, so they made another one in the north. This one was very large and very commercial. There were plaques in different languages with a Bible verse about baptism all around. The Hawaii Pidgin one was hilarious!  

There are several baptism areas, but no baptisms were happening while we were there, so we just picked one, took off our shoes, and walked in. The steps down were a bit slimy, but we didn't fall. Then, little fish started nibbling our toes! 

We also saw some muskrats playing around in the river. One of them swam so close to us, hoping for food, I bet. Another person held out some food, and the muskrat came right up and took the food from his hand. 

The exit is through the massive gift shop. There were some nice things there, but I didn't need anything. Em got a little camel eraser, though.

Containers of various sizes to take water home with you

Next was a trip to the Golan Heights. We saw several Druze villages, which aren't really villages at all, but that's what they're called. There quite large towns. We stopped at a lookout points, where we could see Syria across the way. Orna also very kindly pointed out the super secret military base on top of one of the mountains overlooking Syria. There was a man there selling apples and honey. 

We all got samples. Gaby got me a sample and told me he loved me. Gaby is my new boyfriend. Sorry, Max.

My main man, Gaby

As we headed back to the hotel, the sun was setting. I was kind of sad that I wouldn't get to see the special Shabbat ceremonies, but I was still excited about being at a Hanukkah Shabbat dinner at a kibbutz. How cool is that? Unfortunately, our lunch had been so huge that I wasn't hungry at all! Luckily, dinner is served u til 8:30, so we just went later. It wasn't very different, but we did have challah bread. We also got to see a bread blessing ceremony for a group that all came in together. That was neat. 

Emma says - There were like 5 muskrats. They were so so cute. I wanted to touch them, but I would have gotten horrible diseases. The little fish were fun because they nibbled on my feet. There was also a cat that I got a picture of on my phone. I don't like eating fish. It did not taste good. But, the apples and honey were very, very good.