2015 - Israel - Day 4 (Feeding the 5k, Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, Sea of Galilee, Syria)

November 19th....

Well...I slept a bit better.  Up at 4:30 AM...but felt a bti more rested.  We are in a Kibutz and will be here tonight too...which is nice.  We don't have to haul our luggage to a bus.  And I hope we get a little time to enjoy our surroundings.  The room is little buildings all around.  We each have our own.  They have two bedrooms and a very small bathroom...similar to what you experience in Europe.

The trip is going quite well.  We crammed a lot into yesterday.  I would imagine today will be similar.  Israel is kind of what I expected.  However, I expected it to be a bit more modern.  But when you get out into the towns..and even in Tel Aviv...the architecture seems to be a bit run down.  It is a bit diritier than I expected to.  The people are really nice and friendly.  It is different not understanding anything in Hebrew or Arabic.   We did see, however, NY Pizza, McDonalds all over the place and even a Chili's sign.  Chili's was a whole in the wall place and very small walkin...or so it appeared as we passed by.

We boarded the bus and headed north.   We viewed the Galilee valley. To the east were the Golan Heights.  At one point we stopped to talk about the time Jesus dismissed the evil spirit which ran into pigs and they jumped off the cliff..  They believe that this happened in this eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and in the Golan Heights.

We stopped on the west side of the Sea of Galilee.  The water is actually warm. There was a couple of churches bult to represent many miracles performed by Jesus.  Feeding the 5000 (men...many more with women and children).  The apostles were called here.  11 of the apostles were from Galilee...only Judas was from Judea.  A church represents the confering of the keys of authority...upon this rock....

We then headed to the place where the mount where the Beatitudes were given.(Sermon on the Mount).  What a cool stop this was.  We stopped and reflected on Mathew 5, 6 & 7.  What a powerful sermon the Lord gave at this site.  I took lots of pictures and won't be able to share all.  But it is easy to imagine a large crowd where the Savior provided such great counsel.  So much of the Savior's life was here in this area.

Onward we go to Capernaum, where Jesus lived as an adult and called many of his apostles.  Peter lived in Capernaum.  Jesus taught in a synagogue here and healed many...including the men lowered down from the roof.  Lots of miracles occurred in Capernaum.

Folloiwing Capernaum, we quickly headed to a boat launch area and took a very nice boat ride out into the Sea of Galilee.  It was quite awesome to think Jesus called fishers from here to be his disciples...walked on the water and calmed this very 'sea'.  It is actually a lake the size of Utah Lake.  Pretty amazing experience....

After another 'fish' lunch with all the mediterranean side dishes, we got on the bus and headed north...way up by the Lebanon and Syrian borders.  We travelled close to Tel Dan, the northern most Israel community on our way to one of the head waters of the Jordan River called Banias where a temple once stood but later became one of the very sinful places of the Bible.  There we were instructed by Dan, our leader, on the happenings at this site.  

From there, we started our trip back to our Kibutz along the north eastern portion of Israel.  At many points we could see cities in Lebanon and Syria.  Demascus, Syria was actually closer to us than our Kibutz and we were only 30 minutes drive from it.  Pretty crazy.  We were told at one point that only a few weeks ago, Russia had dropped a bomb on one of the areas to quell an radical group in Syria.  As we drove along, we could see warning signs concerning land mines.  It made you feel pretty uncomfortable.

We arrived back to our Kibutz around 5 PM.  Dinner was not until 7 PM.  So a few of us (Fred, Cory, Shane and I) went for a swim in the Sea of Galilee.  The air was cooler than the water.  But it was slightly windy so the 'surf' was up.  I was impressed by the size of the waves.  And you could tell that the water was clean and clear...you could see your feet even though it was pretty dark.  It gets dark over here at about 5 PM or little after.

Well...another 'site' full day.  I am growing tired of the same food.  I could use a burger, a rib, a casserole, chips and salsa...something other than a fried fish with pita and all the pickled veggies!  :-)  Until tomorrow.

Here are some pictures.................

The Kibutz home that we stayed in....

Normal garbage cans....

The village....

The sea of Galillee...

The dining room....for breakfast.

Feeding the 5k and other miracles....

Sea of Galilee....

St. Peter's Rock Cathedral...

Capernaum Pictures....

Synagogue that would have been here...

St. Peter....

Sea of Galilee.....

Sea of Galilee Boat Ride....

Banias....Head Waters of the Jordan River and former temple site.

A spring comes out of this area and flows down....

Things cut into the rock from the former temple....

Some furry friends...they said they were not a rodent...but part of the elephant family.  I have a hard time believing that one.....

Our instructor....Denise is on the other side over there.  Not sure why we were not together.  My bad.

Syrian towns (along with UN camp)....look closely and you can see out posts and barbed wire fencing...

2015 - Israel - Day 3 (Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Mount Tabor, Nazareth)

November 18th.....

Today was a pretty cool day.  Lots were seen by all.  Long day, however, considering the fact that most of us were up around 3 AM and unable to sleep.  That made the wake up call at 6 AM easy!  We were down in the dining area by 6:45 AM eating another buffet of interesting delicacies.  Following that we were on the bus and headed north.

First stop was Caesarea.  This area contains one of the largest artifacts\discovery sites in Israel.  It is a seaport city nesteled up to the beach with a theater, charity race course, and other stuff.  It is quite picturesque being right on the Mediterranean sea.  You read a lot about Caesarea in the book of Acts in the New Testament as Paul was here 3 times.  Here we also saw the only found artifact of Pontius Pilate...a stone with his name written into it.  Pretty crazy....

The next stop was Mount Carmel.  Here the book of Kings in the Old Testament calls it out as the place where Elijah, Elisha, wicked Kings of Baal, etc. had presence.  We drove up to a monastery there and looked out over the Valley of Jezreel (plains of Armegeddon).  The view was pretty neat.

The third stop was at Megiddo which means Armageddon.   A huge archeological site is found here.  20 cities have been uncovered here over 13 acres.  The water system dates back 2800 years.  We traveled down stairs to a tunnel\shaft that connects springs outside the city by a 215 foot tunnel.  That was an interesting walk for sure.  The stairs challenged a number of people who were not ready for such.  183 stairs down...and 80+ back up.  This valley was important as it was called the 'way of the sea' due to the travel they took from Egypt to the east.  More importantly, one of the final battle is prophesied to be in this valley.  Lastly, from Megiddo, you can look across the valley and see Mount Tabor and the city of Nazareth.

The fourth stop was Mount Tabor...the place where the transfiguration of Christ was said to have occurred.  The drive across the valley to Mount Tabor took about a half hour (nothing is fast here).  To get to the top, you have to get in smaller Taxi's\buses which took 10 people only.  At the top sits a nice church that honors the fact that Christ, Moses and Elias were present here.   Again, the view across the valley was really nice, especially looking North to Nazereth.   

The fifth stop was in Nazereth to a place where they have tried to keep it like it was when Christ was growing up here.  Nazereth is a relatively small place.  The roads are small.   So getting a big bus up through it was very time consuming.  Nobody goes fast here in Israel though.   The village was a really neat expeerience.  Our guide led us through what it might have looked like here and how the people would have appeared and spent time on.  I like the grape and olive press sites.  They were pretty interesting.  Also in Nazareth, we believe this is the place that the angel appeared to Mary to announce that she would be the mother of the Son of God.  Nazerth sits on the side of hill...so nothing is flat.

After Nazareth, it was growing dark.  So we headed to the Sea of Galilee passing through Canaan.  It was funny to see such things as New York Pizza and Chili's signs along the way.  McDonald's are everywhere...but that is the only regular chain we have seen in abundance.  We drove to a restaurant called St. Peter's Fish which sits right on the Sea of Galilee.  The meals are mediteranean based always with vegetable platters (beets, carrots, cabbage, and other stuff).  The entree options were fish, pizza or pasta.  Most chose the fish of course.  And that is exactly what you got!  A whole fish....head fins tail and all.  That freaked a few people out.  But is really good...I thought!

After eating we were off to our Kibutz...which use to be a communal community...on the edge of the Sea of Galilee.  The one we are stay at has little buildings with small buildings for each room.  They are nice and very clean.  We will be up early again tomorrow and on this bus....which is quite uncomfortable for one who has long legs.

Pictures from our terrace off our hotel room.  We were on the 10th floor and had a great view of the sea.

Breakfast friends this morning....

Ruins at Caesarea.....

These were the latrines as you entered the arena where chariot races ocurred....

Pontius Pilate stone.....

Swimming pool on the sea.....

On the roadside, you can see a burial plot that was uncovered.  You can see the round stone that is used to cover the sepulchres entrance....

These are pictures at Mount Carmel.  The monument is of one of Elijah slaying one of the priests of Baal.

This is one of the gate entrances to Megiddo...a fortress\palace that was unearthed there.

The stairs down to the tunnel that was built for moving spring water to the city...

Church on Mt. Tablor...Mount of Transfiguration....pretty cool.

Nazareth Village Pictures....

Wine press...they filled this area up with grapes and then with their feet....stomped on them.

The grape juice then flowed down into the hole seen here....yum.  Makes me want to drink wine1

They had goats and donkies wandering around as we wandered around....

Eating dinner at St. Peter's Fish....

Giving my fish a kiss good bye...