Sep 26 – Biblical Highlights of Galilee

We were up way too early for a quick breakfast at the breakfast buffet, and then off on our first sightseeing tour…Biblical Highlights of Galilee.  The countryside is pretty dry but there are a number of olive orchards along the way.

Our first stop was Nazareth…

where the bus dropped us off at a shop.  This was our bathroom break plus there was a lot of shopping conducted.  The merchandise was mainly Christian and Jewish.  Some beautiful work but we bought nothing.

We then walked up the hill to the Basilica of the Annunciation.  Tradition holds that this was the site where the Angel, Gabriel, told Mary that she would conceive and bare the Christ Child.  There was an early shrine here, commissioned by Emperor Constantine I.  There was a later Byzantine church built over the sight and even later a crusader church.  Another church went up in the 17^th century.  The much larger, current basilica was built in the 1960’s to accommodate the growing crowds visiting the site.

The interior of the basilica is rather austere but is solidly beautiful. 

An “original” grotto can be seen in the lowers level.

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More Basilica of the Annunciation
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There are many images of Mary, mainly mosaics, around the upper church.

There is also a large courtyard that has many wonderful Mary icons from all over the world.  

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More Basilica of the Annunciation Murals
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From there we walked over to St. Joseph’s Church.  

The area of most interest here was the underground with mosaics

and small chapels.

The drive then took us to Tabgha to visit the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.  The small church was relatively simple...

but it had a lovely mosaic floor in the altar area of the church.  

And the design just in front to the altar was of a basket of loaves flanked by two fish. 

Nearby we stopped to view and photograph the Sea of Galilee...

and the nearby statue of St. Peter.

Then it was on to the next stop…Capharnaum, Jesus’ town.

There was the House of Peter.  You can see the ruins, but that entire area is covered by a church suspended over the site.

There was also the synagogue where Jesus supposedly taught.

By then it was early afternoon and we stopped at a local, roadside restaurant that seemed to mainly cater to large tour busses…very long table, large salad bar and limited menu.  Choices were the local fish (whole with the head on), chicken shawarma and falafel.  We had the falafel.  It was very good.  Much more moist than we usually find in the US.

We then drove by the town of Tiberius, a resort town on the Sea of Galilee.  Our next, and last stop was Yardenit.  This is right on the River Jordan and is the reputed site of Jesus’ baptism.

To get to the site required a trip through a very large souvenir shop.  There was a large walkway and patios along the river with places you could go down into the river.  There were a number of people swimming.

Several in our group, including us, too off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pantlegs and went wading into the water.   The water was cool and refreshing.  The big surprise was that there were many small minnows that wanted to nibble at our feet.  Sort of a fishy pedicure.  Felt really strange. 

We were back in Tel Aviv by dinner time.  The hotel had a buffet going tonight…only $50 per person.  Still ridiculously expensive.  Neither of us were very hunger (we had lunch awfully late) so we went back to the ice cream shop.  This time for ice cream.