Weather: Galilee region is cooler, high 60’s, puffy clouds – very spring like.
Despite all of the trauma of bathroom with the toilet paper situation and the felt starkness of this new location we had the best night of sleep of our trip so far. The beds were comfortable, and the room was more quiet than our last place because the door was more solid and we weren’t hearing doors slam in the morning like the last place as soon as the first person was up and out. This place and the last one reminded me of what Rick Steve’s recommends – find a very basic place, that is clean, you can sleep well, but where you wouldn’t want to hang out all day, because you should be motivated to get up and out for the day. We were definitely motivated!
As the trip progresses, I am less and less the early bird at the breakfast and now just showing up in time to see what I can grab ‘to go.’ Resting in the morning is more of a priority now that I’m not up at 4am and finally feeling like I am in the right time zone. I think ‘grounding our feet’ in the grass the night before really helped. I head to the dining area and scan the options. I pick out just a few things to-go and head to the bus which is waiting for our group out front.
Our first stop today was Nazareth. On the bus drive there from Galilee, we traveled through beautiful hills and scenery. Again, we were half-paying attention and half-awake. We hear the tour guide say something like, ‘…passing through Cana…’ Amy and I both perk up and she says to me, ‘I guess we should pay attention.’ We both laugh. Cana is the location of Jesus’ first recorded miracle where he changed water into high quality wine at a wedding. Being a wine lover myself, I love to think about this story. We don’t stop, but drive through. In reality, there are about five nearby areas that could have been the location of the biblical Cana, so it was probably best.
Nazareth
We arrive in Nazareth – which was thrilling on many levels. To think that this was the region where Jesus grew up was a sight to see. Even though it looks nothing like it would have in that time, it is still a thrill to stand in this part of the world and look up at the sky, see the hills, understand the length of time it takes to get here from Galilee, imagining him walking and journeying back and forth. There are all kinds of thoughts flooding your imagination as you go from site to site. Modern day Nazareth is considered the Arab capital of Israel and there is very little Christian faith in Nazareth.
Our guide reminded us about Mark 6:4-5 where Jesus affirmed that a prophet is without honor in his home town, and in view of that reality, He could not perform any miracles in Nazareth except for healing a few sick people. Back in bible times, the people of Nazareth were plagued by unbelief and paid little attention to the claims of Jesus. Our guide said, it is the same to this day in this town with little belief in Jesus or Christianity. I often have quoted this verse in my life in jest and when feeling like my people don’t get me, I’ll say, ‘Well, a prophet is without honor in his home town.’ Not to say that I am a prophet, but more to say, people who you grew up with or that know you best sometimes are the least to believe that you are capable of something great or beyond the box they have put you in. It was the same for Jesus.
Adventures at Lunch
After our time in Nazareth we were now headed to Capernaum, which is a fishing village on the northern shore of Galilee. It was near lunch, so we were all kind of hungry. All of a sudden our tour guide, Elin, gets on the bus mic and blurts out ‘Hey, we are stopping for lunch at a road side place and you have 3 choices, I’m going to call in our order in advance, so I need you to decide right now what you want.’ I’m envisioning a big falafel ‘in and out burger’ style palace, where our bus pulls up and they have our orders ready ‘to go’ at a big bus, to go window. We are all taking turns raising our hands on the selection we want, this all goes very fast. Amy looks startled, she is one that needs to take time with her decisions and weigh the options. This feels abrupt and all out of the blue for her. I say, ‘Hey, you didn’t raise your hand. You may not get lunch. We need to go tell Elin.’ She responds, ‘I know, it is all too fast, I don’t even know what a Shawarma is, nor the other meats she called out. I need more time to think.’ We can see Elin up at the front of the bus already calling in our ‘to go’ order. We decide we’ll just see what happens when we get there, there has to be some accommodation and margin for error, right?
We pull up to this crazy road side joint with picnic tables outside and several of tour buses lined up. This must definitely be a ‘thing’ in this area and they are used to working with tour groups and getting you in and out of there quickly. We pull up and are told to exit the bus and we are ushered over to the picnic tables and told on the way to pick a drink out of the fridge. Soon enough a lady comes out with a big tray of pre-wrapped pita Shawarmas, and we all raise our hands when our ‘meat’ type is called out. Amazingly, there are plenty selections and Amy gets exactly what she wants and now has had plenty of time to decide. I appreciate how things always work out for her. We sit there at the picnic tables passing the few bottles of sauce up and down the table to juice up our pita lunches. They are a little dry without it, so the sauces are in high demand.
We are all required to pay for our lunches, so we head up to the cashier and now there are new options including espresso! Yes, please. I mostly don’t get coffee in the morning now because what is offered isn’t great and because I don’t really have time to sit there and enjoy it before we need to leave. I also decide to take a package of shortbread/chocolate cookies to go, on the shelf filed with impulse buy selection items. I can’t read the package, but the picture looks right. I think these will be the perfect treat to accompany my coffee and as an after-dry-pita-sandwhich chaser. Just like I thought, it was all very good and hit the spot.
Capernaum
Just as quickly as we arrived at the road side stop, we are loaded back up on the bus to head to Capernaum. This town was cited in all four gospels where it was reported to have been near the hometown of the apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, as well as the tax collector of Matthew. Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit, He healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, it is also the place where Jesus healed the servant of a Roman centurion who had asked for his help. Capernaum is the location of the healing of a paralytic lowered through the roof to reach Jesus, and where Jesus healed 10 men from leprosy. This town was the site of many miracles as Jesus selected this town as the center of his public ministry in Galilee after he left the small mountainous town of Nazareth. The Bible says Jesus ultimately cursed Capernaum with these words at Matthew 11:23 ‘”And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.”
We spent some time looking at the archeological sites there – which were fascinating – the ruins of Peter’s house, ruins of a Roman period town, the Synagogue, and olive press from Roman times, among other things. Elin also had us sit down alongside the Synagogue ruins and gave us some more history. Again, I listened to her for about 5 minutes and then found myself distracted. I wish I connected more with her teaching style, but I really didn’t. I got up and started taking photos which was also a nice way to spend the time there.
Mount of Beatitudes
Next we headed to the Mount of Beatitudes which is a hill in northern Israel where Jesus is believed to have delivered the Sermon on the Mount. As you walk around the site, there are tiled plaques around that have different parts of the Beatitudes written. At first I didn’t see this and as we were walking towards the center Amy is saying different parts of it, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ I respond, ‘Yes, good.’ Then she keeps going and repeating phrases that are part of the Beatitudes, I am so impressed thinking she memorized the whole thing. Turns out when we are walking back down I see the plaques and say, ‘Cool, look at this plaques that show the Beatitudes.’ She said, ‘Yes, that is what I was reading on the way up,’ and she winks. LOL. I had no idea. There is a church at the center of the mountain that we checked out, but I preferred to be on the outside and enjoy the outdoors like it might have been in Bible times.
Jordan River
On to the Jordan River where people who wanted to, would have the opportunity for baptism in the River. Again, this is a well-orchestrated tourism hot spot where they run groups through the area in an efficient manner to have the opportunity to get dunked in the Jordan River. Many from our tour group wanted this opportunity – even though they were already baptized, they wanted an opportunity to recommit their lives to Jesus. Amy and I decided the water looked cold and we didn’t want to get our hair wet, besides we have already been baptized. Hey, just being real here! Ha, ha.
The pastor who baptized them asked before the went under if they would give a public testimony about their life in Christ and salvation. It was touching to hear their stories and I felt a heart of love for each one I heard testify. They all had to wear this thin white gown over their swimsuits, to keep everything modest and consistent. The thing is though, as soon as that gown got wet, everything underneath the gown was easily transparent and you could see everything, and I do mean everything. Unfortunately, the Canadian group near us didn’t get that message and didn’t wear anything under their white gowns. It was really awkward for them and for us. We just all politely averted our eyes and hoped they made it back to the dressing rooms quickly.
Dinner in Tiberius
Another group from our church with several good friends were also touring Israel around the same time. They left a few days later and would return a few days after us. This night was the one night when our trips would intersect, so we made plans to meet them for dinner. Our big tour bus pulled up in front of their hotel and dropped us off a little after 5pm. We told our group goodbye and said we would Uber back to our hotel. It was only about a 15-minute drive away. We hadn’t been in contact with our friends all day as their bus’ wi-fi wasn’t working so we had no idea when they would return. We figured it wouldn’t be too long though and sure enough it wasn’t! They pulled up in their big tour bus in 20 minutes. It was such a fun reunion in the lobby and always thrilling when you see friends you know from home on the other side of the world.
Dinner was amazing and we shared a great bottle of Israeli wine and I had lamb. Probably the best seasoned and tasting lamb I have ever had. And it was the best to share experiences with our friends that we have had so far and hear what they had done. Terry and Shelly ended up surprising us and picking up the bill. There were about 9 of us, so that was super generous and a fun surprise and this dinner definitely was better than the buffet option back at the hotel.
Locked Out!
After some shuffle we get in a nice cab – I think it was a BMW, but the driver spoke no English and me saying the name of our hotel was not helping. I am sure I wasn’t saying it right. It took the hostess coming out of the restaurant and telling him and then we were on our way. Whenever we were in a cab in Israel, I always put our trip in Waze to make sure we were headed the right way. I don’t know what I would have done if we weren’t, but anyway it made me feel better.
He drops us off and we think we are at our hotel, maybe outside the gate. It is in a lakeside location and set off from the road, so it isn’t so easy to tell. We start walking and think, no wait, this is like a power plant, our hotel is a little further up the road. We run into two guys who are hunched over a stove and grilling something off the side of the road. Amy asks, ‘Are you guys staying at the hotel.’ I’m thinking obviously no, and please don’t engage these homeless looking guys when we are on a dark road and not in front of our hotel. They respond, ‘No, we are camping over there’ And they point off into the bushes. Hmmm. I just keep walking.
Less than 100 yards away we land in front of hotel and the big iron gates are locked. We can’t get on the grounds! It’s only like 8pm, so we are thinking. ‘What is up?’ We try pressing the buzzer. No answer. The gate is too tall to climb but then we think maybe Amy can fit through the slats of the iron gates, she is pretty thin. Part of me wants her to, and part of me doesn’t as I don’t want to sit outside for any amount of time on this dark road. She can’t fit through. Hmmm. I ended up texting our friend Joanne from the trip and tell her we are locked out. She responds right away and tells us she will make sure someone opens it for us.
As she is already in bed in her PJs, she asks Ray, another guy from the trip to go to the front desk and go get us. He does this for us and within minutes he is at the gate an it is opening. Yay. We are no longer locked out. By now we are thankful that we have exchanged numbers with a few folks on the trip and we are enjoying getting to know many of them. We ended up talking to Ray in the lobby hour for a good 45 minutes and hanging out. The crowds of the Shabbat Friday were now gone, so really our group felt like we had the place all to ourselves.
We didn’t let ourselves hang out too long though, tomorrow was another travel day and we needed to get packed up (again). We felt like we just did this! But I was happy to be leaving the ‘don’t flush the toilet paper’ in the toilet place, so I packed up quickly. Tomorrow we would be headed through the mountains and towards our final destination in Tel Aviv.