Miss my family, who are far flung, and Christina, Chase, Haley and 3 cats who are with me in Virginia ... as all do who left loved ones at home!
Miss my great church family, without whose generosity I could not have made this trip.
All of you are with me!
Ugh! Up at 6:30am (11:30pm your time)
We checked out and headed out!
Along the road ... cactus farm, vineyards, olives ... and just about every highway is lined with oleander and bouganvilla used as erosion control ... tallest object in Israel, the coal power plant smoke stacks at 1000 feet tall ...
Note - there are no nuclear power plants in Israel
Caesarea has the ONLY 18 hole golf course in Israel
First stop Caesarea ... a city built by Herod the Great to be a deep water port. Here, Peter witnessed to the first gentile believer Cornelius (Acts 10) and Paul was imprisoned and defended his faith (Acts 25, 26). The area was in ruins due to earthquakes, but was purchased and restoration started by the Rothchilds. Sites included: the partly restored 2nd century AD theater, a stage area with horseshoe shape seating, the coliseum where chariot races were held (Ben Hur represents it pretty well), and many other sites ... could have spent a whole day rather than 2 hours here.
Mike is a fount of historical information for us. thanks Mike (tour guide)
Next we traveled on to the Jesareal Valley, to Tel Megiddo. This Tel contains 25 layers, and 7000 years of history. Megiddo began as people lived in caves at this important crossroads. It was rebuilt so many times because of its controling view of the valley below. It is in this valley which it overlooks that Armageddon is prophesied to occur. The Tel was excavated as a project begun by the Univ. of Chicago in the 1920's. Of note at the site were feed troughs of stone ... mangers such as Jesus might have been laid in.
Along the way ... fields of corn, hay, sunflowers, castor, date palms... can see Mt Tabor and Mt Carmel
Arrive in Nazareth, which is hilly ... head to the largest church in Israel, the Church of the Annunciation (Luke 1), built over the spot Mary heard God's plan. It is actually quite a bit lower than the ground level on which the current church was built. On the second story is the current parish church. On the church property is a surrounding portico with large art pieces from myriad countries, all with the theme of the Annunciation. On the property are also other uncovered ruins.
Traveling on: we drove by Cana, where Jesus performed the miracle of changing water into wine; saw the Horns of Hattin, where Saladin defeated the English; drove to the end of the Golan Heights, and down into the valley of the Sea of Galilee, which is 700 feet below sea level! We crossed the Jordan River on its way to the Sea of Galilee (about 10 feet across). The whole area is beautiful and lush!
After curving around the north end of the Sea, we checked into our Ramot Resort Hotel. We were greeted with wine, and a fantastic resort dinner. Nice!
Rooms are very nice with a wide view of the Sea of Galilee. Room has a list of about a dozen kinds of massages that are available, but not time to get one, though sounds wonderful, and could sure use it!
And of course there was no energy after dinner to do anything but collapse!
Good night ... God bless.
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