Phew. What a day. On the go from 8am to 6pm, with 5 major sights to see. The tour group is staying in 4 different hotels, depending on which company they booked with, which means not only a fragmented pick up and drop off schedule, but also different meal arrangements, which all means that we are not mixing much as we only see each other on the bus.
First up was Jaffa, which we'd actually walked down to yesterday, but it was good to have a few things pointed out to you. Jaffa is the old, historical port that pilgrims used on their trips to the Holy Land - where Simon the Tanner lived, where Solomon had the cedars from Lebanon for the temple shipped, and where Jonah tried to flee in a boat from God's mission which saw him end up in the belly of the fish. Saw the traditional house of Simon the Tanner, and went inside St Peters church this time.
Then it was off to Caesarea on the shores of the Mediterranean, which was actually the traditional capital during most of the last 2 or 3 thousand years. It's where the kings like Herod lived, as well as the Roman governors like Pilate, so when Peter was dragged before the authorities to give an account of his preaching, this is where he was brought. It was set out in a Roman layout like Jerash in Jordan, so we visited the theatre, the hippodrome, the main street and so on. Later on, it was also the crusader fort, and the place where the first crusade arrived (as they came by sea), and the place where the last crusaders were expelled. Wandered around the ruins of Herod's palace. Very extensive as, in it's heyday, it was capital of a large region, and Rome could be reached by boat in 10 days.
Then it was off to Megiddo, and the Tel Megiddo National Park which I had never heard of. Megiddo is at the intersection of the north/south and east/west trade routes which made it a vital place to control. It has been inhabited since the seventh century BC - that's 5000 years before Abraham folks. It has been a home to some 27 civilisations which all built on top of each other according to the archealogical digs, including Canaanites, Egyptians, Israelites, Assyrians and Persians. The British even fought the Turks there in WW1. To add to it's colour, Megiddo is also known by its other name - Armageddon. We saw palaces, stables, temples, and the huge underground granary that was so big it had stairs to go down and different stairs to come back up. It's big feature is the 70 metre long tunnel carved out of rock some 36 meters underground that tapped the source of the spring that watered the city, which until then was outside the city walls, and therefore vulnerable to enemy sieges. Almost 200 steps were needed to get down into it.
We had lunch at a kibbutz in Megiddo. Far from a poor self-sufficient community, it's actually a money making co-operative company. Not only was the food expensive, but then they applied a hugely discounted exchange rate if you wanted to pay in shekels (as all prices were displayed in US Dollars), and that added almost 25% to the cost, so we ended up paying almost $9 each for a bowl of soup.
Nazareth was next on the list, and we visited the Church of the Annunciation, supposedly built on the spot of Mary's house when she received word that she was pregnant, and Joseph's Church supposedly built on the spot where Joseph had his workshop and taught Jesus carpentry, conveniently situated in the grounds of the same church as Mary's house. The Church of the Annunciation itself is really beautiful, with three levels - a main level built around the remains of Mary's house, and an upper level with a full blown church for 3000. Both levels are adorned with mosaics of Mary submitted by probably 50 or so other countries which are pretty amazing. There is also a lower level which are the remains of the original Nazareth village, which was so small that they had to walk to the nearby town of Cana to celebrate weddings. It's certainly changed now.
Talking of Cana (note the seamless segue), it was our next stop to visit the church built on the supposed spot of the wedding house (an olden times reception centre) where Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. We saw original wells, the remains of early buildings, and some earthenware pots dug up close by. Again, it was a beautiful church - much smaller than Nazareth. It must have been more of a miracle than I had thought. Jesus obviously turned a huge amount of water into wine - nearby shops are still selling it today.
By now it was dark and cold, so we drove to Tiberias and started the various motel drop offs. Being Shabbat (Sabbath), the town was deserted. Luckily the hotel was serving a buffet dinner or we would have starved. Even better luck was that the cost was included in our tour. Not sure how they could prepare or serve it, or clean up after us on the Sabbath (or check us in to the hotel for that matter), but they did. The only concession seemed to be that there was no butter for the bread, and no tea or coffee available. Whilst the meal was lovely, the lifts we very unfriendly being on auto pilot, and everybody was being taken to floors that they didn't want to go to, so they were always full of people staying on till they eventually found their floor. Internet was offered on the ground floor only for about AU$5 per hour.
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