So now we shift gears. Instead of a private car and driver/guide, we use a very comfortable touring bus with driver AND guide. Instead of standing next to each other, the guide speaks into a radio transmitter, all 31 of us have receivers with ear bugs. We can be as much as 500 feet away and still hear the interpretations.
Tonight we are at Maagan Kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee just outside the town of Tiberias. Modest but nice facilities, particularly the shower after a "hard" day of walking the walk of the ancients as they built the cities of 3000 years ago.
First was Caesarea Maritime, on the shore of the Mediterranean north of Tel Aviv and Netanya. A city built by Herod as a harbor to please Augustus and to facilitate trade with Rome during the period in which Jesus grew up and began to preach. It saw many enhancements, particularly during the crusades and a palace for Pontius Pilot was built right ont he waters edge.
We then went to Megiddo. Megiddo today is a very large tel, or mountain top archeological site that, upon excavation, reveals a very large and sophisticated city that looks out on the main trunk road from Egypt to Lebenon at one corner of the Jezreel Valley.
Finally, we went to Nazareth and saw the Church of the Annunciation. It was built about 1961. It is a very beautiful, but very new church, but built right ont he spot where the small, and then insignificant, village of Nazareth was located when Jesus was born.
(for some reason, I am having trouble with transferring my pictures to my blog. I will try to get it fixed.)
In the meantime, know that it is very hot at the Sea of Galilee...200+ feet below sea level...a lot like death valley but with water, so it is very lush.
More later.
