Noon Report:

• Location: N 32° 49.26′, E 035° 00.10′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Clear
• Temperature: 16º C; 61º F
• Wind: SW 8 knots; 9 mph

Up this morning early enough to turn a couple of miles on Deck 2 before breakfast and still have time to make it to the theatre for the 8:00 excursion call.

Our group was out the door, onto the bus, and on the road by 8:15 – headed for the Sea of Galilee (this sounded like a less crowded option than Jerusalem).

Along the way we captured some bus window shots of the (green) countryside.

Driving by Magdela – home of Mary Magdalen

Capernaum – Jesus lived here 3 years

Leaving Capernaum we crossed the northern arm of Jordan River (on it’s way into the Sea of Galilee). Note the people floating down the river

Then we drove up the mountain range on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee to the top of the Golan Heights, a mountainous plateau that was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community recognizes the Golan Heights to be official Syrian territory and widely rejects Israeli military occupation, however an ancient Jewish city has been discovered there – Gamala (it is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars and was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE). The Golan Heights supply Israel with over one third of its water and are historically the site of many important battles. Israel is encouraging Jews to build many towns up here to cement their claim to the area as its strategic location overlooks all the farming settlements right below along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee.

Driving back down to Capernaum and further down the West side of the Sea, we stopped for lunch at a fancy restaurant right at the water’s edge. A stone out front pointed out the Gospel Trail that hikers now like to take from Nazareth to Capernaum (supposedly following the path Jesus took). After lunch we spent some time checking out the Sea.

We drove by Tiberius, still in ruins…

…on our way to the South end of the Sea of Galilee where the Jordan River exits and continues south along the Great Rift system until it ends in the Dead Sea. A tourism center has certainly picked the right location!

We returned to the ship with just a bit of time to spare before Church – where we arrived to find out that the leader (an Episcopal Priest) was sick. One of the other regulars said she would be leading but she wouldn’t give a message. So… I dashed back to the room and grabbed a story to tell them. I’m not sure they appreciated it. Perhaps a story sermon is something they just aren’t familiar with.

Then it was up to dinner before heading back to the Theatre.

Every so often they show a movie. Tonight’s offering was “A Man Called Otto” starring Tom Hanks. Cheryl had read the book and really wanted to see the movie so we had a date.

So that’s Israel. We left a lot undone but we were glad to see what we did. And we hope to get back in the future to spend more time in this corner of the world that is so rich in our history.

Tomorrow is a sea day where we try to post as much as possible ’cause the rest of the week is pretty much non-stop.

Can’t wait,
R

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Israelis live in “an island surrounded by land”. As they are surrounded by Arab Nations, they cannot drive out of Israel through a neighboring Nation to explore other countries – they can only leave by plane or ship. Upon checking in with our passports, we were given a separate stamped piece of paper but not a stamp in our passports because some countries will not let you in if you have a stamp from Israel! We were checked 3 times for our passports and ship cards – if you are Arabic this can be taken as harassment, if you are Israeli this is a cautionary procedure to keep you safe. As we have also run into these passport gauntlets many times visiting other countries trying to keep out people who are trying to sneak into the country – this seemed very typical.
• Kibbutzim are (usually agricultural) cooperative communities with a communal lifestyle (rather socialistic in their functioning). Though these communities predate the formation of the Israeli state following WW II they have seen increasing numbers since then.
• Several tour groups went to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Unfortunately today (Sunday) is Easter Sunday for the Greek Orthodox community and the Christian Ethiopians were blockading the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from the Christian Egyptians (which also kept our group out). There is an ongoing tension between Ethiopia and Egypt as Ethiopia is wanting to put a dam on the Nile River – which could cut off most of the water that Egyptians rely on.