The day was filled with sightseeing: driving up the coastline and then heading to the Sea of Galilee by sunset. I didn’t post last night because I tired myself out with hand washing socks and underwear. 🙂

We stopped first in Caesarea, a harbor on the Mediterranean that Herod the Great loved so much he built his summer palace there. Excavation continues, but we viewed major architectural ruins–his swimming pool by the sea, an amphitheater for arts performance and a hippodrome for sports entertainment. Others who lived in this town included Pontius Pilate, Phillip the Deacon, and the centurion Cornelius. Both Peter and Paul visited, with Paul being imprisoned here for two years–before he was shipped to a prison in Rome.

Next we visited Mount Carmel, the spot where Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal and won a fiery contest there. Sadly, it’s also the place where Herod the Great murdered a wife and sons; he also built a pagan temple there. The Mt. Carmel church has a rooftop observatory with one of the most amazing views over Israel. We could see the Kishon Valley, Nazareth, Mt. Tabor (Mount of Transfiguration), Mt. Hermon, and part of the Valley of Megiddo (Armageddon).

Next we drove into hilly Nazareth, which is occupied by 80,000 (mostly) Muslim people. The Church of the Annunciation is a very elaborate church memorializing the purported spot of Mary’s house where the angel Gabriel appears to her to announce the birth of Jesus. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem during a trip to pay taxes and subsequent flight to Egypt, the family returned to Nazareth where Jesus enjoyed his childhood.

We also visited Nazareth Village, a first century farm re-enactment that explained wine making, olive oil pressing, carpentry, weaving, and irrigation terracing for crops. We saw a donkey and some sheep. I was surprised to learn that Joseph and Jesus were not just carpenters but also architect/home builders with wood and stone. That information is derived from the original Aramaic writings about Jesus.

We ended the day’s touring with a literal run up a steep hill in the town of Cana to the revered site of the wedding feast where Jesus turned water into wine–Jesus’ first miracle. Our guide begged to have the priest open the church which had just closed minutes before. As we stood in the courtyard, fireworks at a nearby wedding feast exploded, and a Muslim call to worship sounded in the background (hear video of the call).

We hopped back on the bus to go a few miles to our hotel on the Sea of Galilee in the resort town of Tiberias. Thankfully, we will stay here three nights and take tours into the northern sections of Israel. We’re definitely out of the desert now!