Lots of places, lots of stuff!

(In front of the ruins of a theatre at Caesarea Maritima)


(The Valley of Armageddon)


(The Church of the Anunciation in Nazareth)


Good morning from the Caesar Hotel, Tiberius, on the lovely shores of the Sea of Galiliee. It was dark when we arrived last night, so I haven't seen much of the sea yet, but I intend to! Yesterday was an incredibly full day...we didn't cover a lot of miles, but we sure took in a lot of sites.

After we left the hotel, we drove north along the coast (Via Maris - The Way of the Sea) to Caesarea Maritima (different from Caesarea Phillipi). We passed one of only two power plants here in Israel; they import coal from South Africa. We went to Caesarea National Park to see the ruins of the palace of King Herod. The huge amphitheater there is amazing...we learned that the exit was called the "vomiturium"...you can imagine the jokes that came from that! We also saw ruins of an 18 mile aquaduct built by Herod to bring water to the area. Speaking of water, it is in short supply here. This is the first year since 2004 that they haven't had a drought, but they are still very conscious of preservation. A lot of the tree groves have a covering of black plastic to hold in moisture. Also, toilets at our last hotel had TWO buttons on top, a little one and a big one....you can let your mind wander with that one...

Land is very expensive here. They told us that most Arabs live in houses and most Israelis live in apartments. In Arab families, it is a father's responsibility to provide a home for his son...some families even start building on a room as soon as a son is born! Israeli boys and girls are required to do military service when they turn 18 (2 yrs for girls and 3 yrs for boys) and then they are in the National Reserve until they are 50!

We traveled to Megiddo National Park which overlooks the famed "Valley of Armageddon", which is part of the Jezreel Valley. Here they say that whoever controls the Jezreel Valley basically controls the country. We saw ruins dating back over 3000 years (wow!) and even climbed 183 steps down into a water tunnel...and yes, we had to climb back out! Then we visited ruins at Zippori (or Sephoris) National Park. It is believed that Jesus spent most of his life before starting his ministry here. And the common thought is that he was a stonemason, not a carpenter. Apparently there were few trees in the area, but there is certainly LOTS of stone! They believe this was truly a Jewish historical site because there are remains of so many miqvah (sp?) in the area. These were pools used for ritual bathing. The pools could only contain "living water" (water from God...from the sky or from the ground) and this water could only be stored in stone jars (stone was made by God, not man).

Then it was on to Nazareth to see the Church of the Annunciation. There is a grotto here where they believe the Angel Gabriel visited Mary. The whole church site is believed to cover the original site of Nazareth...which only had a population of about 100 people. It is believed that Mary was only 13 or 14 when she had Jesus...and the average life span of a woman at that time was only 18!!! Most women died in pregnancy.

We ended up at our hotel here in Tiberius. As I thought, this is a fun-loving group and we wandered the streets of Tiberius for a while after supper. I think we were the source of entertainment for many....Tiberius is apparently the Hot Springs of Israel...lots of tourists...mainly elderly. We fit in well.

I will now attempt to attach some pictures but if I fail, forgive me. We miss you all at home, but we are really having fun...weather is incredible...we have "sandal tan" on our feet (not to rub it in or anything!)

pam