The strong howling wind on the Mediterranean Sea is a powerful force, a bit scary and totally amazing, cascading angry waves high upon the shore. Our hotel windows in Netanya, Israel rattled, yet we slept peacefully last night after a long day of travel, arriving in a new land.
Today as we rode up the coast in our tour bus with the ancient's 'Great Sea' on our left, we again realized its force. Unusually high winds have closed Caesarea by the Sea, one of the great port cities of antiquity (I think pre-4 B.C. probably counts as 'antiquity'!), yet we were able to get out of the bus to explore the aqueducts and marvel that they're still there in spite of the sea's obvious force.
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| Kellun & Mary (our leader) |
We headed on up the coast and then inland through the Mount Carmel Range, viewing sheep on the hillside and green fertile moist fields of lupine, scotch broom, field mustard, almond trees, olive trees, and winter wheat spreading into the horizon.
Our destination was Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel to visit the Church of the Annunciation, a holy site for Christiandom. (Don't you just love how three faith persuasions are mixed in that sentence?) Originally built in 350 A.D. and rebuilt at least three times, this multinational Catholic church stands on what is believed to be the site of Jesus's boyhood family home.
We also walked in the rain throughout the excavated ruins of Scythopolis, a Greco-Roman city constructed between 300 B.C. And 700 A.D.
Yes this is an ancient part of the world; our guide said, "History tailgates you here!"
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| Jim Fleming, our guide and teacher |
And now we're tucked in for the night in a kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with the lights of Tiberius, Israel glittering in the background. The water and the land and the history and the people are all beautiful and exciting and mysterious and just plain wonderful! Layla tov!
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| A gorgeous sunset on the Sea of Galilee |
Today as we rode up the coast in our tour bus with the ancient's 'Great Sea' on our left, we again realized its force. Unusually high winds have closed Caesarea by the Sea, one of the great port cities of antiquity (I think pre-4 B.C. probably counts as 'antiquity'!), yet we were able to get out of the bus to explore the aqueducts and marvel that they're still there in spite of the sea's obvious force.
