On Thursday, we got up and it was SO windy on the Sea of Galilee. Despite the wind, it was still so beautiful and such a site to see. Rachel was not feeling well in the morning so she stay at the kibbutz with Sam for the morning while Eric, Elaine, Nana, and I went to Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, and the Ginosaur museum. Here is a map of the day...:
And a close up of how close we got to Syria that day...
At Capernaum, we read Matthew 4 and Luke 5 before walking around the site about when Jesus called fishermen as his disciples. Then we walked through the site and saw the white synagogue that was built on top of a first century synagogue made of basalt believed to be where Jesus taught.
millstone at Capernaum
After Capernaum we went up the hill to Mount of Beatitudes...
Sea of Galilee from Mount of Beatitudes
We went in and around the small church on the site and then we walked around the gardens outside. It was such a beautiful day and the views were gorgeous, I just never didn't want to leave! Inside the church were all of the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-10. We then drove back down the hill and over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to Ginosaur where the 2000 year old boat is held. The boat was found under water and is believed to be the same type that Peter, Andrew, James, and John would have used at their time. It also would have been one of the boats used at the time.
This is a picture of how boats were constructed on the Sea of Galilee 2000 years ago with all the different types of wood.
The 2000 year old boat!
The museum where the boat is held
Then we went back and picked up Rachel and Sam and started heading North through the Hula Valley toward Lebanon to find lunch and on our way to Caesarea Philippi. We found a place in a mall in the city of Qiryat Shemona, which is the second most northern city in Israel, right up next to Lebanon! Oh what an interesting experience lunch was! This mall was strange and EVERYTHING was in Hebrew! We finally were able to find a small English menu with basics on it to order, but the people who worked there didn't really speak English so it was difficult to order. We finally got our food and Nana wanted salt, so I went up to the counter and tried to ask for salt and they had no clue what I was asking for so instead they just gave me Thousand Island salad dressing. And this is what our our lunch looked like...
Mystery Meat hot dogs!
Oh what an experience this trip is...
We then headed to Banias, Caesarea Philippi, but they were closed when we got there so we just looked at it from outside the gate and read some scriptures. It was here that Peter declared that Jesus what the Christ. Then we drove through the Golan Heights along the North of the country.
Driving through the Golan Heights we passed some Druze communities and then went to the lookout to look over Syria. We saw Eric's Druze friend who sells delicious apples and dips and we looked over just 1/2 a kilometer at Syria!
Druze community
Wall at the boarder of Syria
Eric's blog has more detailed and historical information about the different places we visited this day as well.
