Friday, 24 October - Galilee and Golan Heights

We loaded the bus a little early, but then walked from the hotel for 20 minutes to the Church of the Annunciation.  The Franciscan’s built the 4^th church at the site, which was just completed in 1969.  They did extensive archeological work to preserve the ancient churches on the site and actually built the new structure ‘over’ them and made them the central focal point of the current worship space.

Front of the Church of the Annunciation

The main alter in front of the alter in the ancient churches'

Our next stop was the archeological excavations at Tsippori.  It’s almost a certainty, -based on its proximity to Nazareth and the rapid expansion going on at the time, - that Jesus & Joseph would have worked here…..

We drove on to Cana (water to wine miracle) and had light lunch.  The next was at a Benedictine Church in Tabgha, whose alter was over the stone on which Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes that fed the 5,000.

The new alter over the original stone.

It was just a short drive up the mountain to the Church of the Beatitudes.  It’s where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

View of the Sea of Galilee from the Mount.

We then went to Capernaum, which was the home of Simon Peter, and the town where Jesus spent a lot of time during his ministry.  The church here is very modern and recent.  It’s built directly over St. Peters house.  There were three subsequent churches built on the site, each larger than the other.  Through the floor of the new church you can see their old foundations.  The entire church is supported on 8 corners so that it looks like it’s suspended over the old churches.

Entrance to Capernaum

Looking through the floor of the new church.  The white piece of plaster below was from
the Peter's original  house.  Other churches were built around it.

The new church suspended over the ancient.

We then followed the coast up the Sea of Galilee, across the Jordan River, and up onto the Golan Heights to the Kibbutz Kfar Haruv.  One of their businesses is the Peace Vista Resort.  Each of us have our own private cottage overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the old Roman town of Tibirias on the other side.

Our Cottage

View from our front yard.....

The kibbutz dining room.

We met with two members of the Kibbutz in a meeting room that turned out to be real bomb shelter and then had dinner with them in the kibbutz dining room.

We bought a bottle of "Cana Wedding Wine".  There may be a miracle where we can turn it into an empty bottle..........