Today is our last Jesus-themed day with a drive along the west shore of The Sea of Galilee, which is in fact a lake. The place names are familiar from stories told at Sunday School, but I don’t recall anybody mentioning how utterly beautiful the scenery was. No wonder Jesus wandered around preaching love, harmony and sharing your picnic. Our first stop, is indeed the site of the Feeding of the 5000; Tabgha and the German Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fish. Here as if the labour the point, the church is fronted with a pond full of fish. Next, the Mount of Beatitudes, site of the Sermon on the Mount. Here there is the octagonal church, each side containing a stained glass panel indicating whom Jesus said should be Blessed. The ... read more

On this morning’s itinerary is Caesarea, Herod’s port. The whole ancient town is now a National Park. In some places, such as the amphitheatre, the arichitecture is incredibly well preserved. In others, bits of statue and remnants of marble columns are sprawled around like a huge Roman jigsaw puzzle. Today’s ultimate desination is Haifa, a port city at the foot of Mount Carmel. Our hotel has overbooked and passed our reservation to the Templers Boutique Hotel. Their error is our gain as the hotel is immaculate, beautifully renovated and includes some very quirky toilets. The main attraction in Haifa is The Baha’i Gardens; 19 immaculate terraced gardens cascading down the mountain side. Our hotel is just metres from the bottom of the gardens. We try to enter, but are told the entrance is one level further ... read more

Today did not go as planned. We were going to the West Bank. The old man wussed out of independent travel so we booked a tour which departed at 7.30 am. I set my iPhone alarm for 6.30 am, giving us ample time to get up and make it to the meeting point, although it meant leaving the hotel before breakfast. Physically, East Jerusalem has been part of Israel since The Six-Day War of 1967, although this was declared illegal by the UN. A fact: Israel and Palestine both put their clocks back an hour in October, Palestinians on Satuday and Israelis on Sunday. So for one day, there is a time difference of an hour. It was that day. When we walked through the hotel lobby, breakfast was in full swing. It was 8 am. ... read more

Yesterday Christianity - today Islam and Judaism. We started with Temple Mount, location of the Al Aqsa Mosque, where Mohammed ascended to heaven, and the Dome of the Rock. The queue was massive, and entry was complicated by the fact that the old man was carrying contraband (a tablet) but we made it in eventually. The Dome of the Rock was spectacular in the morning sun, as was the and the view across Jerusalem. But there wasn’t much else to do, as non-Muslims aren’t allowed in any of the buildings, so we descended. At the bottom, The Western Wall, remnant of the original temple in Jerusalem. Again, we had to enter separately. The Ladies’ section was quiet and demure. It was a lot more lively the other side of the fence, where there appeared to be ... read more

The flight to Ben Gurion was uneventful, despite the Cadburys special offers in Duty Free, meaning a plane full of people armed with 'Fruit and Nut'. We arrived at the airport and tried to follow signs to the Jerusalem bus without success. We gave up and took a Sherut (shared taxi). Our fellow travellers included a family who lived not particularly on the way to Jerusalem, but we made it eventually, but a somewhat circuitous route. We were dropped at the Metropole Hotel, which was unfortunate, as we were staying at the New Metropole. Luckily it was only a few doors away from our hotel, and we traipsed up the hill and checked in. Our hotel was in the predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. It had seen better days. The biggest issue was the leak from the ... read more