Blogs from North District, Israel, Middle East - page 2

Summer was well underway with sunny and increasingly warm weather at our home in Israel. Unfortunately the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was also well entrenched here as elsewhere around the world. We had been stuck in various degrees of restrictions or lockdown for 4 months since our last festive gathering in March. Even worse it was 5 months since visiting our daughter in England, with no obvious end to the travel ban visible. In fact we had booked a vacation trip for August but that was cancelled in the spring. As readers of our Travel Blog can imagine, we really wanted a holiday break mainly for a change of scene. Flying anywhere was clearly off the menu. But our beautiful little country offers many interesting options, so we considered a number of destinations within Israel. Always fans ... read more

Wonderful experience to have a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. We have a Memorial Meeting (church service), and I was privileged to give the talk that morning. Jesus often spoke around the Sea of Galilee and some of his most well remembered acts took place on its shores. I spoke of how Jesus was come as a light unto the world and we, who are his followers, needed to be bright shine lights and not hiding our lamp stands under a bushel. The amazing, and that word will be used often on this trip, thing was the peace and quiet that we experienced on the sea. We also sang a hymn which must have been heard across the waters as we heard other groups once we reached shore.... read more

Visiting the Sea of Galilee was an absolute highlight. The water so calm, the acoustics around the sea compelling. Tucked in a little space is a piece of history well worth seeing. The following is from "Seetheholyland.net". The Sea of Galiliee yielded an unexpected catch in 1986 — the hull of a fishing boat old enough to have been on the water in the time of Jesus and his disciples. The remains of the so-called Jesus Boat were found in the muddy lakebed (the Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater inland lake) during a time of severe drought. The remains were 8.3 metres (27 feet) long, 2.3 metres (7.5 feet) wide and 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) high. This size would have enabled it to carry up to 15 people. Extracting it safely presented a huge ... read more

Stayed in a kibbutz type hotel on the Sea of Galilee. The drive after the border with Jordan was quite a contrast. Clean villages and garden areas were abundant. Being on the Sea of Galilee’s edge was something special to start the tour. The hotel, Ohalo Manor Hotel, lies between the magical landscapes of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. The flowers around the hotel were stunning, often getting comments from those on tour.... read more

Departing from Jerusalem today so met at 7:20am this morning to get bags into the bus and we got away at 7:35am. This is the first day we got some proper rain and the sky was quite an unusual colour. Took about one hour to get to Jericho where we visited Hisham’s Palace. This is an Islamic archaeological site from the 8th Century. It was destroyed by an earthquake. It is famous for it’s intact mosaic “The Tree of Life” but we were not able to see it. In fact all the floors were covered by cloth and dirt so we couldn’t see any mosaics at all. However it was still very interesting and one of the rooms had multiple columns reminding me of Luxor temple but on a much smaller scale. We then had a ... read more