Northern Galilee to the West Bank to Jerusalem

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We started off Friday by driving down to the Sea of Galilee and along its banks to Tiberius. Tiberius was a Roman town named after the Emperor Tiberius, and it doesn’t actually have much to see. Mostly it was just driving through the town (not walking, because it was raining), though we did get to see an old Roman wall. We stopped for a latte (it seems we are going on a country wide latte tasting), and continued on.

Our next stop was the old Jewish/Roman/Crusader town of Zipori. Zipori was originally a Jewish city, and it was occupied by the Romans during the Jewish revolt. The city was saved by the city leaders making a deal with Roman generals not to fight. The town is now just ruins, except for a Crusader lookout tower. Walking down the ancient street, we could see the stumps of walls and pillars, and we could see the mosaics on the floors. The mosaics were really something! There were many simple designs, but there were also beautiful pictures and scenes. There were people and animals, as well as centaurs and other mythical beasts. The most amazing mosaics were in a synagogue and a rich Roman’s house. We saw one scene in particular, that depicted the life of Dionysus. Dionysus was the god of drinking and being wasted. He was probably the patron god of ancient fraternities. It showed a drinking contest and a pretty woman dubbed ‘The Mona Lisa Of The Upper Galilee’.

We moved on from Zipori to Nazareth, where we got another latte (Dad and I were very tired that day), and visited the Church of the Annunciation, the site of Mary’s home, where she was ostensibly told by God that she would have Jesus. The church was HUGE! It was extremely high, and had paintings around and in it of various depictions of Mary and the baby Jesus from around the world. On the lower floor there was the grotto where Mary’s house supposedly stood, and on the upper floor there was some kind of Catholic ceremony going on.

From there, we drove on towards Jerusalem, passing through several places of interest. First, we drove into the West Bank Palestinian area, and got to see first hand the Palestinian’s position. Many of the Palestinians had very poor looking shops or small farms, and lived in absolute hovels. It was a very interesting experience, to think how much we have, and how little so many people have. We drove on through the Jordan Valley, and even got to drive past Jericho. There is now a modern city of Jericho in the exact site of the ancient city of Jericho. Family, look it up. Friends, refer to your history textbooks.

We finally managed to get to the hotel, and crashed. However, we did first have a tasty but wickedly expensive dinner at the hotel. We went upstairs to discover, to our dismay, that we would have to pay for the internet! And there was a weak signal at that. What a rip off!

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Photos

The ammo factory
Some bullet making machines hidden under a Kibbutz that were used illegally to make bullets to fight the british and arabs in the War of Independence.

The ammo factory
Same as last picture

Tel Aviv
A view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa

Jaffa
A building in Jaffa

Caesarea
Herod's Temple

Caesarea
Some kind of ancient building

Baha'i shrine
The Baha'i shrine gardens

Akko
The Crusader escape tunnels

Akko
A Crusader castle

Druze
A Druze village