Haifa, Israel

Haifans Call It the Bullet

We arrived at the “San Francisco of the middle east” at 8:00 this morning. Today was our tour to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. I vaguely remember some of those Sunday school lessons and wish I had listened more. We did pull a fast one though. We watched the tour buses pull in early this morning and used the binoculars to pick out the bus our yesterday’s guide Shai was in. He had told us last evening he was coming up to Haifa for the Nazareth tour. We had enjoyed our day with him so much yesterday we decided to give it a try and requested his bus number when they were handing out bus assignments in the lounge. Easy peasy!

Church of the Annunciation

Inside the Church

Nazareth was the place where Jesus spent his early years. We stopped at the Basilica of the Annunciation where Mary learned from the angel she would bear the son of god. Kind of the bible’s version of a positive pregnancy test, I guess. Anyway the building was spectacular. The guy ahead of us was not allowed on the grounds – he wore shorts. Women must keep their head and shoulders covered and the keeper of the gate wasn’t the least bit shy about making sure these rules were followed. He was telling males and females alike what they needed to wear to get in. When we entered the church there was a mass in progress – they still allowed all the tourists in –and the priest broke out singing “Ava Maria”. The acoustics in the huge main church were amazing.  Besides Mary’s house nearby  there was Joseph’s church supposedly built over his carpentry shop. She really was the girl next door! With this many tourists a bathroom break had potential to be a lengthy ordeal. On top of needing to pay to get in – 0.50 E – there was a very long line up. When Norma got into the line everyone was looking at their watches as we all had a time to be back on the bus. The lady in front, with a very strong German accent, suggested using the mens so that is what we did – in and out in a flash! How innovative of us.

Arab Nazareth itself was chaotic as opposed to quiet Jewish Haifa (being a Saturday).

Sea of Galilee

We then headed to the Sea of Galilee and the sights in that area. We can see how you could spend months and not see everything there is in this country. This would be a particularly wonderful experience for any practising Christian (or Moslem or Jew or. . .). We were told at the start that we would stop at three churches, which we did. We were to stop at Tiberius to learn how the Jews pick, cut and present diamonds along with an opportunity to purchase. For some reason wires were crossed and the area was locked up so we – the occupants of the bus – voted to bypass it. We went to lunch at a resort at Ginosar on the shores of the “sea” (it’s a lake. . .) – another great meal – lots of Arab specialties to sample.

Next stop was Tabgha, where Jesus was supposed to have walked on water and multiplied the fish. Norma’s theory – no insult to believers intended here – was that he stood on one of the many submerged rocks you could see near the shore, had fished there the day before and knew the fish were going after grasshoppers, so got the men all using that for bait and the fish catch was ample.

Religion is the major business here. Many conversations with fellow bus mates about being believers or not. Anyway we did feel the waters of the Sea of Galilee and one lady from our tour filled a small bottle to take home for her grandchildren’s baptism.

Capernaum was next. This is more like an archeological site. They have built a new church totally suspended over the pillars and stones walls of the site where it is believed Jesus preached. This was very interesting. You could almost feel the people of old walking around, pressing olives for oil, etc.

Capernaum Site

The third church/synagogue was atop a mountain – very beautiful grounds and wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee. This was the Mount of Beatitudes and as the tour guide stated each one of us probably breaks one of these each and every day. This was a wonderful church to boot. We were told to visualize the multitudes on the hillside (waving their cigarette lighters as Jesus preached?).

Our last stop was the River Jordan baptismal site – though it is disputed that this is not the true site of Jesus baptizing his followers people come here in droves. For a fee you can purchase and don a white gown and go into the river to baptise yourself or family members. There were many people doing this, singing, chanting, etc. The one and only lady from our bus that was going to go in chickened out when she saw the size of the catfish frequenting the baptismal site and their big mouths! Our tour guide aptly described it as a “religious circus”.

Baptisers

Remains of a Baptiser After the Catfish Finished

Soon after it got dark very quickly (they are on standard time here already to reduce fasting time to dusk) and we returned to the ship.