Day 14-16 Friday

Well, we made it back. Our Northern tour being complete, I shall now regale you with the details of the trip . . .

I got to sleep in until 6:00 am each morning! Yeah! We traveled North to Caesarea on the coast (not to be confused with Caesarea Philippi north of Galilee near Mt. Heron and the earlier city of Dan). This was amazing. Herod the Great built a harbor there and a fortress and palace. This is the place where Paul was incarcerated for about 2 years (Acts 23-26). They have the palace and administrative building excavated, including the room that was used as an audience room. This would (more than likely) have been the room where Paul addressed governors Felix and Festus! Amazing hippodrome (place where chariot races were conducted . . . ever seen Ben Hur?) is excavated. There are also Byzantine (3rd century-6th century AD) remains and Crusader (10th century-12th century AD) remains. Just amazing stuff!

From there we headed North to Mt. Carmel and stood atop a monastery building that commemorates the the ministry of Elijah, specifically the confrontation he had with Ahab and the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Got to see the plains of Megiddo/plains of Jezreel/Plains of Esdraelon from the top of Mt. Carmel (if your eschatalogical interpretation is so inclined, then this is the place where the Battle of Armageddon (har "mountain" megiddo "of Megiddo" and thus Armaggedon) will take place at the end times. We went to tel Megiddo (city that Solomon fortified and has gate structure just like Gezer where we are working, also Solomon's famed stables, also Josiah (king of Judah) died here in 609 BC trying to stop Egyptian Pharaoh, Neco II, from joining the Assyrians to fight against the Babylonians.

We headed towards the Sea of Galilee and stopped at Zippori. Never heard of it? Neither had I! However, this was the capital of Galilee (Jesus' home territory) during the 1st century AD. It is odd that the New Testament is silent regarding this very important city. It is within walking distance of Jesus' home town of Nazareth and Capernaum (Jesus' ministry headquarters). The site is completely amazing. We walked inside the underground water cistern (one of many we have walked since I have been here) at got some amazing pics. They have some beautiful and mostly intact floor mosaics. The original stone roads are in place and the deep ruts worn into the stone by carts and chariots are visible.

We stayed the night on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee at Tiberias. We stayed at a hotel called Hotel Arabel. Got the A/C going and it was not cooling down. Realized that it probably had a governor on it under the cover to keep people from turning it down and running the A/C. We wouldn't want paying customers to be comfortable or anything like that! However, what the management at the Hotel Arabel did not realize was that where there's a will, there's a Trey! (I made that up this weekend, what do you think? Not too ostentatious, is it?)

I pulled out my pocket knife, unscrewed the two screws holding the cover on and then used my knife blade to pry the thermostat dial up and over the metal governor tab. Now I could turn it down as low as I needed! As guys came by asking how/if our A/C was working, I gave them instructions and passed the knife around. They were paying me much homage that evening!

We decided to walk around and ended up walking about 1 mile downhill (yes, that's right downhill, which means, you got it, we had to walk uphill on the way back!) towards the Sea. The Sabbath (Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown) had just begun, so the streets were pretty quiet. Made our way to the sea and came to what was sort of like a boardwalk with restaurants, shops, people trying to sell you junk, etc., and it was not empty. Apparently quite a few non-practicing Jews in Tiberias and/or Palestinians. We walked around a bit and bought some Italian gelato (ice cream) and then headed back. It is interesting that ice cream is such a big thing here. Yes, I know it's hot here. But, it's hotter or at least, just as hot in Texas. But, they have ice cream stands every 50 feet. They are everywhere. Works for me!

I'll continue on the next entry . . .