Where Jesus walked

Travel to Jerusalem – Nazareth – Capernaum – Sea of Galilee and Jordan River

It’s been a couple of big days. Feeling quite tired so this may ramble – but a journey is more interesting with detours than a freeway.

Travel to Jerusalem

We left Sharm (finally) and were picked up by 3 people – a driver, a guide for the border crossing (all of 3 mins) and a manager. Was weird being outnumbered by those supposed to be assisting us. Trip wasn’t that exciting. But as I’ll mention later its great seeing places you’ve only read about in the Bible come to life. So glad I’m not an Israelite having to walk to the Promised Land. Certainly puts rogaining to shame, but at least they had a perfect compass.

We arrived at the border at Taba between Egypt and Israel. No problems except not much English on Israel side and before we knew it Mum’s passport was stamped with Israel’s entry visa stamp. Luckily I managed to avoid mine getting marked (cause some countries won’t let you in with that in your passport – crazy times but that’s only the beginning)

Picked up and taken to airport for flight to Tel Aviv. No problems and we were really early. Security heaps stricter – remind me not to roll my eyes at the questions next time. But do you really think a terrorist is going to answer yes to those questions? We were so early we went shopping (bad idea with Mum – she found an Israeli shopkeeper who regularly visits Australia and ended up buying half the shop!) The problem was that we hadn’t realised that time had changed as we crossed the border. So when we headed back thinking we were still early they were waiting for us in the plane. Stupid Australian Tourists...

Very quick flight and then driven to Jerusalem – very modern cities that we saw and seems quite fertile compared to our imaginations. Arrived at hotel which is fine and crashed knowing we had an early start next morning.

Nazareth

One thing I’ve realised this trip is that I’m pretty ignorant. Bit of a shock because I thought I had a reasonable idea of world events/history but so many details I am learning on this trip. If you don’t know the history of Israel it’s a fascinating read and actually being here makes it feel so much more real.

Our morning started at 6am at the hotel lobby. And we waited... And waited... Not fun when I could have been sleeping. Supposedly our bus was given the wrong hotel so we phoned up and finally got picked up. We headed north to Nazareth which is a thriving city – but mostly Muslim. I’m not going to get into a religious argument – mainly due to my ignorance – but found this sign a bit interesting. Israel is like a powder keg of conflicting religious dynamites waiting to blow.

Anyways, we visited two churches – one dedicated to Mary and one to Joseph. Forgotten the exact names but due to the holy nature had to wear a skirt thingo since I’d stupidly worn shorts rather than long pants. Amazing churches and just fascinating thinking Jesus had lived here for 30+ years. There were a few ruins but the fact it was a modern city built on top of everything made it a bit more difficult to imagine how life was. This all changed at the next location.

Capernaum

We headed towards the Sea of Galilee and the ruins of Capernaum. These ruins were pretty impressive and a church has been built on top of one of the houses that it is believed Jesus lived in. (I think) There’s still outlines of the houses and a bit of a reconstructed synagogue which was great to see as well. Again with the holy site, so again with the holy skirt.

[Foundations of houses with the synagogue in the background]

Sea of Galilee and Jordan River

Our next destination was the Sea of Galilee for a late lunch of loaves and fishes. Unfortunately we had to pay and another example of shotgun selling. You know it’s going to be bad when you’re just sat down, given food and then asked to pay at the end without knowing any prices. But when I’m next going to say that I ate fish by the Sea of Galilee? Also reminded me that I like my fish filleted – and not with eyes staring at me...

The typical tourist photo by the Sea – Smile...

The Sea wasn’t as big as I thought – you could easily see the other side – and was wishing there was a storm so I could see how scary that would have been. Saw quite a few speed boats (including wake board boats). That would have at least been one way to ‘walk’ on water! How incredible to ski or wakeboard on the Sea of Galilee – seems a little sacrilegious now I think about it.

Our final stop for the day was at the top of Jordan River. With the river drying up, the place where Jesus is believed to be baptised doesn’t have any water in it any more. So they’ve set up a touristy location to cash in but it still would have been special to get baptised there. We had limited time (and the water was an interesting colour) and we’ve got the chance to go the Dead Sea tomorrow so gave it a miss.

[Photo of Believers being self-baptised in the Jordan River]

So today off to the Dead Sea. Who knew that holidays could be so exhausting...

Week Ahead

Thurs, 15th of April Masada and Dead Sea

Fri, 16th of April Old and New Jerusalem Tour

Sat, 17th of April Transfer via Allenby Bridge to Jordan

Sun, 18th of April Petra

Mon, 19th of April Amman via Wadi Rum

Tues, 20th of April Amman and Jerash, then fly to Cairo

Wed, 21st of April Farewell Mum and head to London