Mt. Tabor, Sea of Galilee

Sunday, July 12. We left Egypt and flew to Tel Aviv. What a contrast! It was so clean at the airport and the restrooms were immaculate and no one waiting for a tip. Our guide was Ron Amos, an Israeli, and our bus driver Eddie, a Palestinian.
We drove to Jaffa, also known as Joppa, a suburb of Tel Aviv, and walked down old narrow city alleys. They were clean and felt medieval. We drove to Caesarea and saw old Roman ruins. Harod built the city and, since he was raised in Rome, that is the style. We saw an old Roman theater and the remains of a crusader fortress. We also saw the remains of the port of Harold the great, an aqueduct built by Romans and waded in the Mediterranean. It was warm and looked beautiful.
We then drove to the Carmel beach Hotel in Haifa, a very modern, new hotel. The food looked delicious and tasted delicious. We could eat everything and drink the water! Everyone pigged out on the salads as we had not been able to eat them in Egypt. Our room was clean and beautiful and everything worked.
The money is called shekels and the small coins argorot. The exchange is about 3.6 shekels to the dollar. The hotel had video screens set up as the soccer world cup would be played either the next day or the next.
Monday July 13. Haifa is built between the seashore and Mt. Carmel. There is a saying that Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays and Haifa pays. It is a hardworking city. We visited Mt. Carmel or Muhraka, the site where Elijah confronted the 450 priest of Baal. There is a Carmelite monastery on top with a large statue of Elijah. It overlooks the valley of Jesreel.
We dove to Megiddo and visited the tel there. 21 layers of civilization have been uncovered there. We walked through the north gate, built in the 15th century b.c. and walked through a water tunnel built by king Ahab in the 9th century b.c. There were people engaged in excavating under black awnings while we were there.
Next we visited Mt. Tabor, one of the places thought to be where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. The other place is Mt. Hermon. We were told that Pres Kimball felt Mt Tabor was the correct place. To get to the top of the mountain we had to get in 8-passenger taxis and drive up a very windy road to the top. It was a rather wild ride with Palestinian music playing. Another nice church is built on the summit.
We next drove to Nazareth, visited the site of an old synagogue and the Church of the Annunciation, a very modern church. We saw a place where excavations had uncovered a pavement dating to Jesus’ time.
Our destination for the night was the kibbutz Ein Gev, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, right across the water from the city of Tiberias. The main business of this kibbutz is their holiday village, also a famous fish restaurant, plus some farming. We stayed in a nice apartment that had a stove, sink and refrigerator. We had a back porch overlooking the village and part of the lake. The food was very good. That night instead of our usual talk we had a lecture on life in a kibbutz from a man from Connecticut. When age 19 he had come to Israel to see what a kibbutz was like; he enjoyed it and has been here ever since, about 27 years.
Tuesday, July 14. We started the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee to the city of Tiberius on the opposite shore to Ein Gev. When we were in the middle of the lake the boat stopped and Bro. Nyman played a tape of the tab choir singing "Master the Tempest Is Raging" and we all sang along. One of the crew threw a net over the side demonstrating fishing techniques of the past. Bro. Nyman said these modern guys never catch anything, but it was interesting to see.
We went to a museum where we saw a video about finding an ancient fishing vessel, dating to the 1st century. It was found in 1986 when a drought dropped the level of the lake. We then saw the actual boat, behind glass, and soaked in some kind of preservative.
We drove to the Sermon on the Mount siteand Bro. Nyman gave a lecture on the Beatitudes. The Church of the Beatitudes is a very lovely, modern one and the grounds were beautiful. We saw much bougainvillea, red, purple, pink, orange and white. We saw this all over Israel, such a beautiful site.
We walked along the lakeshore where there are some heart-shaped stones. This is supposed to be the site where Jesus asked Peter "Lovest Thou Me?..Feed My Sheep". It is called Peter’s Primacy. Bro.. Nyman told about Elder LeGrande Richards, that when he visited that place he took his shoes off and waded in the water.
We next visited the ruins of Capernaum and saw the ruins of Peter’s or his mother-in-law’s house; ruins of houses from Jesus’ time, these were of black basalt and must have been hot in the summer. We saw ruins of a synagogue built on the black stone foundation of the synagogue of Jesus’ time. We saw an olive press and a Roman milestone. More beatuiful bougainvillea in gorgeous colors. The flowers have been beautiful in Israel.