From the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean

Saturday, September 21

It’s already our last full day in Israel. The time has gone by so incredibly fast and sadly tonight we said goodbye to our fellow travellers this past week and new friends and to our great CEO Jalal (and driver Mo). Tomorrow a couple of the group will travel home to NYC and 11 will carry on with National Geographic Tours by G Adventures to Jordan. We will do much the same tour in Jordan, however, we will be taking a Classic tour by G Adventures so that we can get to Aqaba to snorkel in the Red Sea which was not offered on the National Geographic itinerary. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Today was a little less frantic pace than previous days, but no less enjoyable.

We left the Sea of Galilee behind and headed west toward Nazareth where we stopped to see the relatively new Church of the Annunciation built around a cave where it’s said the angels told Mary that she was with child. It was one of my favourites of all the churches we’ve seen.

The collection of various country’s depiction of the Madonna is fabulous. Canada and the United States’ pieces were prominently displayed, but my favourite was a stained glass depiction from Brazil. We also stopped in to see nearby St. Joseph’s Church which, as is typical, was built over the remains of older churches.

Then we headed west towards the Mediterranean and the city of Haifa, the 3rd largest city in Israel after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The city is a blend of Jews and Arabs and appears to be very prosperous and modern from the parts we saw. After spending so much time in the ancient parts of cities and ruins for the past week, it’s a striking contrast. After a quick lunch (yes Phyl, Shawarma was again available) we stopped to take pictures from near the Sea up toward the Shrine of the Bab and the Baha’i Gardens a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The sight was pretty breathtaking even from so far away, with the manicured grass terraces making quite the splash up the mountain side. We jumped back on the bus and headed up to the top to see if from above and the gardens with the harbour of this busy port in the background was pretty spectacular. The shrine is the burial place of the founder of the Baha’i Faith, a religion I don’t know anything about and which will be one of my research projects in the winter months ahead.

While waiting for the group to reconvene at this stop Jalal told us that the genesis of our written numbers were the Arabs. Each number represents the number of angles in that particular number, or maybe not. Some articles I reviewed disagreed with that premise. More mid-winter research.

We headed south along the Mediterranean coastal road to the ancient ruins at Caesarea. King Herod was busy once again building in this area, including one of the busiest ports of the time. Pontius Pilatus, the prefect who presided over the trial of Jesus, is believed to have lived here, and there is a boulder with his name on it which we saw in the Archeological Museum that was taken from this site. This site was unique in all the ruins we’ve seen in that the decision has been taken to animate the site by building restaurants, shops and bars into the ruins. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It certainly does animate the site but does it take away from the site in doing so?

Something I haven’t seen in ruins before was a Hippodrome. No, not where you keep your hippopotamuses but rather a stadium for horse or chariot racing. It was long and fairly narrow with seating looking across the field and out to the Mediterranean. Would have been quite the sight.

We then made our way along the ocean to Tel Aviv, our final stop in Israel. If I thought Haifa was modern compared to the other places we’ve been, Tel Aviv took it up a notch. Even though it is the Sabbath here, the city was hopping. The streets in downtown and the outdoor patios of restaurants, bars and coffee shops were teeming with lots of young people. There are lots of english signs, and we even saw a motorcycle delivering Dominos pizza.

We stopped briefly at the spot where on November 4th,1995 at 9:40, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Yitzhak Rabin was killed on his way back from a celebration of the signing of the peace accord. There is a simple memorial that looks like blocks of stone that are uneven, like they were unsettled in an earthquake representing how the assassination shook the country.

After a brief rest at the hotel where we’ll spend a portion of the night (we have a VERY early flight tomorrow morning) we had a reservation at a restaurant in the Jaffa area to the south of Tel Aviv. Mo, our fantastic driver, took us along the ocean route and we were able to see the beautiful beaches that went on for kilometers, with all sorts of facilities along the beach. Families and couples, runners, bicyclists and people meandering all were enjoying the sunset.

We walked a short bit in Jaffa to a plaza where our restaurant awaited. It was a fabulous “cozy” seafood restaurant (although I had chicken) where we totally confused the poor wait-staff. For our dining enjoyment, (well, not really just for us) there was a stage set up on the plaza were there was an opera performance by 4 women. We had our own balcony view of the stage and were able to enjoy the accompaniment while we reminisced about a great week.

My head is still bursting with all I’ve seen, experienced and learned, and for me the best part, as it normally is when I travel, was the people. The people who spoke to us about the conflict in this region, with passion, from their perspective, the woman in the refugee camp doing so much for the people there, and the lovely lady who showed us around the kibbutz. The people we travelled with, who added so much to the experience. Our guide, Jalal, who did such a good job of keeping us on time, throwing in extra experiences when possible, adjusting the schedule when the election got in the way and to take advantage of less crowded times. And the random people we interacted with along the way.

Fun memories of cooking classes and dancing on a boat and shopping and walking, and walking, and walking, and the sad but important memories of The Holocaust Museum. And about a million pictures to sort through. Another winter project. Farewell, Israel, and on to another adventure in Jordan.