Galilee Day 1

Really lovely day today. Started out with a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes, where there was, as ever, a chapel, surrounded by beautiful, well-tended gardens. (Run by the Franciscans, who seem to be good at simplicity and garden care.) After having a look around, we found a place in the garden where we read the Beatitudes aloud, facing lake Galilee. (No doubt Mike had us singing something too, but I have already forgotten exactly what! )

From there a short distance to the church has of multipllication, where the feeding of the 5000 is commemorated. A fairly brief visit, but long enough to read the story and explore the church a bit. As I may have already said earlier, I am getting a bit punch drunk on churches, since there seems to be at least one on every site that can claim any link to the gospel story. Some of them are real gems, though. I didn't find this one especially memorable.

The first major highlight of the day for me was our boat ride on the sea of Galilee. Almost as soon as we were in motion, they raised the NZ flag and played a recording of the national anthem, to which we all sang lustily along. (The two American couples that were also on our boat seemed to cope OK with that.) I presume that all the boats must have a good supply of flags and anthems at the ready for whatever group comprises the majority on any particular voyage.

At the turn around point, Mike had them stop the boat, and we had a reading of the story of Jesus calming the storm, followed by 5 minutes of silence. On the way back in, one of the crew gave a demonstration of putting out the nets as it would have been do everything in Jesus time. Then they put on some music and got us all doing some Jewish dancing on the deck (I think you would have enjoyed that part, F! ) Back on land, we spent a bit of time at the Jesus boat Museum, where they had a replica of a 2000 year old fishing boat that was discovered in the bottom of the lake in 1986.

The second major highlight of the day was Capernaum and because I am only allowed 6 photos per 'footprint' (not being a premium member of Find Penguins), I am going to give it a post of its own.Baca selengkapnya