We got to Galilee around 8 p.m. and found our hotel—the Tiberius Hostel. Let me just tell you that I know the one place you should NOT stay if you go to visit the Galilee! This was truly my third-world experience on this trip! We looked at our rooms, and my initial response was “lets get the heck out of here!” But Todd and Bob were making fun of us for being so spoiled, so we decided to give it a shot. I figured I was so tired anyway at that point that I could sleep anywhere…WRONG! I pull back the sheets to get in bed and immediately see big stains on them, in places where you don’t want to see stains. So I look under them to the mattress cover to make sure the stains aren’t fresh, and I see that the mattress cover has many more stains on it—in fact I thought it may never have been laundered at all. I got into my pajamas and tried out the “satellite T.V.”, one of the selling points of the Tiberius Hostel—3 channels, all in Hebrew. Great! Sue asks about the free breakfast, and the guy says, “we have a kitchen right over here, and you are welcome to cook any food that you want. It’s a filthy kitchen, with coffee that could have been there for days, with a microwave. Fabulous! Not only that, but we had just swam in the Dead Sea, and we wanted some soap—and the guy says, sorry, we don’t provide soap. Are you kidding me? Right before we went to sleep, I was sitting up against the headboard journaling, and Todd gets up, gets a shoe, and proceeds to kill a cockroach right above my head on the wall. Nice! Now I’m completely grossed out, and begging to get the heck out of here, but Todd says—we’ll be fine, and to stop making such a big deal. Meanwhile, he proceeds to get another sheet to wrap around him so he doesn’t have to lay right on the stained ones, then he curls up to go to sleep—fully clothed, including his shoes! And I am the one freaking out—right! There was one blanket left, but not knowing whether it had ever been laundered, I passed. I would rather freeze. Freeze I did! I woke up so many times I lost count. Todd told me to take a sleeping pill but after we had killed 3 cockroaches, I decided I’d rather be alert and awake than let the roaches crawl all over me and be sedated! At 5 a.m. I got up to see on my computer what time it was and Todd points over to the door and we see yet another cockroach crawling up the door frame—UUUGH! That was all the sleep I could handle, I got up and started to count the minutes down until we could leave this place. What a night! I don't have pictures of this place--cause I don't really want to remember it!We started our day meeting our guide, Michael Hansen, a member of the Galilee Branch of Israel, who would take us around and show us the sites where Jesus walked. He is an amazing person, with a truly photographic memory. He had so much information it was hard for my pea-sized brain to comprehend it all (especially going on so little sleep)! First we went to one of the most amazing exhibitions in Galilee, a museum where they have a 2,000 year old boat that someone found just about 11 years ago. The water level in the Galilee was down, and some brothers were out with their metal detector and happened upon the ruins of an old boat. It was very difficult to dig it up without ruining it because of the wood, and how fragile it was. They ended up having to cover the whole boat with polyurethane foam and transport it to a huge water tank where it took a few years to clean it, and figure out how to preserve the wood. It was so awesome to see a boat that Jesus could very well have been in so long ago. The construction was amazing.
From there, we went over to the Mount of Beatitudes. There is a Catholic church there now, but they have beautiful grounds where you can walk and look at the Sea of Galilee and think about the Savior. It was a beautiful setting for reflection. I stole a little flower from the ground to put in my scriptures to remind me of this place. It was amazing to sit and read the beautiful words of our Saviors sermon on the mount, and think about the people gathered in that place listening to this beautiful sermon. I wonder what they thought. When I sat and read it, I thought about all of the things I need to work on, (which are many), but my favorite part of the Sermon on the Mount comes in the end where Jesus tells us: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil therof.” Matthew 6:33-34. All we are asked to do is to set our priorities so that God is first on our list, and he will add to it.
From there, we went to an old 16th century monastery in Tabgha where it is said that Christ performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. What an amazing example that if we just trust in our Savior, and have simple faith, he will provide for us. There was a baptismal font there that dates back to the 5th century. There is also a huge olive tree in the courtyard of the church that is probably a thousand years old, you can tell by the huge base of the tree.
Then we went to the city of Capharnaum, where Jesus spent much of his life and ministry. In Jesus’ time, this was a little town that held probably close to 2,000 people. There is a statue here honoring Peter, and his being the rock that Christ’s church would be built. This is the place where Peter and Andrew were called by the Savior to be fishers of men. There is a church built here, right over top of the ruins of what used to be this town. It was amazing to walk through 2,000 year old ruins, and think about what this place was like when Jesus was here. There was even a carving in a stone that depicted the Ark of the Covenant. The scriptures take on a whole new meaning when you travel around and put them into context with the places where they actually happened. There were even the remains of what used to be the synagogue, and we were able to talk about the place they came to worship and pray, and where Jesus taught the people. It was amazing. 
We headed up to Caesarea Philippi—or the party place for the Romans. This was a place built by Herod, where the Roman citizens would come for fun, and pagan worship. There are 2,000 year old ruins all over this place as well, although most of it has been destroyed. They had several temples built for pagan gods at this site. They would come here to offer sacrifices to the Pagan God, Pan—sometimes these would be human sacrifices. They also had tons of fun sacrificing goats after making them dance. I don’t know about you, but to me, this sounds like a blast! It just tells you that even in those days, you had people who were worshiping worldly gods, and perverting the ways of the Lord. 
We drove up into the mountains of Mount Hermon, and saw Nimrod’s castle, a Crusader’s fortress, but we were too late to get in. It’s a beautiful huge castle overlooking the Sea of Galilee up near the border with Syria. 
We drove through a Druze Village to get up into the Golan Heights. They are an offshoot of the Muslim religion, and have communities that are mostly farming communities. We stopped for some apples, and honey. Then we stopped in the village at a Druze bakery for some Baklava! This was our first taste of Baklava, so we tried several different kinds…some okay, but I still prefer good old American desserts!
Next we went to the war memorial up in the Golan Heights, called the Valley of Tears, honoring the military that died there in a battle with Syria. 
You could see the lights of Syria right there in the distance, and it was crazy to read the signs that warned you about the land mines all around the area. 
Needless to say, we stayed close to the marked paths and roads! By this time it was dark and cold—and we had a LONG day, considering how it started out! We checked into the Holiday Inn Tiberias (YEAH!!!), and had a cockroach- free night’s sleep! Hooray!
They also have camels—and this is one of the ways they make money. We pulled off at a rest stop where you reach sea level to take a picture, and this Bedouin was there selling his wares and he also had a nice looking camel all dressed up there that you can ride. Todd and I decided to give it a whirl! He laid the camel down and we both got on—(I wasn’t sure he would be able to get up!). The camel got up and he walked us all around the parking lot, and we were able to get several pictures. In fact, the guy took my camera and became our photographer as well! He spoke such good English that we were all joking that he probably wasn’t Bedouin at all, but he was probably from New Jersey and makes more money here in Israel giving camel rides along the roadside! It was a lot of fun!
When we got inside the van, Bob was having a hard time with the immobilizer for the van, and we couldn’t get the car to start. We sat there for about 5 minutes while the Bedouin guy was giving another couple a ride, then he came over to our car and Bob rolls down the window, and the guy says “give me”, referring to the keys. He did something and then told Bob to put the code in and sure enough the van started right up. We were laughing so hard, and Bob was like—“Me just stupid American”, and the guy starts laughing and says, “Yes, me no education, you much education…” Too funny! The old Bedouin camel guy in the desert knows more about our cars and cameras than we do!
When they were translated they turned out to be the oldest copies of the Old Testament and the Torah that have ever been found. Some of the ruins in this area were dated back 5 or even 6,000 years, making them some of the oldest ruins ever found. Most of the ruins at the site, however are believed to have belonged to the Essenes, a sect of Jews that set up sort of a collective religious community, almost like a commune, or a monastery. They found huge areas which would have been used for cooking and dining, as well as several cisterns for holding water, and large baths for ritual washing purposes. The Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by many to be one of the most important archaeological finds in history. This was a fascinating site.
When you read about King Herod, you understand why he wanted to build his vacation home up in a huge canyon. He was very paranoid of everyone around him, and is even accused of killing 3 of his own sons because he thought they had double-crossed him. Herod was a fabulous builder, and many of the ruins we have today have lasted over 2,000 years. We took a cable car up to Masada, although we could have taken a path called the snake path all the way up to the mountain, but it takes an hour to hike there. The cable car ride was awesome, and gave us a chance to look out over the canyons and the Dead Sea at the scenery around the huge canyon. It was beautiful. Masada was amazing—the pictures we took seriously do not do it justice. The ruins that were left here were added to so that you could get a better picture of what they looked like during Herod’s time, but everything below the black line is ancient, and over 2,000 years old, including paint and mosaic tile looking floors, plaster walls made to look like marble, as well as huge pillars and ancient stairways. Herod built three large palaces, on different levels of the canyon, as well as a lookout tower, storage basins for food, cisterns for water storage, and huge bath houses to socialize and clean themselves. The bath house had a cold bath and a heated bath with a raised floor and some way of heating the water. It’s amazing the technology of this place when you think about how old it is. 
After Herod died, this place was basically deserted, and in later years was occupied by part of the Roman army. In A.D. 66 a small group of Jewish zealots attacked and overtook the fortress. They brought their families there, almost 900 people, and lived off the vast amount of food and water available at the site, also arming themselves to protect their little community. In A.D. 73, 3 years after the Romans had conquered Jerusalem, they decided to send the vast Roman army up to the place called Masada to deal once and for all with the Jews who were the last remnant of Jewish resistance in the region. It took 10,000 Roman soldiers who built a siege ramp up to the mountaintop, using captured Jews as slaves. Daily, they hit the fortress with rocks, flaming torches, and battering rams, but the people of Masada would fight back with their own rocks and weapons, drawing the battle out, and testing the Roman’s patience. You can see all around the fortress, the Romans built camps and a huge wall encircling the entire fortress so none of the inhabitants of Masada would be able to escape. Finally, though, there was a huge battle and the Romans were able to breach the main gate of the fortress. This happened at night, and the Romans went back to their camp, ready to take control of the fortress in the morning. The inhabitants of Masada, had a meeting, knowing that tomorrow they would be made slaves, and had a decision to make—be slaves, or die. The decision was made that they would rather die than be slaves to the Romans. In Jewish law it is a sin to murder, but the more grievous, unforgivable sin was to commit suicide. So the men all killed their own wives and children in the town square, slitting their throats. The men who were left cast lots to see who would murder the others. 
Ten men were chosen, and those ten murdered the rest of the men. When they were done, they cast lots to see who would be the one to murder the others. One man was chosen, and he murdered the nine, and then killed himself, knowing that this was an unforgivable sin, but doing it for his fellow countrymen. The next day, the Romans came in to find an indescribable scene of blood and carnage. A huge pile of bodies in the town square, and only two women and a few children who were left behind to make sure that there was someone left to tell their story. This is a famous pilgrimage site for Jews everywhere, and a famous saying is “Masada will not fall again.” This was such an amazing story—and an amazing place!
From there, we headed over to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is between 30 and 35% salt, and is full of minerals. They say that people have come from all over the world to bathe in the Dead Sea hoping to cure all kinds of diseases. This was such a fun experience.
It was a little cold and windy, but not freezing, so we went down and got in the water. It took a minute to get in, but once you got down deep enough, we just leaned back and you just float on top of the water like an innertube! It’s impossible to sink—even if you’re fat! After swimming for awhile, we went over and dug a hole in the sand to get down to the mineral rich black mud that is supposed to be amazing for your skin. Bob and Sue were very adventurous, and spread it all over their bodies—even their face! I was a little less and just did my arms, chest and back. Todd took some video of the spectacle, then we helped him with a mud bath as well. It was actually pretty gross and kinda stinky—and I couldn’t wait to wash myself off, so we hopped back in and washed ourselves off.
Sue and I sat and rubbed the coarse sea salt all over our heels for a little salt pedicure. It was so much fun! When we were sufficiently exfoliated we went over to the hot sulpher springs to relax and get warm. The sulpher is supposed to be amazing for healing all sorts of diseases as well, but to me it smelled like we were bathing in the toilet! Thank goodness they had showers in the restroom so we could wash ourselves off and get dressed before we got on our way! Otherwise our car may have smelled like a big sewer the rest of the trip! 
This was such a fun part of the day, and a once in a lifetime opportunity! I can’t believe we floated in the Dead Sea! I was so sad because the gift shop closed right as we were finished getting dressed, and I couldn’t buy me a “I floated in the Dead Sea” t-shirt! Darn—I guess we’ll have to come back again someday!
Next, we went to the Church of the Nativity. We met a member of Bob and Sue’s branch here, who is a Palestinian who lives here in Bethlehem named Sahar. This is the church that stands over the location where Jesus was born in a stable. This church, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is shared by different Christian churches. The largest chapel is owned by the Catholics, but that is because the holiest site here, the birthplace of the Savior, is owned by the Greek Orthodox. You can tell the parts of the church that are Greek Orthodox because they love to put tons of candles and lanterns hanging everywhere. I told Sue, it seems like they like to really junk things up—but I guess that’s just because I’m not used to those types of churches. The whole Orthodox wing of the church is built to be in the shape of a large cross. First we went down into a cave where St. Jerome lived while he translated the bible into Latin. 
They said that it took him over 3 years, and he lived down in this cave while he did it. Then we went into the Grotto of the Tomb of the Innocents. This is the place where they say that the innocent children that King Herod had killed are buried. It was kind of creepy because they have several tombs with bones and skulls in them, and then a shrine set up to pay your respects to the dead. Some of the skulls seemed too big to be children, and they say that several mothers would not allow their children to be killed and would stand in front of them, so they ended up dying with them. Such a sad story, because you have to think that some of those mothers left other children orphaned, having to choose between letting a child die, and dying trying to protect them. So sad.
We went down in, and waited for a group of Asian people, and listened as they sang “Silent Night” together. It was so touching. Then, Todd and I had a chance to bend down and touch the star that marks the spot where they say Jesus was born. 
There is also a star as you look up from the spot. This moment was kind of surreal for me. I can hardly believe we are here! Then, you walk down into another cave where there is a shrine where the manger would have been. Many people actually come and leave gifts here for the baby Jesus. They didn’t have anything there when we were there, but they told us that people will leave money, rings, watches, diamonds, notes, flowers, you name it—and they actually have a place upstairs where they put the things into a framed shrine to Jesus. 
On the opposite side of this little grotto is a shrine to the wise men who came to bring the Savior gifts.
It was hard to imagine what the site must have looked and felt like over 2,000 years ago when Christ was born. This was nothing I would’ve imagined. Yet, there is a reverence and awe that you feel as you realize that this was the place where the man was born that would save the world. I am so grateful for Him, for his mother, Mary, and his earthly father, Joseph. I am so grateful for their willingness to be obedient, to be humble, and to be strong. What an experience.
They say that the Israelis control their electricity, their water, and in some cases steal their land. They don’t have any freedom to come and go as they please, and in large part can’t even enter Jerusalem or other areas of Israel simply because they are Palestinian. She believes that the Hamas government was elected because of the sheer desperation of the Palestinian people, and because they are sick of compromising with the government, and sick of having no representation. She doesn’t agree with them saying that Israel should not exist, nor does she condone the murder on either side, but she did say that the Palestinians are a people without a home, and without any representation, and that is very frustrating. 
Another thing that is an issue is that Jews keep moving here from all over the world, and building new settlements which encroach on what used to be Palestinian land. That is why they call it the “occupation”. 
It’s a hard situation, and it was nice to hear her side of the story. While I didn’t agree with everything she said, I was grateful for her perspective on the situation, and think that from now on when I look at the conflict over here, I will see it in a little different light. The drive home was beautiful coming into Jerusalem at night. I still can’t believe we’re here, it is so hard to describe what a unique experience this has been. These pictures certainly do it no justice--but I tried! I am so grateful we were able to come here.
