THURSDAY:

Today was another exciting day, beginning with a boat trip in the Galilee.  Everyone on the trip seemed to enjoy this as much as I.  In fact, I consider it one of the highlights of the trip.  We crossed the northern end of the Galilee and landed in Capernaum -- the town Jesus lived in during his ministry in Galilee.  There, they have uncovered large sections of the street level from that time, as well as what is strongly accepted as the site of house of Peter.  While only the streets and lower few feet of dwellings are left, it was wonderful to see the places where they walked and lived.

We went from Capernaum to the site traditionally held as the place of the feeding of the 5000.  A church stands there today.   From there, we drove up the hill to the church marking the Mount of Beatitudes.  While it's certain no one knows the exact spot -- it's fairly certain one can gaze down the hillsides and know the Sermon on the Mount occurred somewhere within view.

We left the Sea of Galilee and began a journey north, following the Jordan river up to the area adjacent to Lebanon and Syria.  Our lunch stop was at the Kibbutz at Dan.  There are hundreds of these throughout  Israel.  Basically, they are collective farms/communities of Israelis who live and work together.  These were in large part responsible for the resettlement of Israel and the restoration of the land and agricultural system of the country.   They were and are by all accounts people of a pioneer spirit.  After our lunch stop, we went to  Dan, which contains many ruins from the time of Abraham and beyond, as well as one of the main sources of water for the Jordan river.  The fresh water springs were incredible and abundant.   From Dan, we proceeded to Caesarea Phillipi -- another of the spring sources for the Jordan, and containing a few ruins from the first century. 

Our last stop of the day brought us all the back down to the Sea of Galilee into Tiberius.  We went to a one hour multimedia show of the "Galilee Experience" which showed the history of Israel and the importance of Galilee in that history.   Zvi helped me find a camera shop in Tiberius where I could get my photos transferred to CD and get some more memory cards for the camera.  Amazingly, we made it back in time to see the show!

We ended another long day back at our hotel in Galilee.  Tired and satisfied, we're looking forward to our journey south tomorrow to the Dead Sea.