Thoughts On [insert religious topic(s) here]

After finishing the blog last night on the plane, I only managed to get 30 minutes of sleep. I was exhausted (still am) when we got off the plane at Ben Gurion. We collected our entire luggage and headed out to our tour bus. At the bus I met Ruthie, Jac’line’s friend from Jerusalem and our tour guide. We got on the bus and headed out towards Caesarea, our first site of the day. (I realize that was a bit rushed, but really, nothing exciting happened in the airport). Mind you, it is only 10 AM Israel time and we have a whole day of sightseeing ahead of us.

Once on the bus we drove north out of Tel Aviv and along the Mediterranean coastline-think A1A or US 101. The trip to Caesarea took about an hour. While we were driving, I took the time to load a few geo-caches into my GPS that were at Caesarea. Yes, that’s right, geo-caches. That will be my own little adventure piece for this trip to the Holy Land. Many of these caches require the seeker to really search the location and I’m looking forward to exploring at these ancient structures.

Caesarea Maritima-not to be confused with Caesarea Philippi, the city where Jesus rebuked Peter-was an ancient port city built by Herod. It was conquered at various times throughout history and therefore has a few different types of architecture. The first structure we went to was the amphitheatre. It was pretty big, probably seating 10,000 but had been converted into a modern amphitheatre with lights, sound system and staging. Needless to say, that took away from the ancient architecture a bit.

We were given an opportunity to explore for about 15 minutes (a bit short eh?) and here are some pictures of other structures at Caesarea Maritima:

The hippodrome (pictured here) provided the Romans with a place for chariot races and other exhibitions. This particular hippodrome only had seating on one side. The seats were pretty good seats though because they face right out to the Mediterranean.

Out in the distance is a part of the Caesarean aqueduct.

We left the major Caesarean site and went about 3 miles north to another part of the aqueduct. This part happened to have a geo-cache hidden at it. I took a picture but then went looking for it. I found the particular arch that was supposed to have the cache, but couldn’t find the cache itself. Hopefully I’ll find at least one cache in Israel.

From Caesarea we headed north towards Mount Carmel. The bus took us straight to the top of Mount Carmel, to the summit where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to prove the power of Yahweh against other gods. A monastery has since been built on the summit. We travelled up to the roof of the monastery where Richard and Jac’line gave us all a brief summary of the conflict between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The mountain offered a view of the entire valley of Armageddon as well as Tel Meggido, Mount Tabor.

Richard reading 1 Kings 18, the story of Elijah and the prophets

The city of Tel Meggido from Mount Carmel

In case you didn’t know, Israel is seven hours ahead of Florida. So when it is noon in Florida, it is 7 PM in Israel. So by the time we left Mount Carmel at 5 PM, it was 10 AM in Florida. But I had woken up at 6 AM to leave at 7 for the airport so I had been up for 28 hours with about one and a half hours of sleep on the planes; all this to say that on the ride from Mount Carmel to the hotel in Ginnosar, an hour and a half drive, I slept.

Our hotel in Ginnosar is on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. It’s run by people who live in a kibbutz a half mile to the north. After getting settled in the room, and almost passing out on the bed, we went to dinner and enjoyed a buffet meal of stir-fry chicken, hummus, vegetables and roasted eggplants. There was other food, but until I become a more adventurous eater, I’ll stick with what I know.

Following dinner we had a brief devotional service where we all collected ourselves, took a break, and sang some praise songs. The backpacker guitar played pretty well though I’m still thankful for the choir members on the trip. We also received our “secret friend” for the trip. This is someone who we are supposed to do good deeds for throughout the trip, encouraging them and building a relationship with them. I’m really looking forward to getting to know my “secret friend.”

I went for a walk after this, down to the shore. Along the way, I ran into a security guard at the hotel who I had met earlier in the evening. He spoke some broken English which was better than any of my Hebrew. We walked for a while talking about political affairs in Israel. He is very frustrated with the current government and the way it is abusing the environment as well as the people of the country. He had some very choice words for the government, but basically, he finds the government to be stupid, inept and afraid to do anything.

I’m still looking for a wireless signal so I can upload this post and the previous one. Hopefully I will find one soon.

Shalom,

Mat

Geo-cache count: 0 for 1