Trip Day 28 - in Tabgha

Thursday September 28

After four days of being very physical this Pilgerhaus is just wonderful and we are thoroughly enjoying it. 

View from our window at 6:48 am. 

Breakfast at 7:30 am. Afterwards we just want to go to the water's edge of the Sea of Galilee. 

The hotel's map on a big rock in front. We are in room 239 in E. 

That's me taken by James. 

Always like to see flowers. 

James checks another path and finds the outdoor church service area. 

We had arranged the Jesus Trail Hike half a year ago and were not quite sure what to arrange but Joseph the taxi driver came at 9 am to take us places (included in the package). We didn't know what Mark had arranged and told Joseph we already had been in Capernaum. Since Yael had swapped going to Magdala instead of to the Mount of the Beatitudes place that's where we went. 

The Mount of Beatitudes is the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus spoke the Beatitudes (blessings) Matthew 5:1-12

All 8 are plaques with big letters on stones along the path to the church. I wished more people would follow 7.

It was very crowded. Overrun with several buses of tourists from Japan and China. Unfortunately not many seem to have the proper respect for Holy places. 

Don't know how I managed this "empty" photo.

I am learning patience.

The church was an octagon with a modern mosaic floor all around. 

Of course the view was breathtaking. 

Next Joseph drove us to Kursi. 

According to christian tradition, Kursi is the site of the miracle of the swine mentioned in the New Testament (Luke 8:26-39, Matthew 8:23-34). 

The monastery and church where probably built in the 5th century CE and has (as all places in this land) a long history after that. 

The mosaic floors are from that time and I just have to marvel over them. Itty bitty stones! Unfortunately most of the figures of birds and animals in the mosaics have been destroyed, probably by Muslim occupiers at some point. 

An olive press. 

The grounds were nicely kept with assembly places and this curious thing. There was fine sand in the circle. If you pushed the cone around it printed a Bible verse (from Mark 5:1-20) into the sand in several languages.

Josef is a man of many words but very clever, down to earth and full of humor. He is Jewish. He tells us that he is not fanatic but his brother is more. He said that he told his brother to be happy about Jesus because Jesus is the reason the people know about this area and it brings tourists and jobs. 

On this road (between the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee) he asked us whether we knew why there were tall eucalyptus trees? They are tall and fast growing and were a donation from Australia. The trees where planted as a bit of protection when the Golan Heights above were still Syrian and the Syrians were constantly shooting down on the Israel territory below. It blocked the view of the settlements by the lake.

Next stop: Yardenit, the baptismal site on the Jordan River

Whether this is the actual place where Jesus got baptized by John or not is totally irrelevant to me (and I think James too). People have a chance here to reflect on their own baptism, may be renew it and make resolutions for the rest of their lives. 

It was well organized and pretty. You have to remember that we are here in the off-season. 

Joseph wants to drive us around the whole Sea. First he stops at an ATM for James. Around Tiberius we see a lovely public beach from the moving car. 

 

And that is enough for now. Back to the hotel. 

We decide to see whether we can have a little snack (lunch time) on the terrace of the cafeteria. We don't need much since full dinner is included. 

OMG, my tuna salad would have been enough for both of us and another person. It made me feel bad that I had to leave a lot. 

But it was delicious and lovely to sit there ... with a beer. 

Suddenly we remembered that we had wanted to visit the Brotvermehrungskirche (Multiplication of the bread and fishes church) which is on the same property. 

We get the key for the gates from the reception and walk through the orchard to the church. 

This church was built to remember the feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21 and in the other gospels too). 

In the first 4 centuries Capernaum was inhabited mostly by Jewish christians who wanted to keep the memory of Jesus in the area alive and passed it on from father to son. 

About 383 CE  the pilgrim Egeria visited the three holy places in Tabgha and wrote a report. She said that the stone on which Jesus put the bread was being used as an altar over which a church had been built. 

As with all other synagogues and churches, there was destruction and rebuilding etc. The stone now lays under the altar. 

The cloisters. 

The church. All the mosaic floors are original. Luckily they were under the rubble after the first destruction because the muslims would have destroyed all the pictures = no images. 

The  nilometer on the right. James and I googled on it and found the explanation "it is a measure that was used in Egypt to know the height of the Nile".

We guessed that it was probably invented there and used in this region too for the level of the lake in the spring floods.  If there was more water there would be more harvest and higher taxes. 

The church gave me somehow a very special feeling and I was motivated to light a candle as thanksgiving. 

90 seconds after we had set foot into the church a busload of asians also arrived swarming all over. Of course that would be ok if they were reverent but if a child with a plastic machine gun runs around, that is upsetting. 

We sat on a bench until they were gone and everything was peaceful again. 

Then we walked back through the orchard again using the borrowed key. 

Of course we can not leave before we got our feet wet in the Sea of Galilee. 

I got my feet wet too. It's a selfie. 

Ah, I could stay a little longer in this place. 

Night night.