BEIJING TO LONDON CRUISE- 78 DAYS : HAIFA, ISRAEL--DAY 1

Wednesday, May 8th
We arrived this morning in Haifa. Our 10 hour tour left the ship right on time after Israeli immigration/security interviewed every passenger and stamped our landing permit card along with checking our passports. Both of them we have to carry with us the next 3 days in Israel. I was kind of disappointed with our tour today. Not much left of the places we saw in Nazareth and Sea of Galilee mainly because they were invaders over the 2000 years since. It was also very hot, but at least not humid. Our guide was good and had a great sense of humor. We had lunch at a hotel near the Sea of Galilee that was very average at best. I had expected to get better photos but put what I got below.
Tonight they are having a barbeque dinner under the stars up on pool deck. We do not do these dinners outside and were very tired so ordered dinner from room service. We have a nice view of the night city lights of Haifa from our balcony. It is rather cool outside now. I have been working on this for the past 3 hours and am running out of steam. It is 9pm and we have a 12 hour tour that meets at 6:25am tomorrow. Better publish this and hit the hay.

View of Haifa from our balcony. The tall building is an Israeli government building.

Our tour for today.

We headed for Nazareth and our first stop.

About to enter the Basilica of the Annunciation. In the ruins under this church, the largest in the Middle East, is where the archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The present church was built in 1964 over the grotto which is the ruins of where Joseph and Mary lived.

This is the grotto where the ruins of Mary's house is. It is basically a cave. Back then Nazareth was only a very small village with maybe 40 to 60 families.

Beautiful windows of the basilica.

Approaching the Church of Joseph

Under this church is the chambers of Joseph's carpentry shop and part of the village of Nazareth.

Heading to Sea of Galilee.

Farm land in the valleys

Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount

The 8 Beatutides were written in Hebrew around top. Mathew 5 verses 3-10.

Mosaic tile floor

Approaching gates to enter Capernaum, to be the center of Jesus' ministry and where he lived.

The town is on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee and the disciples were fishermen here as the fishing was the best. Village built approx 150BC. Jesus lived here the last 3 years of this life.

This "new" synagogue is over the original synagogue that Jesus preached in, What you are seeing was built in 200AD, dismantled by the Romans, the pieces transported here by the Romans, and reconstructed here in 400AD.

This is the house of Peter, now under a church. It was a octagonal shaped home.

Looking at the Sea of Galilee.

Statue of the disciple, Peter

Date palms.

We are now at south end of the Sea of Galilee where it flows into the River Jordan. Today this is where you can be baptized in the river just as Jesus was.by John.