World Cruise 2015: Day 91

We are still in Israel today, but this time our port is Haifa. Haifa is located along the Mediterranean Sea, nestled below Mount Carmel, and is Israel’s third largest city. It is the third largest city in Israel. The settlement of this area dates back more than 3,000 years and it still maintains much of it deep-rooted history. The city today is a unique blend of older and newer neighborhoods. The beautiful beaches attract tourists who visit frequently on summer weekends. Haifa is also home of the World Center of the Baha’i Faith. Built on the slope of Mount Caramel this impressive building is most famous for the exquisite gardens that contain landscaped ‘hanging gardens’ that run along the Louis Promenade. At the foot of the Baha’i Gardens lies the German Colony, found in the 19^th century by Germans who came to establish a Christian Community in Israel. In the shrine are buried the bones of the founder of the religion. The faith was an offshoot of the Moslem religion. They believe that there is a new prophet each generation. They believe in the numbers 9 and 19. Their calendar is 19 months with 19 days in each month, plus a couple of days to stay current. In 1905 the Ottomans built a train system that was cantered in Haifa, and Haifa became the center of this area. In1917 the British came along and built the port.

However, we did not go to Haifa on our private tour today. We went through it and it is a nice city but we left Haifa and went north and east. As we did so we go through the Jezre’el Valley. Our first visit was to the city of Nazareth. This used to be a village but today is a city of 160,000 people. The city is half Jewish and half Arab. Nazareth is the childhood home of Jesus and the City of the Annunciation. Our first stop there was to the Church of the Annunciation, built on the site where Mary is said to have lived and where she received Gabriel’s message. It is also built over the ancient Byzantine and Crusader remains of the traditional site of the Virgin Mary’s house. The current church was built in 1964. The mass that is said in this church today is in Arabic. Within the church is the original Mikveh, which is an area where the Jewish would cleanse themselves. It is like a bath, and means a gathering of water. We also saw Mary’s Well, a modern stone structure whose water is believed to flow from a crypt inside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. Within the city of Nazareth there are 48 different church groups.

Along with the Church of Annunciation and the remains of Mary’s home, we also visited the Church of St. Joseph. It is dedicated to the early father of Jesus and is where Joseph’s carpentry workshop is believed to have stood. In those days, men had multiple wives, and it is believed that Joseph also had, as in the Bible you read that Jesus had brothers and sisters but that Mary only had the one son. We then drove along the via Carna, where Jesus performed his first miracle turning water into wine at a wedding, on our way to the Sea of Galilee. There we went to Yardenit, the baptismal site on the Jordan River. I put my hands in the Jordan River, but did not take my shoes off. There were a lot of catfish in that river.

From the Jordan River we drove along the Sea of Galilee to have lunch. It is located 614 feet below sea level. We stopped at a lookout before going down that had a sign that said sea level. We ate a restaurant called Ali’s Restaurant, right along the sea. We had what they call Peter’s Fish, Tilapia, that is fried and served whole. Steve did eat half of his. Since this is Easter Monday it is a Jewish holiday and the beaches were packed. Where we were they had a small beach, no sand and they had pleasure boats. We saw them lunching one. A tractor brings it down on its trailer and then backs it into the river an off it goes. It appears the river used to be much higher as there was a dock in front of where we ate that was many yards from the water.

We then went to the Mount o the Beatitudes, site of the Sermon on the Mount. The beautiful gardens surrounding the 20^th century church offer a view of the entire region, including the Golan Heights on the other side of the Jordan River. Our next stop was to visit Tabgha, the site where Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and fish to feed 5,00 people. However, it was closed because of the holiday, but we did get to drive by.

Our last stop was Capernaum and St. Peter’s Village. This has the ruins of the ancient synagogue where Jesus taught and those of St. Peter’s house where Jesus spent his last three years. We spent a lot of time here a our guide was very familiar with the ruins and was able to point out where the rooms were and how they lived back then.

As we made our way back we saw a hotel that was built by Rome when the Pope had come here to speak on the Mount. It is used by the Catholic Church today to house those that come to the area.

It was a wonderful day, as was the day before, but they were two very long days (though we got back in time for the second happy hour). Tomorrow we are at sea. The President and CEO of Holland American boarded the ship in Haifa and will be staying till Spain, I believe. Tomorrow he is giving a cocktail party and wine with dinner. On Wednesday we are in Kusadasi, Turkey. We have a private tour to Ephesus during the day. That evening the CEO and the President have invited the ship to Ephesus for heavy hors d’oeuvres, desserts and a hosted bar to be followed by a concert in the open by the Aegean Chamber Orchestra. Hopefully the weather will be good.

1 – Map of the area

2 – Downtown Haifa

3-4 Baha’ i Faith world Center – night and day

5-6 Nazareth

7-10 Church of the Annunciation

11 – Front door of church

12 – Mosaic of Mary and Jesus; they had these everywhere sent from all over the world. This one was from Nazareth

13-16 – Church of the Annunciation

17-21 Church of St. Joseph

22-23 Mikveh, in the second picture you can see the steps to the left where you walked into the bath

24-25 – Ruins of old church

26 – Mary’s Wall