Haifa and the Sea of Galilee

 Overnight, we had sailed north from Ashdod to Haifa, another of Israel's large ports.  The tour on this particular day was called "Leisurely Galilee" although I am not sure how getting up early to get on a bus at 8:30 am for a seven hour day fits that definition!

The tour started by driving through Haifa, through its neighbourhood known as German Colony.  This neighbourhood was established in Ottoman Haifa in the 19th century (1868) as a Christian Templer Colony. The Templers, a religious Protestant sect formed in southern Germany, settled in Palestine at the urging of their leader, Christoph Hoffmann, in the belief that living in the Holy Land would hasten the second coming of Christ. The Templers built a colony in keeping with strict urban planning principles and introduced local industries that brought modernity to Palestine.  I am not clear exactly when it was vacated but certainly during WWII any Germans living there were relocated or deported.  Today, you can see the houses that were built more in a Germanic style than a Mediterranean one.

Our next stop was Mount Carmel where the Baha'i Gardens, one of the city's signature landmarks, are located.  Haifa is home to one of two Bahá’i Holy Places.  The other is in Western Galilee  They were chosen as designated UNESCO World Heritage sites because of their profound spiritual meaning and the testimony they bear to the strong tradition of pilgrimage in the Bahá’i faith.

From Mount Carmel, you can also get spectacular views of the crescent-shaped bay which stretches north to Akko (Acre), the town which I will visit on tomorrow's excursion.

Next, we boarded the bus for the drive to Nazareth.  As this tour was called "leisurely", some of the places like Nazareth involved only a photo op and, while this one was of the Church of the Annunciation, the view of it was from high up a hill and we could barely make out which building it was!

The Church of the Annunciation is in the middle left of the photo - I think!

Then, we carried on to the Sea of Galilee with our first stop being the Yardenit Baptismal Site, set on the Jordan River where Jesus was baptised by John.  There was a big souvenir shop there – isn’t there always at some point during a tour.  I was a bit surprised at how structured the site was.  I was expecting to actually see the banks of the River Jordan rather than walled sides and steps leading to the water.  At least I got a few pictures of the river bank a bit upstream from the site. Quite a few people, including a group of American priests, walked down the steps to put their feet in the River Jordan; I didn't.  

We continued north along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  What I didn't realize that the Golan Heights, that we hear so much about in the news from this region, are directly on the opposite side and loom over the lake.

We drove through Cana, the village where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding.  We continued driving along the lake to a kibbutz (most of them are commercial now) and had lunch in a restaurant in a hotel there.  I did get some photos of the lake and the countryside around it.  It is hard to believe how close all this is to Lebanon (to the north) and Jordan and Syria (to the east).  

Next up was a visit to the famed Mount of the Beatitudes and nearby Church of the Multiplication which is set on the site where Jesus performed his miracle of the two fishes and seven loaves.  

By then, it was late afternoon and all that was left was the slightly more than one hour drive back to the ship.  This day had been not so leisurely but very interesting!