Israel: Day 4, Part 1

I didn't sleep as well as my first night, so the 6 a.m. wake-up call was a little tougher for me this morning. After another good breakfast and lots of coffee, we boarded the bus and headed to the town of Magdala (where Mary Magdalene lived) about 20 minutes away.

Some really interesting ruins have recently been excavated, and just newly opened to the public, so we were excited to see one of the oldest synagogues in the world and other features they found. We had a special guide at the dig - a cute volunteer from Mexico, who looked like he was about 14. 

He did a good job showing us around and explaining things. The cool thing about this site was that it was never destroyed by roman invaders, so it was really well-preserved and easy to envision things as they once were. 

There isn't any concrete evidence to say that Jesus was at that particular synagogue, but we know he taught at all the synagogues in the Galilee region, so it seems pretty likely that he made a few appearances at the one we saw today. 

Our next stop was a Kibbutz where they discovered a fisherman's boat on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee that dates back to the time of Christ. They dug it up and preserved it, and it's now on display at a museum there. It was interesting to see how the boats looked from back then - they were small and not very stable looking! 

After viewing the boat we walked down to the sea and boarded our own boat for a little leisure cruise. The temps during the morning rose steadily into the high 80's with lots of humidity, so it felt good to get out on the water. 

Being on the Sea of Galilee was a very spiritual experience for most of the group, and there there was lots of singing and crying and waving of arms and picture taking and scripture reading during our hour or so on the water (which was calm as glass, btw..none of those stormy tempests they're always going on about in the bible). 

Our next stop was the Mount of Beautitudes, where Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount. 

There's a Catholic Church and gardens on the site now, and we were all set to wander around for a good look at things, when a scary little nun shooed us all out, because they close for a few hours over lunch. I didnt mind leaving - I had to memorize all three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount in a long-ago homeschool project, and have never really cared for that part of the bible since! 

We stopped for lunch at a little roadside hole in the wall where they served either falafel or shawarma (shaved meat in a pita...kind of like a gyro). I overate yesterday, and decided not to do that again today, so I just had a few snacks and called it good. 

Stay tuned for Part 2...