Visiting Home Part 6

A touristy day. One of Ken's co-workers ended up joining us for Saturday and Sunday. Her original plans changed when her traveling buddy had to unexpectedly go back to the USA early and so she hung out with us. Which worked out just fine. After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and then headed East towards Nazareth. Ken and I had both driven through this city once before but we got terribly lost and ended up missing the Church of the Annunciation all together. This time we ended up finding the church and went inside. The church sits over the site where perhaps Mary lived and the angel visited her announcing that she would give birth to a son. From Nazareth we headed to the ancient ruins of Bet Shean. The history is rich in Bet Shean begining with the Cannanites in the 16th century BC. The City was the seat of Egyptian rule and the Israelites were not successful in conquering it. After the battle at Mt. Gilboa the Philistines displayed the bodies of Saul and his sons on the city walls here. Later King David took the city and it became an administrative center of King Solomon's reign. Following the Roman conquest it became one of the 10 cities in the Decapolis. It's pretty fascinating to see the remains of the ampitheater and climb the hilltop to overlook the valley. Back in the car we headed North to the Sea of Galilee. It was a whirlwind trip stopping only at Yigal Alon Center and Capernaum. At Yigal Alon Center they have displayed a fishing boat that was recently (1986) discovered dating back to the first century. The boat had been buried in the sedimets and found only after a severe drought. This is the type of boat refereed to in the gospels used among Jesus' disciples. In Capernaum we visited the ruins of a synagogue in which Jesus could have preached in, and saw the octagonal church that was built over the ruins of the disciple Peter's house. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for sightseeing and headed back to Haifa to meet up for dinner with one of Ken's co-workers. Rachel is the reason we first came to Israel four years ago as she was going on maternity leave and needed someone to cover her job. Since then she has visited us many times on work related trips and we have become good friends. It was fun to meet with her family. 3 girls... the toe nail polish was a hit! That night we repositioned ourselves in Tel Aviv so that we could take advantage of our last day in Israel.