Today is another one of those days where I can’t believe how much we did. We checked out of the hotel and made one last stop in Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations. The Christian significance of this place didn’t really concern me, but the 1400+ year old olive trees were impressive. They still produce olives!
Next we headed to the Mount Gilboa range, specifically to Mount Shaul. Saul and his sons died here in battle with the Philistines and the Philistines beheaded his body and displayed it. So David cursed the battlefield, the lower part of the mountain, to be without rain and you can see the upper parts have trees and the lower parts are just rocks.
Bet Alfa, a 6th century synagogue, was the next stop. In addition to the standard Jewish symbols, this synagogue had the Greek sun god, Helios and a zodiac. The human figures were also of strange proportions. Any depiction of people in a synagogue is also odd.
On to Bet She’an, a fairly well preserved Roman city from the 2nd century. Many of the columns were knocked over by an earthquake, but the theater is largely preserved and we tested its effectiveness by having our guide sing and Mitch play guitar. And yes, you could hear pretty well. This place also has the first known indoor bathroom. Roman ruins are always so photographic.
After a bit more time on the bus, we arrive at Kibbutz Ha’on on the Sea of Galilee. In the afternoons, the wind picks up and makes the sea pretty choppy, but we went in anyway. And then rested on the beach for a while before dinner. That evening, we headed into Tiberius to stroll along the boardwalk and shop a little.
June 18
After breakfast and a view of the Kibbutz from the hills behind it, we went to the Golan Heights Winery for a tasting. The winery gets grapes from a handful of kibbutzim and is really quite modern and industrial. Their high end wines, Yarden, were nice and I’ll look for it as an alternative to the standard icky sweet kosher wines we’re used to.
Katzrin was the next stop, a 3rd century Jewish village including the ruins of a synagogue. Olive oil was this village’s main industry. While we were there, an IDF tank unit pulled up, so we all went and got a closer look at the tank. Keep in mind this place is 15-20 miles from Kiryat Shmona where the ketushas landed a few days ago, so the military presence is fairly obvious.
Next we had a look at Syria from Mount Bental. This is the place where the Yom Kippur War started. This is where less than 2 dozen Israeli soldiers were when Syria invaded in 1973 on Yom Kippur. This hilltop is the perfect vantage point and you can see when you’re up there why it is necessary to keep it. Along the path are a few pieces of art made of debris from the war.
On the way to lunch, we view the Hula Valley while driving along. One of the things we passed was a large crusader fortress. One thing that’s hard to understand until you see it that just about every piece of ground contains important archeological sites. As you drive along, you see ruins after ruins just sitting in the fields. Israel doesn’t have the funds to work on all of them, so they sit and wait.
In addition to many crops, in the North there are many fisheries. Lunch was at a restaurant connected with a fishery. Fresh fish is not so appealing to me, but they did take care of me well with a fried cauliflower dish with a sweet dipping sauce. And of course, many salads. The place itself was beautiful with outdoor seating and a little cement stream they had running through it.
After lunch, we went kayaking down the Jordan river. Okay, they called they kayaks, but they were really fancy, blow up boats. I can’t remember ever having been boating before, but I did much better than expected. Certainly Gwen and I did much better than the Orthodox boys who were busy confirming stereotypes. Although Gwen did fall out of the boat at one point. It was a trip though. There were some mild rapids and the river was only 15-30 feet wide. More like a creek really. Apparently I was the only one lucky enough to see some guy jerking off by a tree as we went down the river. He seemed to be having some difficulty with that. I’m guessing he was hoping to shock some poor innocent Orthodox girls and all he got was a bunch of jaded Americans and Orthodox men.
After boating, we stopped in Kiryat Shmona to pick up some groceries for a light dinner back at the hotel. Yes, Kiryat Shmona is where the ketushas fell. It was no problem. Everyone was going about their business. Oh, and you can get big bottles of Gold Star beer for about $1.50. We pool our snacks and enjoyed them on the patio of the kibbutz while Mitch played guitar and some people sang.