Day 7-8: Of Nazareth & Of Galilee
This trip is by definition one centered around religion. My
Mom was the person who pushed th4e most to come to Israel, the one who did most
of the planning of what we should see day to day. I outsourced that fully to
her and my Dad, chipping in mainly to select suitable AirBNB’s in Israel (their
first AirBNB experience – not sure if they have two converts yet. The days I
knew the least about were these two days, focusing on Galilee, the state/region
to the North of Israel, where the land is lush, the air thin, and the sites
plentiful, all relating to Jesus’s life. First we saw where he died, then where
he was born, and we’ll end this portion of the trip where he spent the time in
between.
We woke up to a new sight on Thursday, that of rain. It had
ever so slightly drizzled during a few 30-60 min periods the first few days.
This day, it would be wall to wall rain, going from light drizzles to Nor’easter-esque
sheets. This is not to say it totally ruined the experience, but if anything made us more thankful that the cruel rain stayed far away during our time in Jerusalem.
The first stop after about two hours of driving through various states of durress was Nazareth, notable then for beingh the place where Jesus grew up as a child (hence the 'Jesus from Nazareth' title). The main sites here though actually are more towards Jesus's Mother and Father, particularly Mother, The main church to visit is Basilica of the Anunciation, memorializing the place where the archangel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would conceive the son of God. The church is beautiful, with many paintings & sculptures of Virgin Mary inside and outside, all donated and built in tribute to certain countries. The US even donated a statue that had a pretty prime position inside the Basilica.
The church was split into upper and lower Basilicas, the lower of which had a crypt grotto which is supposedly where it actually happened. I'm starting to get the hang of these places. All have some large church built either above or around some old rock or stone thought to be the site of some miracle or central piece of my religion. Sure, I can think this is a bit ridiculous, requiring suspension of belief a too few many degrees, but then again, I just went to a place that was 2000 years older in spots and blindly accepted when my tour guide told me that Hatshepshut did X on place Y without much thought.
The other sites in Nazaerth, all in the center of a hilly, sprawling little town, were commemorating Joseph's carpenter shop (of course, with church built in top), and a museum built by some international Society of Mary Worshipers, which actually had a really nice hidden treat. They offer a 60-minute, four-part multimedia show that goes over the history of the Jesus story interwovven with the places and pictures of Israel that match. The story is told in four separate mini auditoriums, all built to look like caves, with great detail given this random location. From a quality of visual aspect, it reminded me of the SAB World of Beer tour in Johannesburg; subject matter obviously quite different..
Nazareth ending up being the extent of our toursit activity the first day. We had a brief dalliance with Canaan (Kannan, in the current parlance), the site of Jesus's first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding - if there was ever a better miracle, I don't know it. We ended up reaching the church, up one too many small tiny alleys still operating as two lane roads for my liking, ten minutes too late. It was ont he way to our final destination, so we didn't waste much time, but it was still frustrating to have survived one brush with the devil on the narrow roads of Canaan for no real value.
Tiberias was our final spot, the largest 'city' on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, a body of water present all throughout the bible in various forms, as I would become increasingly familiar with on Friday. Tiberias is a lovely little town, a lot more busy in summer when ts temperate weather and water can attract a different clientele. Even at this time of the year, though, it had its beautiful spots, like the giant hill staring us in the face from our AirBNB, full of lit houses looking like a lit-up wall. They also have great seafood, which we got to experience first hand.
The first night, we went to Avi's Restaurant, one of the four restaurants within the towns walls that I had shortlisted (restaurants was my other task in trip preparation). Avi's was a true mom and pop joint, one where I'm sure we were visited at our table by the eponymous Avi at least twice (he ever really introduced himself by name). We had one lamb kebab drowned in a green tahini sauce (a good thing - it was fantastic), and two nicely dusted and grilled fish, one a 'St. Peter's Fish' (a tilapia, basically), and a Bream. Both were really good, and super fresh, as one would expect eating these fish on the shore of the lake they should have once called home.
Our plan for Friday was action packed, as symbolically it should be with the sabbath starting at sundown. Of ourse, we wouldn't stop at sundown, but we weren't sure how much of Tiberias would, and how much, given that, could we fit in to the daylight part of the day.
All of our planned sights were within 30 minutes of Tiberias, but in all different directions. By the end, we would see some of the same people at each one, and some of the same people that we saw teh day before. It seems like even with it being literally mom & pop planned, we are essentially matching the itinerary of the tours, which is full credit to them for planning.
The first stop was the Mount of the Beatitudes (I honestly don't know the name of the location it was housed in Israel), where Jesus gave the 'Sermon on the Mount' (this being the 'Mount'), which included a few aspects but most famously the eight beatitudes (e.g. 'Blessed are the poor in sprit, they will inherit the earth'). The beautitudes are commemorated in various forms throughout the property, be it in plaques on the ground, or signage that was simialr to the Pater Nostra.
The church itself was simplistic, but its high perch on the ttop of the Mountain, with the Sea of Galilee, this biblical body of water most holy, below it, was quite a serene view.
Each of these stops were always outfitted with a gift shop (some seemiingly leased out, as this one sold menorahs along with the usual Jesus-based fare), and a coffeeshop, selling capucchino's, espressos, and little else. I became a regular at scarfing down these capucchinos all too often, and this was no different, especially with teh hilly driving coming up. Focus was required.
The next stop was Caperneum, home to St. Peter's, well, home, the place also where Jesus gave more well known sermons, and Jesus and his disciples milled about. Galilee, specifically Tiberias and Caperneum, were biblical centers of the New Testament, as was repeated to me many times, best so when two different places purported to be the site where Jesus walked on water.
Caperneum's church is hexagonal shape, a bit elevated built above the ruins of what is thought to be the home of St. Peter. Again, no real way to know this is true, Even less so was the 'synangogue' to the left of the church, where I have to wonder how they knew it was a synangogue (it looks like any half-recovered ruin I've seen). We were able to catch mass, or more accurately intrude on a nice church tour group from Nebraska and North Dakota who was hearing a private mass in teh church. Apparently, these private masses are all the rage on these tours, as we've encountered at least five of them so far. I do have to wonder if they are more meaningful and fun for the local priests than even the parishioners.
From the Caperneum church, we were able to meander our way down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, working our way through some fairly dangerous looking rocks. Dangerous enough most of the far more ably bodied Euroopean visitors didn't attempt this. The goal was to dip our feet in the sea, the same water Jesus walked on. Rest assured, we didn't walk on it. I don't know if this was the true opposite, but while I was managing the whole escapade, my shoe slipped off the rock and got drenched.
Our next stop was lunch at St. Peter's Restaurant, apparently the only restaurant in town given the number of tour buses that were in its lot. If not the only restaurant, than the only one smart enough to convince all the sites to refer people to it. They must be minting money. They had a salad buffet and a choice of fish (St. peter's Fish, of course), or lamb kebab. We split both options and went on our way. The fish is still fresh, but the klimited selection did start to make an impact.
After lunch, we headed to Tabga, the last spot in the immediate circumference of the Sea of Galilee on our list of spots to hit. Tagba has a few notable moments, least of which being the second consecutive site to claim it is where Jesus walked on water. If anything, the two sites should at least collude to say he walked from one to the other.
The more meaningful moments here are the spot where Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and two fishes to feed thousands, and where he told Peter that Peter is his rock and he would build the church (basically the origin story of the modern Catholic Church). Both are impressively memorialized in understated fashion.
Taking a step back, all of these sites, including to some degree the ones in Jerusalem, are understated. The churches do not have the oppressive grandeur that their European counterpart basilicas do. Those churches (take St. Peter's the Vatican one) are so impressive it obscures how opressive they were in their construction, a sign of the profligacy of the Roman Catholic Church in the early and middle ages.
These are more simplistic, more refined, focusing just on their overall meaning, small little shrines to events and elements of the church's original, not needing to house the sprawl that speaks to its largesse. Of course, that's the optimistic view. The pessimistic view is that they can't be any bigger given when the church had money to spend withotu regard, Israel was locked in a trading hands of ownership, and now, there just isn't the money or lack of morals to build so big and sprawling.
The one exception to that may have been our next stop, atop Mount Tabor, where the 'Transfiguration' occurred. I won't go too into what teh Transfiguration was, but needless to say, it is an important moment in our history, as you would think given it occurred on top of a mountain overlooking rolling hills and land on every side. Given how many of these events have taken place on top of hills, I have to think Jesus and Co. were all in serious shape giving how many times they ascended and descended tortuous terrain.
The church of hte Transfiguration was perfectly beautiful, with two altars, the higher of which had a beautiful frescoed painting of the Transifiguration that was stunning. The whole church-top was great. It was terrifying to drive up about ten hairpin turns to get there, but at least when I reached the top, I had a great place to thank the Lord I made it safely, and ask in advance for a safe traversal down the slope.
The final tourist stop was us going back to Kannan to see the Church of the Wedding. They too had their crypt with old stones that we are supposed to believe was the jar that held the water that Jesus turned into wine (I'll be honest, this required the most suspension of belief of all of them), but also had some nice spots like the fact that the church has made a cottage industry of having tourists renew their vows there ('wedding church' indeed). Multiple tour groups that were there when we were had their married members partake in this. Corny? Sure. Economically smart? Absolutely. Adorable? Admittedly, yes.
We returned to Tiberias around 6pm, tired from a full day on the road. I was less tired than my parents, but probably more tired than Jesus, who I now believe spent most of his holy spirit on being able to climb up and down mountains with no adverse effect. I feel like we were more tired driving up them than he was walking.
For dinner, we went to Hermitage restaurant, an Islamic-Mediterranean joint, as needed to be given all the Jewish-owned places were closed on account to this being the sabbath. It is haunting how quiet it gets when the sabbath is upon us. The roads empty, the parking spaces full, the businesses shut down. It was a nice reminder after two days tracing Jesus's footsteps that other religions exist, and are serious about their following as well.
