23 November - Nazareth & the Galilee

Today is the first day of our 11-day adventure in the Galilee!!! We left Jerusalem super early and headed north. Our first stop was at Beth Shean, one of the cities of the Dacapolis.

Chadwick's joke, a rolling stone!!!

Upper left in the photo shows ground level

toilets...haha!

Next we went to NAZARETH!! We went to the Church of the Annunciation (the angel announcing to Mary about her holy conception). The church is super cool - there are artistic depictions of the annunciation. It was fun to find the US's, Germany's, and some others that were pretty.

USA

what a manger would have looked like - made of stone

Just around the corner we popped our heads into St. Joseph's Church.

We drove farther north to the west coast of the Sea of Galilee to Mt. Abel. This was our first view of the holy land of the Galilee!! From these rocks, you can see the Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Tabgha, the Golan Heights, and more.  We looked at the lake which is about 7 feet across (east to west) and 12 feet from north to south. It is somewhat shaped like a harp, which is how it got its Hebrew name of the Kenneret (that means harp).  WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THIS WEEK.

We pulled into our resort, Ein Gev, around 4:30 when the sun was setting. We are staying in these individual cabanas with four people in each!! They are so cute! My roommates are Tori, Sarah, and Celeste. It is going to be so fun, such a good change. We had dinner then played games on the beach. The weather is so great here! There are huge lawns, big palm trees, and lovely hammocks.