Galilee Boat Ride
October 15
Itinerary:
Yardenit / Baptismal Site
It was our last day site seeing Israel. The initial goal was to return to the baptismal site we found yesterday in Yardenit. It's only a 15-minute drive from the hotel in Tiberias. But first, we visited a nearby Beach & Campgrounds at Beit Yerah, where the Sea of Galilee merges into the Jordan River (Google Maps). The beach was crowded with families camping all around the park.
Here, the Jordan River (Wikipedia) is clean and full of fish. The river gets polluted further south via the Yarmouk River with sewage from Syria and Jordan.
We continued downstream to Yardenit, a popular site for water baptisms on the Jordan. We took pictures of people walking down the cement staircase into the Jordan to get baptized among the fish.
I found out after the trip that there is another popular site for water baptisms on the Jordan River near Jericho, but its in the country of Jordan. This site is the most likely spot where Jesus was baptized (Wikipedia) in John 1:28.
Drive to Nazareth
Next, we started the 1-hour drive from Yardenit to Nazareth, but we got stuck in big-time traffic in the small city of Kafer Kanna. Finally in Nazareth, navigating the very narrow downtown streets was a little nerve-racking. Eventually, we found the Al Reyad Parking garage, just like this couple driving in Nazareth (YouTube).
We walked through the old city, passing The Church of the Annunciation. This catholic church was built on the location where the Archangel Gabriel (Wikipedia) announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus, Luke 1:26-38.
We continued walking through the Nazareth market and on to the Synagogue/Church where Jesus might have gone to school. The Crusaders built a stone-walled church on top of the remains of the original 1000-year-old Synagogue, and that is what you can see today. Supposedly this Nazarian Synagogue is where Jesus proclaimed in Luke 4:14-21 that he is fulfilling the prophecies written by Isaiah in Isaiah 61:1.
We then went to see Nazareth Village, a small farm in the city where you can experience Nazareth the way it was at the time of Jesus. I would have liked to enjoy a biblical meal there, but the venue was closed for Shabbat. Nazareth Village - Google Maps
Galilee Boat Ride
Finally, we returned to Tiberias and looked for a boat ride on the main promenade. Because today was Shabbat, and it was already past 4 pm, only one non-Jewish boat company was still open.
We joined a group of about 40 women in headscarves for a very unique boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. After the boat finished backing out of the harbor, the captain started blasting Arabian belly dance music from the speakers. Many women simultaneously jumped off their chairs and started dancing in the center area of the boat.
After the initial amusement waned off I took out my phone and started streaming my favorite Christian music station: Worship 24/7. But the background music was still overwhelmingly loud until we moved to a different section in the front of the boat.
The scene was perfect. We watched the sun go down over the hills above the hotel. What a great way to finish our trip.
