Golan Heights & Banias Falls

Dad really wanted to go up in the Golan Heights and so on our last day in Tiberius we hired a taxi to drive us there.  It all sounds really easy right?  Hire a taxi and just go.  Not quite! Even getting a taxi driver is interesting in Israel!! :D Thursday morning we walked down to the tourist information center in Tiberius.  The employee was very helpful and told us the best way to tour the Golan Heights is hire a guide, which was not really in the budget.  Or the cheapest way was to rent a car for the day. This was not possible since we left in such a rush on Saturday for the wedding in New Jersey, daddy forgot his wallet which had his drivers license in it!  The employee told us he would call a taxi for us and it would only be 900 shekels for 6 hours.  We didn't have enough shekels so we left to go exchange some money at the bank.  Not even a hundred yards after we left, a taxi driver comes up and wants to take us around Galilee to Capernaum and Ein Gev.  After we finally got him to understand that we had already been to Capernaum and that we wanted to go up in the Golan Heights he told us he would take us for $200 US.  We decided to take him up on his offer since it was a better deal and because he pressured us quite a bit!

We were only 60km away from the capitol of Syria!

With our taxi driver, David, on the Golan Heights looking into Syria.

There was a ceremony with lots of army officials on the Golan Heights when we were there to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Yum Kippur War.

 We went down into the bunkers that the Israeli's took from the Syrians during the 6 day war in 1967.
It was pitch black down there so I can only imagine the adrenaline rush the Israeli soldiers felt as they fought hand to hand combat with the Syrians as they overtook the Heights!

Evidence of the fighting that took place here

 Looking out of the bunker into Syria.

We also went to the Banias Falls located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

This is one of the three water sources that feed the Jordan River.

We hiked the Suspended Trail over the stream.

On the way back to Tiberius David tried to persuade us to visit other places along the way so we would go over our 6 hour time and have to pay him more! :P  I think he figured out that we weren't the typical tourists ready to spend money at any suggestion! lol He finally just stopped trying and drove us back in time!

In the evening we went to the market for some fruit...

 

...and sunflower seeds!  They're huge and a nice snack for during the day!

 

On Friday we rode back to Jerusalem where we spent the last three days of our trip.

 

~Kaitlyn

Capernaum - Our Biking Adventure

Wednesday morning we rented bikes in Tiberius and rode the 16km to Capernaum.  We thought about riding all the way around the Sea of Galilee, which is about 62km, but it was rather warm so we decided just to go to Capernaum as planned.  We stopped halfway for a break to see the "Galilee Boat". 

 

Two brothers discovered the boat in 1986 when a drought caused the lowering of the waters of the Sea of Galilee.  The brothers were walking along the shore and found ancient nails, when they dug down into the mud they found remains of a boat that was later to be found over 2,000 years old.  Because the boat had been in the mud for so long, as soon as air reached the wood it dried out and crumbled.  Volunteers kept the boat sprayed with water to keep the wood damp as excavators hurried to unbury and cover the weak vessel in a cocoon of fiberglass and polyurethane foam.  After 11 years of an extensive conservation process in a specially built pool, the boat now can be viewed by the public in the Yigal Allon Center.

 

Numerous repairs, the reuse of timbers, and 12 types of wood evident in the hull suggest that this vessel had a long work life and an owner of meager means.  The boat is mainly made of Cedar and Tabor Oak, with repairs done with Christ Thorn, Carob, Sycamore, Laurel, Aleppo Pine, Hawthorne, Willow, Judas Tree, Plane Tree, and Atlantic Terebinth.

 It's pretty amazing to think that maybe Jesus preached from the boat! 
Or was this the boat he was asleep in when he calmed the storm?
 



After we left we rode along a banana grove...
 



 

Behind Joshua and Dad is the mountain where it is said that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7.  We also passed by where tradition says the multiplication of the loves and fishes took place.

 

 We also rode beside these Olive Trees...and of course Daddy decided to pick some!

They were the ones left over from the harvest and were quite shriveled!

 



 The path was covered in figs that had fallen from the tree

 

by the Sea of Galilee...

 



The town of Capernaum is reported to have been near the hometown of the apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, as well as the tax collector Matthew. Jesus chose this town as the center of his public ministry in the Galilee.  One Sabbath, Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man who had the spirit of an unclean devil.  Afterwards, he healed a fever in Simon Peter's mother-in-law.  According to Luke, it is also the place where a Roman Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant. Capernaum is also mentioned in Mark 2, it is the location of the famous healing of the paralytic lowered through the roof to reach Jesus.

 

This is the "White Synagogue built in the fourth century on the remains of the "Synagogue of Jesus."

On our way back to Tiberius we were going down a hill and all of a sudden I realized that I had gotten a flat tire on my bike.  The hotel we rented them from told us to call if we had any flat tires, accidents, etc., but that's kind of a problem when you have a frugal dad! lol His phone worked but it would have been an exuberant charge since we weren't in the US.  Daddy remembered that there was a gas station ahead, but it was a little over 2 km away.  So Daddy got on Joshua's bike and pushed my bike beside him while I rode his bike with Joshua riding double with me!  We were quite the sight going down the highway!  We found a man with a cell phone...

...but the hotel wasn't answering their phones...

 



We finally got a hold of the hotel and after 20 minutes they brought me a new bike and we rode the rest of the way back.  It made us laugh to see the other tourists speeding by in their air-conditioned buses while we sat at a gas station with a flat tire! :D 

 

The stop signs in Israel are different than the ones in the states!

 



Falafels for dinner once we got to Tiberius.

 

On our last day in Tiberius, before heading back to Jerusalem, we went to the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon stream... post about that will be coming soon!  God bless...

 

~Kaitlyn

Tiberius - Sea of Galilee & St. Peter's Fish

We left Jerusalem on Tuesday morning and after the three hour bus ride we arrived in Tiberius around noon.  Our hotel was almost right next to the Sea of Galilee, so after checking in we walked down to the water to see about getting a boat ride over to Ein Gev.  As we were walking along the promenade, a guy comes up to us and says that we can rent his "orange boat over there," for 120 shekels for half an hour.



 

After a lot of pressure from the salesmen we decided to take him up on his offer, (after some haggling of course, never pay the asking price! :)  He gave us the boat driving course in about thirty seconds, not like here in the U.S. where you sign your life away with a boat rental release!  Within ten minutes of walking down to the water we were on the Sea of Galilee in our own boat!!  It was a tiny little bottle stopper of a boat but that made it all the more memorable!  We got out into the water and we're just put-putting along and Dad says, "Guys, this is full throttle!" haha!

 

 

 

 

After our time was up we returned the boat and walked down the promenade.

We stopped for dinner at one of the restaurants along the Sea of Galilee...



...and had fish and chips!  This was Joshua and my first time to have a whole fish served to us! 



It was a little strange to have a whole fish on your plate but it was pretty tasty!


 Dates for dessert...

Somebody else was enjoying their fish from the Sea!

 

On Wednesday we rented bikes and rode the 16km to Capernaum and had a little adventure on the way back!  Post about that coming soon!

 

~Kaitlyn