SEA OF GALILEE WEEKEND

SEA OF GALILEE

Alex walking into the Sea of Galilee

We're keen to try and travel as much as we can throughout Israel while we're here.  Accommodation is expensive for six people so it's not easy finding places.  Hopefully as the holiday season comes to an end it will be easier to find accommodation for weekends away. As the children finish school on Fridays at 12.30pm it's easy for us to just get in the car and drive somewhere.  Friday mornings are always hectic on the roads with people doing all of their shopping before Shabbat commences on Friday evening.  This means that by 2.30pm the roads are often fairly quiet.  The downside is that you have to plan ahead in order to find a cafe or restaurant that is open on Friday night or Saturdays.

We booked an airbnb apartment in Tiberius, which is a complete eye sore.  If I'm really honest, it's as though a chemical bomb has been dropped on the town.  It is so rundown and everything is so dated and dirty.  The Sea of Galilee, however, remains a beautiful place to visit.

Conor with outstretched arms over
the Sea of Galilee

Kids swimming and playing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee

A cold looking Dario on the Sea of Galilee

Ginnour Beach

Last time Alex and I were here we stayed up in Mt Arbel in the most wonderful B&B - the Shavit Family's Guest House.  After having a swim in the Sea of Galilee on Friday afternoon we took the children back to the Shavit's restaurant.  Ari Shavit prepares 8 hour slow cooked lambs and veal casseroles that are so mouthwatering.  If you ever go to the Sea of Galilee make sure you stay at this B&B up on Mount Arbel and avoid Tiberias at all cost - unless you have money to stay at the Scots Hotel - the only decent place in town.

In front of Ari Shavit's restaurant at the Mt Arbel Shavit Family
Guest House restaurant.

On Saturday we went and visited the Christian sites surrounding the Sea of Galilee.  As a family we are reading through a couple of paragraphs of the Gospel of St Mark every couple of nights so on our way I read through the chapters relating to Christ's ministry in Galilee.

TABGHA
We first visited Tabgha, which is accepted as the place where Jesus performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the fourth resurrection appearance of Jesus after his Crucifixion.

Altar of Church of the Multiplication, Tabgha.  The sacred stone
beneath the altar is a block of limestone venerated as the table of the Lord.

Church of the Multiplication, Tabgha

Dario lighting a candle at the Church of the Multiplication.

The church is modern but stands on the site of 4th and 5th century churches.   The current church preserves splendid early Christian mosaics, as you can see from the this photo, which had been covered over for many years:

Mosaic floor of the Church of the Multiplication

CAPERNAUM

From Tabgha we made our way through the tourist buses to Capernaum.  It appears that most people come to the Holy Land with Tours so it's rare to come across individuals driving in their own car as we were doing.

Home of St Peter the Apostle

Cheeky Dario in front of St Peter's house

Kids in front the statue of St Peter in Capernaum

Jesus made Capernaum his home during the years of his ministry and performed many miracles here, such as raising Jairus' daughter and healing the paralyzed man lifted down through the roof.  It was in Capernaum that Christ called Peter, Andrew, James and John, who were fishermen living in the village, to come and follow him.  Matthew (Levi) the tax collector, who was called to follow Christ, also lived in Capernaum.

Our first stop was the house of St Peter.  This is where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law and others.  In the years following Jesus' death and resurrection, the house apparently became a house-church.  Buried beneath the remains of an octagonal Byzantine church, excavators found the ruins of this rather mundane dwelling dating to the first century BC.

The building's key role in understanding how Christianity began was confirmed by more than a hundred graffiti scratched into the church's walls.  Most of the inscriptions say things like "Lord Jesus Christ help they servant" or "Christ have mercy."  They are written in Greek, Syriac or Hebrew and are sometimes accompanied by etchings of small crosses.

There is, what I consider, a very unattractive modern church that has been built above the site of St Peter's home.

Church built above the site of St Peter's home

 It's wonderful to just sit beside the Sea of Galilee, turning your back on the tour buses and even the sacred sites and to look out over the Sea (although it really is a lake).

Marcus and Dario at Capernaum overlooking the Sea of Galilee

Brigid at Capernaum, Sea of Galilee

Boat on the Sea of Galilee

Capernaum

Right next to St Peter's house are the remains of a Synagogue.  The Bible tells us that a Roman centurion built a synagogue here for the Jews.  His servant was later healed from severe palsy by Jesus.  The remains of what must have been a beautiful basalt synagogue have been discovered by archaeologists. This is the synagogue where our Lord frequently taught and cured the demon-possessed man and delivered the sermon on the bread of life.  The synagogue is near the lake and is built so that when the Jews prayed here, they faced Jerusalem.  The original basalt synagogue, in which Jesus would have preached, was destroyed along with Jerusalem's temple around 70 A.D.  Many years later it was replaced with a white stone synagogue, around 250-300 A.D.

Brigid - Synagogue in Capernaum

Aerial view of Synagogue in Capernaum.

You can see the remains of the original basalt synagogue below the "white" synagogue built on top.

Detailed stonework from the ruins of the Synagogue.

Sadly we didn't get to take the children to the Church of the Beatitudes, which Alex and I visited in 2008 as it closed at 11.45am.

We were very excited to find "Little Tiberias" restaurant open on Shabbat
where we had a wonderful lunch together.

In the afternoon we left the kids to relax in the apartment while Alex and I went out for a walk around Tiberias - didn't last long as it is so rundown - very disappointing town.

Sea of Galilee

Kids in front of a dilapidated Hartman Hotel - completed gutted inside
but appears to have been like this for years.  Not such a surprising site for Tiberias.