We had a breakfast as usual and we headed off through Jerusalem past the sites so we had seen on our way to Tiberias in Galilee via Nazareth. It was interesting because I didn't know that Jericho was on the way and so we saw some of the same sites but of course at a distance. The guide pointed out where I'd been yesterday and we discussed some of the things that happened. The rest of the group had a good day at a Massada and Qumron and the Dead Sea. Wendy went in the Dead Sea with another lady who's got MS and they helped each other float.
Today we had lunch at Nazareth and because most of the people are Christians the shops were shut. The town is a mixture of Arab Christians and Arab Muslims I believe. There were some shops open and we went to the church of Mary which is built over the house that Mary lived in and the others went to Joseph's workshop.. it was a church built over the site. I didn't go to that because it was up quite a few stairs, so I stayed back with the fellas.
We are a small group now... 2 couples Wendy and David and Colleen and John and the guide Ronnie. So we fit in a six seater people mover I forget what it's called but it's quite comfortable. There's room room for the bag lady, I have lots of bags! we're in a kibbutz now and we're having dinner at 7.00 and then a lecture at 8.30. We had some history today the guide is a history teacher at Elait I think and he also is a guide. He's passed on some interesting knowledge. I didn't realise that when the Kabutz's started up it was the Russians that came as part of the second alia and they wanted a new people without religion and & everyone having everything in common. That's changed over the years because not all people put their whole heart into the venture and relationships severed. So there's all sorts of things these days. .. commercial enterprises most of them are factories or hotels. This particular one is what they call religious and it's run by Jews and I think are very conservative people. There are a couple of guards at the front with machine guns and hip pistols I've never noticed the pistols before. But apparently there's always a guard with a machine gun as well as a hand gun sitting on the front desk. So I suppose they have had to do this to survive.
It's great being over here again and just a real privilege. 6tomorrow we're heading out to have a boat ride on the sea of Galilee and I'm not sure what the day holds for us. I've only got a couple of photos again today... one of our dining room this morning trying to share the expanse of food available, a man cooking eggs to order is in the distance I think and then there is a shot of the view as we're travelling towards Nazareth and then one of me standing in front of a sign post. The photos that I took it inside the church are on my camera.
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