On to Nazareth – take 2!

TAKE 2 of this morning’s post —- hopefully with more pictures this time !
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Hi

Yesterday wasn’t my best day if the tour – a range of reasons. By dinner time tiredness had started to really catch up – forever waking up at 4.30 am. Also – yesterday my nose ran like a tap; the hay fever was terrible. Add to this the fact that the video camera battery died. You guessed it – no backup battery AND despite looking, no replacement available locally.

Enough doom & gloom. Just woken up from 9 1/2 hours sleep. Yes! The nose is OK and Austals is recovering after a horror start in the 2nd cricket test!

Yesterday we journeyed fromBethehem to Nazareth, staying at a nice hotel right in the CBD. It has the largest imaginable dining hall – we shared it last night with an exuberant group pf Christiansfrom Nigeria. They sing beautifully!

En route to Nazareth we stopped by the highway for the best cup of coffee I’ve had since leaving Australia . It was so good !

Soon after we were atop Mt Carmel – great panoramic view, but more importantly the sire where the prophet Elijah confronted Jezebel’s prophets of Baal – according to the scriptures literally cut them down. Not nice, but important guess (?) in God showing who really was God.

Before Nazareth we stopped at. Kibbutz restaurant – these kibbutzim are nothing like assumed they would be. Got the steak I was hanging out for.

Prior to reaching our hotel, we sent time at two local churches of the Annunciation – commemorating the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear the Christ child. Significant visits. Ob church Greek Orthodox, the other – a huge yet beautiful Roman Catholuc church with amazing array of mosaic paintings inside/outside from around the world depicting the annunciation. This church is only about 40 years old.

DALE reflects on her subsequent visit there later in the day …

Hi Dale here, Janet(from Indro), dr abe and I headed for a trek back down the steep hill to visit the basilica again at night and do a bit of shopping. Unexpectedly the Bishop was holding mass in the grotto of Mary’s house and we were included. It was a wonderfully moving experience. Continuing the blessings we walked up the hill and stopped to look at some cashmere shawls. The lovely family allowed us space and time and peace to shop while the baby played on the floor. We were also given prices nearly half the price of other places. I got my Jerusalem cross from them. Then a great meal, great bed, great sleep.

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David here

Today we sail on Galilee – really looking forward to that.

Shalom

DAVID