Royal Plaza Tiberias

... one layer upon the next. As we read we learned that Megiddo had been a very strategic military site since the days of the ancient Canaanites and that one of its most dramatic periods of history was during the reign of King Solomon. Megiddo also had a secret water source and we exited the tel by descending massive stone stairs and walking on an underground boardwalk over the water to its source outside of Megiddo.

On to Haifa armed ...

... 8230;absolutely no way Israel would ever be able to give back the Golan to the Syrians. We made our way back to the sea of Galilee on highway 91. We decided to stop at the red roofed Benedictine Chapel near Capernaum. When we pulled up there was only us and one other car. Two men got out of the car and as the entered the site one of the men pulled a pistol out and slid behind his waist at the back of his pants ...

... prepared to. Nonetheless, the powerful waters and the shade of the foliage around the area were a relief. We encountered the same mix of organized groups of Arab teenagers, tourists like us, and religious and secular Jews as we found at Ein Gedi and other popular sites. We opted not to hike the 45 mins. to the Banias springs, but drove the kilometer instead, and walked around the nearby ruins of the temple to the god Pan (whence the name Banias). At this ...

... die aber nur frueh morgens faehrt, um den "Ansturm" des Nachmittags auf den Grenzposten zu vermeiden. Jetzt hatte ich also zwei Moeglichkeiten: entweder eine weitere Nacht in Jordanien verbringen, oder ein schweineteures Taxi ins Jordantal chartern. Zu dem Zeitpunkt war es schon frueher Nachmittag bei 34 Grad und ich fing an, mich an die "tolle" Ueberquerung der senegalesisch-gambianischen Grenze vor siebeneinhalb Monaten zu erinnern, und von da an wollte ich das ...

... he's done some cool **** in the army and best of all he makes me laugh and is sociable. I loved spending time with him and his friends We came back to his place, wached Love Guru and eventually I simply passed out missing everying (its a shame really, coulda chatted more) In the morning (april 23rd 2009) we planned to go to the beach, The Bahai Gardens and then it wouuld be time for me to head back to Nazaret Illit. However, the weather wasn't what we had hope for and so ...

... lady, not the real one 'it's just so we can take tourist's money') - nevertheless it was a beautiful part of the jordan river, with lots of greenry around and a starteling number of large fish in it! we waded aroudn the specially built baptismal area (some pilgrims in white-and-rather-see-through robes were getting baptised). then back to tiberias where we decided a fitting lunch would be 'loaves and fishes' - so we bought a can of tuna and some flat bread (with hummus as ...

... a stand that said American Ice Cream & found that to be soft ice-cream from the machine. We later found that Israelis love that. They buy it at McDonalds all the time. We went to dinner by Tal's cousins Shai & Ainat with their 1.5 year old, Saar. It was very nice & tasty meal with soup, salads, hummus, meatballs, shnitzel etc. For dessert they had 2 great cakes & pulled out the ice cream too (yes, dairy, apparently that is not a consideration here by anyone we went ...

... dig brought to light several tombs. They managed to remove two meters (yards) of soil from the top of the whole tel, quite an accomplishment in itself, before realizing even John Rockefeller's financial backing wouldn't be sufficient to remove the whole tel. They then began more selective and concentrated excavations in various locations and they brought to light some fascinating buildings including a huge palace, still the largest known ...

... Yom Hashoah stops traffic and pedestrians throughout the State of Israel for two minutes of silent devotion. Literally, people stop in their tracks. Cars & motorcycles stop & shut off their motors & get out & stand next to their vehicles. Everything is silent & still. It was very emotionally overwhelming ...

... pass other Talmudic students playing musical instruments. They are just starting and seem to be playing interesting rhythms, and we are tempted to stop and listen in the small park where they are situated. But Harvey checks his pockets and we have given out our coins during the day, so we keep moving. Just around the corner, we hear more guitar music and look up an alley and there are two more young men playing! It might have been ...