We had lovely views from the balcony as we docked in Haifa. The Ba’hai Gardens are something else! We took a tour with Guided Tours Israel this day (GTI) that would bring us to Nazareth, Cana, the Church of the Beatitudes, Tabgha, Capernaum, and the Jordan River at Yardenit. Our group was quite strange – no one talked even amongst themselves and our guide lacked time management skills so it was a bit of an odd day. We’re glad we did it but it didn’t leave us overly enamoured with what we saw.
Today’s security check leaving the ship was way more intense than yesterday’s! They touched everything and every camera lens and piece of equipment. Glad we didn’t have the tripod!
It was a 45 minute drive to Nazareth, which incidentally is the largest Arab city in Israel. In the centre is the massive Church of the Annunciation. Under the church is the cave where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and then above it is the regular church. It sort of reminded me of the Church of Guadelupe in Mexico City with the two levels and modern design.
Next was our drive by through Cana, then a stop at the site of the Sermon on the Mount with views over the Sea of Galilee. There was a small church with the Beatitudes inscribed.
Tabgha is the site of the miracle of multiplying the bread and fish.
Capernaum was quite interesting with the old city ruins and the site of Peter’s family home and generally accepted site of the first Christian church.
Next was our disastrous lunch stop at a fish restaurant on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. Long story short, no one wanted to eat except us but we took one for the team and declined as well to not hold everyone up. We all leave and then find out that the driver is eating!!! So we ended up there for 45 minutes! Serious lack of communication! We found a little convenience store and had ice creams so all was not completely lost!
We then motored all along the one side from north to south to end at the Jordan River and the baptismal site of Yardenit. There was another convenience store/kiosk so we had some chips and water to tide us over. We had 20 minutes to look at the river and go through the gift shop.
When we were all ready to leave, we found out that three of our group had just entered the restaurant and were eating!!! This delayed us by almost half an hour and ultimately meant that we missed the city views of Haifa from the top of the Ba’hai gardens. We were not impressed! And they didn’t even say sorry when they sauntered nonchalantly from the restaurant. So needless to say, the tour ended on a bit of a sour note!
We arrived back at the ship around 17:30 and hit the pool straightaway to get refreshed. We also hit the pizza counter to make up for our relatively foodless day! We ran into Ian, one of our taxi buddies, and we compared our days. They did Acra and really liked it. Next time! We were telling him that tour would have been much better if it was with our taxi group rather than the dull group we had!!!
I’m struggling to remember dinner….I know it was good…my usual cold soup and meat for main but I can’t remember! Maybe this is indicative of the activity that followed dinner….THE PUB CRAWL! There were soooo many people! And the drinks were big and proper! We met two guys from Spain who also live in Madrid….we had seen them around Rhodes and the ship but really hadn’t chatted before. The best game was boys against the girls on the pool deck with a line of beers. It was relay style and after drinking the beer you had to put the cup on the edge of the table and flick it upside down. Such fun! Then there was a chugging contest between a young guy and the oldest person on the crawl – a woman from New Zealand who was a mere 61 years old. It was amazing – she very nearly won! This converted her into the most popular person on the boat!
We also had a stop in the piano bar where we had a Sweet Caroline sing along! One of the group also blew us away with a song from Cabaret. The final stop was the nightclub where we discovered the dancing family. Mother, daughter, and son were dancing machines! It was amazing! Finally we stumbled back to the stateroom exhausted and very happy that the next day was at sea!!