Warren Peace: Israel - Day 3

I'm sorry - the pictures in today's post are all over the place! I'm not sure how they ended up so out of order, but I'm too tired to try to fix it!

This is some of the remains of Simon Peter's house!! It was amazing! There's a building that was built over it - that's the cement overhead. The original structure was the circular wall right in the middle, then when there was a need to expand, they would build another round wall around it. The thought is that Peter probably married the oldest daughter of a family in Copernum and when her parents died, they moved back into her parents home to care for the rest of the family, as was the tradition. There is a stone inscribed with Peter's name, and tradition also holds that this was his home.

This is us just outside of the Mt of the Beatitudes - it has rained almost constantly since we got here!

This is inside the Copernum city gates - so pretty!

This is the synagogue in Copernum. The black rock at the base dates to the time of Jesus.

The synagogue from a distance

David said I was going to have to wait on the bus :)

Inside the synagogue

The second floor was for the women, the men worshipped on the first floor.

Women can be such a distraction! Ha!

Walking around the grounds of Copernum

A traditional Israeli lunch began with soup - very tasty - and flat bread that was wonderful!

These are our new friends, Gary and Jill Ward. In front of them are various dishes to dip the bread in. I really liked the hummus and the red dish that was similar to hot sauce!

Jill's meal arrived before ours and I must admit I thought she was a little crazy not to order the traditional fish which is fresh Tilapia...

...then it arrived and really wished I had paid more attention to the details of the meal before I ordered!

Once it's head and fins and scales were removed (and once David quit moving it's head to "talk" to me like a Big Mouth Billy Bass!) it was actually delicious.

Dessert was really good too - some sort of sorbet-ish strawberry treat.

The restaurant was very nice.

These are on the Sea of Galilee.

There was a beautiful church built around/over the dock where Peter landed. These are the steps that the disciples and Jesus would have taken to get onto a flat area of the dock where they cooked fish (it's just on the other side of the church walls.)

More of Simon Peter's house (again, sorry for the lack of order on these!)

More of Peter's house

This is the coast on the Sea of Galilee just down from the church built on the dock where Peter landed.

I did pick up some rocks/pebbles here for some ladies who requested them!

This is a statue just outside of that church depicting Jesus and Peter.

Here is the inside of the church. There were nuns and other vistors taking pictures of each other kneeling and kissing the rock - it was interesting.

Isn't this a beautiful country!? It is nothing like what I pictured. I was expecting dry, brown land. What a lovely surprise!

This is the monestary at the Mount of the Beatitudes. It was so much prettier than the picture captures.

These two pics are on the floor inside the church of the Beatitudes.

This is the ceiling - again, so much prettier than the picture. Each of the stained glass windows listed one of the beatitudes.

Outside the church of the Beatitudes

This was funny to me - you can buy "Holy Water" in a plastic bottle (about the size of a regular bottle of drinking water) for $3.

This cracked me up too - Sea of Galilee and Mount of the Beatitudes shot glasses.

One of the neatest things we've seen here so far. The boat behind us dates to Jesus' time and was found here in the 80s. A couple of amateur archaeologists found a couple of nails, then the wood, the last time there was a heavy drought here. All the experts came out and the process to get it out of the mud, without drying out or crumbling was incredible. In the end, they sprayed a foam all over it and floated the 2000 year old boat out of its resting place. This is actually it - not a replica. They call it the Jesus boat.

This is coming off the boat ride (pictured below)

These are taken on the middle of the Sea of Galilee! It was awesome to think that these are the waters that Jesus calmed and walked on. Just awesome.

As we got on to the boat and left the dock, they raised an American flag and started playing the Star Spangled Banner. It was kind of funny to me, although several of the people in our group took it very seriously :)

This is the patio just outside our room - it is a gorgeous site at sunrise and sunset.

Apparently Snuggies are all the rage in Israel too :)

Enjoying some breakfast

This is the kind of boat we rode on across the Sea of Galilee. Years ago, travelers went across on ferries, but since the discovery of the Jesus boat, these replica Jesus boats are more popular.