Israel Discovery

Day Four – 29 Nov 2009

Weather: Sunny, 22 (jeans and t-shirt)

I was up and out for 7:45. Breakfast was the usual fare and the hotel was very crowded. The sight of the half dozen buses and chaos around them made us thankful for such a small group. We walked through the crowd and down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee for our morning cruise.

The wooden boat was big enough to hold couple dozen or more seated and maybe a hundred standing. The boat backed out of the dock, made a circuit the length of Tiberius and returned to the dock.

Zvika gave a short commentary on the Sea and in less than 30 minutes, we were back on dry land.

I honestly didn’t see the purpose of the cruise. On the Danube cruise in Budapest, it gave us excellent views of the buildings at night. This cruise showed us nothing except a view of the hotel. The area was far too hazy to see anything and they said it was like that almost all the time. So why we wasted so much of the morning for it, I don’t know. I can only guess it’s a religious thing but even the one among us who was very religious didn’t seem to think much of it.

We returned to the hotel, gathered up our luggage and drove north towards the Mount of Beatitudes. It was a quick visit to the site that overlooks the sea then we proceeded to Caphernaum to visit the ruins of two ancient Synagogues that were built on top of one another. Some believe Saint Peter lived near here.

I got a bit distracted here.

After that, another quick stop at the site of the “Jesus Boat.” It’s the remains of a small boat found on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and was determined to be 2000 years old. There’s nothing to say Jesus had anything to do with the boat, but they call it that probably to suck in the tourists. (It cheapens the whole experience for those that do come to see sites related to the historical figure of Jesus).

We got a quick shopping break then were back on the road. With the sun setting so early, Zvika was determined to get us to the Dead Sea while it was still light outside.

The drive along the Jordan River Valley was impressive as green gave way to desert and mountains. It was a beautiful drive.

We stopped for a quick lunch where Zvika’s choice for us was chicken schnitzel in pita. We were back on the road 30 minutes later.

The Dead Sea Hotels are located in the southern section of the Dead Sea.

The northern section is suffering from a receding shoreline as more water is diverted from the Jordan River for agriculture and drinking. Hotels and spas on the coast there are now a hundred meters or more from the shore. The southern section avoids this problem by using canals to keep the water at a constant level. Masada is visible from the road just a few minutes from the hotels.

We arrived at our hotel just after 3 pm. Even Zvika was impressed with our timing and said it would not have been possible with a bus load of people. We got into our bathing suits and dropped down to the spa where we were given two towels.

You can rent a bath robe, but given the cost, I’d rather drip on the floor all the way back to my room.

The hotel is right on the beach. There are directions as to how to walk into the water and what not to do. Splashing and kicking in the water is forbidden. There is a ramp with handles to help people walk into the water and as the water gets deep, you turn around and just let your feet float to the surface. It is impossible to sink.

In fact, it takes effort to stand in the deeper water. It’s amazing. It doesn’t even feel like salt water. It was fairly warm with some cold spots (I’m guessing they’re underwater springs).

There’s a clock on the beach so that you can be sure not to spend more than 20 minutes in the water. You can get out for five minutes and get back into the water, which we did. Bring your cameras!! The experience was worth the trip.

We returned to our rooms to shower off the salt (which left us with a smooth feeling skin) and some of us went for a walk to visit the shops in the area. Dinner was at 7 pm and was the usual fare, but the desserts were not that great. Some of them had a really peculiar taste that I could not wash out of my mouth.

The rooms at the Hod Hotel are like the others with safe, tv, kettle, safe, shampoo and stuff. There’s an ironing board, but no iron.

The selection on the TV is also pretty good. I’m curious why the hotels in Europe could not offer anything beyond the news channels for the most part. Internet is reasonable. One hour is $7 US and a day is $10. Not hard to know which one I picked.