Bentleys in Israel: Galilee with Melissa

(4/25/11, Sunday) -- Tiberias at night. For two days, we took Melissa and Dan to many of the same sites on the Sea of Galilee that we visited on the BYU field trip the prior month. We arrived at the LDS chapel high above the Sea of Galilee before dark. With Jeff Chadwick & his daughters there, we all slept on air mattresses in separate rooms on the lower level.

On the downtown Tiberias boardwalk, we ate St. Peter's Fish at a Lebanese cafe. Yum!

Later came the waterfront light show spectacular -- a bit like the one at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. (These photos don't do it justice.)

Sites above the Sea of Galilee (4/26/11, Mon.) Arising early, we started at the Mt. of Beatitudes -- a great stop on our March field trip. Sadly, the church & grounds were closed for Easter holidays. Still, we enjoyed walking around the perimeter.

Capernaum. After he was expelled from his home town of Nazareth for heresy (Luke 4:16-30), Jesus made this his home base for most of his ministry. He may have lived with disciples like Peter (Matt. 8:14-15). This modern Catholic church now covers remains of what may have been Peter's house.

This Byzantine synagogue was built on ruins of the original.

Here, Jesus caused another near-riot with his "bread of life" sermon (John 6).

Melissa and an affable Franciscan monk enjoyed each other. We were glad this site was not closed to tourists.

Gamla. Next stop was one of our favorites, located high above the Galilee's distant eastern shore. Gamla means "camel" and was a well-kpt secret for most tour groups.

Its superb nature reserve included Israel's tallest waterfall, many protected bird species and gorgeous vegetation -- although the grass was starting to turn brown.

We made the most of this high overlook with some posed shots.

It also contained over 700 "Dolmens" (huge "table stones") between 10,000 and 4,000 years old, apparently used as permanent grave markers. Most dolmens have withstood many ancient devastating earthquakes. But some of them have now toppled.

Gamla's history was amazing As one of the last holdouts during the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 to 70 AD -- resulting in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem -- historian Josephus's forces held this impenetrable mountain fortress until legions under Titus and Vespasian breached its steep walls after a long seige.

Wildflowers still blooming were a big attraction.

Mt. Arbel. This high mtn. near Tiberias is over 1200' above ground level.

It had commanding views of the Galilee and many towns surrounding the sea.

Melissa was excited to return here!

Like Gamla, this nature preserve had magnificent wildflowers.

As in March, it was hard to leave this place for another destination.

On our way back to our chapel, we saw the Horns of Hittin -- where Saladin in 1187 A.D. conquered Richard the Lionhearted and the Crusaders. Before retiring that night, Melissa & Dan took a quick swim in the Sea of Galilee.