Trip to the North

The students union here in Sede Boqer organized a trip to the north of Israel. About 20 of us went, and covered a lot of ground in just a few short days.

We began the trip with a short hike in the Galilee. After months in the desert, the amount of green everywhere was very exciting.

Lots of green and lots of colour!





The landscape there was really quite stunning...



We made a stop at the Jordan River to see the site of Jesus's baptism (or at least one of the places it was thought to be at).



Then we headed on to Nazareth. In Nazareth we went to the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Mary is said to have been told that she would carry Jesus. There is a lower church where there is a grotto they say the annuciation took place in. The upper church is very modern and contains many images of the Virgin Mary from countries all over the world (many of these images also surround the church outside). It was interesting to see how Mary is portrayed in the many countries...



Although there were some that didn't appear to be from countries at all. I thought esperanto was a lanugage and not a country? Or am I wrong?



I have to say that Canada's was perhaps the most abstract of all of them. It was one of the few where we couldn't even find Jesus...



We stayed in a guest house in Nazareth that just opened. They are converting a 200 year old arab mansion in the old city.



We went on another short hike in Tel Dan. This park is beautiful. I was very excited to see a river with fast moving water--my friends tell me I have been in the desert too long because I described this as a "huge river with whitewater" when I got back....then had to admit that it was maybe 20 feet across.



Some of the sign posts on the hike gave us interesting options. Hmmm....back to paradise , or the flour mill?


We went to the northern edge of Israel to the Golan Heights and saw Mount Hermon. Snow in Israel!


Part of this mountain is in Israel, part in Syria, and part in Lebanon.

This is probably as close as I will get to any of these countries for at least a while. This is a view from an extinct volcano in the Golan--the towns in the distance are all in Syria.