Day Eleven: Tiberias to Tel Aviv

The Trip Itinerary:
Departing Tiberias, we will drive through the rolling hills to Nazareth to visit the Annunciation Church and St. Joseph’s Workshop. After Mass we will proceed to the Mediterranean coast and then south to Tel Aviv for check‐in at our beachfront hotel.

Our last day. It was a fast-paced tour and seemed to go by so quickly.

We left the hotel at 8:00 and went to Cana where we arrived close to 8:30. We went to a small compound with a pretty chapel and two, what I would call, chaplets. As we made our way from the bus to the compound, we saw a number of vendors with bottles of "Genuine Cana Wedding Wine". Once we were within the compound, Fr. Jim moved everyone into a chaplet and had the married people renew their wedding vows (picture below). He had each couple face one another and hold hands as he read the vows. We spent a little time in

the chapel (above left) and then went to crypt with a small altar in an alcove, some ancient ruins covered by glass and a stone water jar. When reading the Biblical account of the Miracle at Cana, I always envisioned a large ceramic-like jar but one carved from stone. My expectation was wrong. The water jar was a roughly hewn block of stone with a large hole bored in the top (above right). We left Cana at 9:30 and arrived at Nazareth before 10:00.

Nazareth was very small in Jesus's day but is fairly large now. There are two Nazareths. Upper Nazareth has a Jewish mayor and is predominantly Jewish. Lower Nazareth (also called Old Nazareth) has a mix of Moslem and Christian citizens and a Moslem mayor. From 1948 to 2014 the mayor was Christian, but the Christian population shrunk while the Moslems grew.

We went to the Church of the Annunciation. It was completed in 1969 and was the prettiest church I saw on our tour. It had three levels. The top level is a basilica style church, i.e. a rectangular space with three aisles. We had Mass there at 11:00. The top picture on page 61 is of that space with the Mass that was being said before ours.

Recesses which are very tall and narrow relative to the height are in the walls on this level. Filling these recesses are varied depictions of Mary from around the world and are composed of mosaics, plaques, tiles and other materials. The United States sent a work titled "Immaculate Conception" that is made from the skin of the Apollo 12 space capsule. The middle picture on page 61 has three of these plaques. The US work is on the left.

The middle level is itself on two levels. There is a mezzanine on the perimeter and from it stairs lead down to a floor level that contains an altar in the center and, adjacent to that, an enclosed space with another altar behind an iron grate (bottom picture on page 61). We were there at noon when an Angelus was sung in Latin. A group of clerics emerged from somewhere and processed to the enclosed space. The lead cleric entered and began singing and was answered

by the other clerics. Our group watched and listened from the mezzanine. It was very moving.

The lower level is a crypt which is said to contain the ruins of Mary's house. There are also three grottoes with very pretty stained glass windows that are constructed so that they receive light from above ground level. There other buildings on the site which could be a monastery or for administration or even housing. I didn't learn their purpose. The Church of St. Joseph is also on the site. It is a modest but pretty structure (picture on the previous page).

We had lunch after this and then stopped at gift shop run by Christians. When we stopped at gifts shops a few times earlier in our travels, nothing caught my fancy in them. In this store I found a Nativity Statue carved from olive wood and then nicely painted. It was different than anything I had seen before so I bought it. We left Nazareth a bit after 2:00 and arrived at our hotel a quarter past 4:00. The hotel is a little south of Tel Aviv and is reasonably close to the airport. My room was on the 21st floor and, when I walked in, I was surprised to find that it was a suite: Living room, full kitchen, large bedroom and one and a half bathrooms. It also had a large teak deck

that could be accessed from the living room and bedroom, and, since the hotel was situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, it afforded some spectacular views. This was the most luxurious hotel at which we stayed. My guess is that it is very pricey in the summer months because of its location, but, since the temperatures are in the mid-70's in November, it is much less expensive since it is the off season.

For about a half hour before dinner I sat on the deck listening to the surf and watching the waves roll in (pictures on the adjacent page and above). It was very calming. We had a sit-down dinner that began at 6:30. I was seated across from and adjacent to people with whom I had become better acquainted so it was a very pleasant evening. I returned to my room and read a little before turning in around 9:30 since we had an early start the next day.

Accommodations: Island Suites Hotel
> Sderot Oved Ben Ami 10, Netanya, 42200, Israel
> Phone: ++972-77-2666666
> Highly rated, WiFi availability unknown