Israel pilgrimage, seventh in series

Hello, everyone.

The remainder of this day, in the area of many Gospel incidents, has more churches, and a boat ride.

The area is named for the seven springs in the vicinity.

The Benedictine fathers placed a sign explaining the significance of the several churches in a small area. It's in reasonable boat riding distance from Capernaum and probably could be reached with a hike from there as well.

There are churches in memory of the Feeding of the Multitudes and others whose names escape me at the moment. There is a list on this sign.

This was another one of those moments when we were surprised to see how close together everything is in the Holy Land.




This is the stone, mentioned first in the letters of Egeria in the fourth century, which local tradition says is the place Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes.

It's easy for us, in the very mobile-oriented US, to laugh and say "sure it is." But these places were remembered from generation to generation and the places were passed down in families. In the fourth century, when it was finally legal to reverence the places Jesus walked, people still remembered where things had happened. And after shrines were built, even when conquerors later knocked them down and piled trash on the site, people remembered where they had been. When they could, they rebuilt the shrines in the same places. Rinse and repeat.

There are a number of interesting mosaics on the floor of this church. Of them all, this guinea hen is my personal favorite. (Photo edited to cover a bright white splash of light in upper right corner.)

 Not the same church, this one was a Franciscan one. Anyone who recognizes which one it is is welcome to contribute the information in comments! All I can remember is it was one of the three.

After visiting the churches of the Tabgha area, we went to an area restaurant (popular with tours--an amazing lot of buses there!) and ate fish from the sea of Galilee: "Tiberias fish." Which when DH inquired we learned is a kind of tilapia.


There were the customary mezzes: cabbage salad, eggplant and tomato I think at the bottom, tomato sauce, corn, tabouli...














And the whole fish, with fries on the side and a lemon wedge. They serve so many of these plates that they were already prepared...maybe because of the moment when we hit the place...the fish was tasty.

The waiter had an amazing way with removing used water glasses from the tables.
















After lunch, we went to a port, walked through a sculpture garden and out onto the dock and boarded a boat for a ride on the Sea of Galilee.

One of the boats offering this ride. The experience showed us, again, how close together these things are, as we passed the famous Golan Heights area and viewed the landscape.




The boat crews raised the flag of the tour groups' origin with each ride. We saw a Korean group, and ours of course had the Stars and Stripes. I think the crew members were a little surprised when, at the intro to the Star Spangled Banner, we all stood up, put our hands on our hearts, and sang along. (Hey, if you're going to have your flag out there waving in the breeze, have a backbone about it!)

At the end of the ride, we disembarked in Tiberias and met up with our bus. The day was pretty well gone and we returned to the hotel.