Wednesday 2 April

First stop today was Nazareth.  It is surprisingly hilly, with narrow streets not at all suitable for a tourist coach. We went to the "Nazareth Village", the local equivalent of "Sovereign Hill", but somewhat smaller.  We got there even before they had opened the doors.  They have local people being carpenter, weaver, herdsmen etc, using equipment from 2000 years ago.

 
From there we went to the Sea of Galilee, and drove around the bottom coast to Kursi which is half way on the eastern shore.  There is the remains of a Byzantine monastery, with a very good mosaic floor.  It wasn't far back to the kibbutz Ein-Gev.  Most kibbutzim have given up their communal way of life and have privatised, paying wages, and people owning their own houses.  This one has a huge (900 seats) restaurant specialising in fish dinners.  After that we got on a boat and motored across the lake.  They hoisted an Australian flag, and played our song, and we all stood up and sang. We stopped in the middle and floated for a while, but then the wind got up, and blew things overboard.

At the end of the trip we reached Ginnosar where they have the "Mary Rose" of Galilee - a 2000 year old fishing boat that they found and dug out of the mud in 1986 when there was a drought and the water level went down.

On the way back we called very briefly at the top end of the Jordan River where they do mass baptisms.  A bit like a sausage factory.  Put on a white robe and join the queue.  We are staying for 2 nights at another kibbutz called Ma'agan, right on the southern tip of the lake. Before tea our group went down to the beach and had our own, more meaningful baptism service.