Down the Jericho Road ... 12/19

And now I must actually blog about my travels in Israel. Yes, my trip here and the stay in Italy were fascinating, but the true purpose of both this trip and this blog is to see Israel. So, on to Israel!

As I said in my last post, I arrived about twenty-six hours later than scheduled. I missed an entire day of the trip. However, this wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t miss anything that we won’t be doing again. I did arrive in time to eat dinner at the Grand Court Hotel there in Jerusalem. That was good since I hadn’t eaten yet that day. I was rather famished and ate quite heartily. I’m not sure what most of it was, but it was good and I wasn’t asking. I was just eating.

We started the next day bright and early. My alarm went off at five o’clock. Yes, I know, there are no vestiges of sanity in those who awaken at such an hour. I never claimed any.


We loaded up the car, ate breakfast there at the hotel, and headed out before seven. The night before we had received an invitation for a feast in Canna of Galilee so we had that as our eventual goal. So the plan was to go from Jerusalem to Bet She’an, Bet She’an to Megiddo, and then Megiddo up to Canna of Galilee. The plan was to stop and tour the Tels at both Bet She’an and Megiddo.

Now, the most direct route from Jerusalem to Bet She’an is through Jericho. That would be great except for the fact that the residents of Jericho are decidedly against anything Israeli and the van that we are driving has Israeli plates. Dr. Fisher said that driving through there would be a guaranteed way to get our van stoned and would give us a good chance of being shot at. With those odds against us, we decided that it would be the wiser course of action to travel a few kilometers out of our way and drive around Jericho.

South of Jericho, north of the Dead Sea, and west of the Jordan river, we found a sign by the side of the road that proudly proclaimed that this spot, right there, was exactly at sea level. Now, as fascinating as that fact was, it’s not what made this particular gravel turn off worthy of stopping at. That was the fault of the camel.

Yes, that’s right. There was a camel there. There was also a guy who owned and “ran” the camel, but he wasn’t quite as interesting. More than just having a camel though, he was also offering rides for ten shekels (about $2.50) each. Needless to say, we couldn’t resist. At that price, all three of us “newbies” went ahead and rode. It was, to put it mildly, hilarious.

First, the camel had to kneel down. Then we mounted. At least I think that’s what you would call it. Then the thing stood up. That was the interesting part. It felt like you were going to fall off forwards, then it felt like you were going to fall of backwards, then you had to figure out which way was which, and then you were up. I’m sure I had the strangest expression on my face the whole time. Here’s hoping that nobody snapped a picture or two during that six second process.

Once you were up, the camel’s owner led you around for a few seconds, gave you the reigns so that your group could take pictures of you without him leading, led you in front of the sea level sign so that you could get pictures of that, and then led you back and had the camel kneel down so you could dismount.

The kneeling down was just as bad as the standing up; just in reverse. Yeah, quite the experience. It was fun though. I wasn’t actually worried about falling off, it just felt like I was going to. There’s a distinct difference there you know.

From there we drove directly to Bet She’an without any further stops. Bet She’an was amazing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the terms, a “Tel” is a city site where down through the ages they haven’t changed where the city itself is. They just kind of level off the existing ruins and build on top of them. The result is an artificial hill with layers upon layers of ancient civilizations buried within. A pretty cool concept if you ask me.


I understand that the most recent use of the Tel at Bet She’an was by the Greeks around the time of Christ. However, being the predecessors of American Laziness, the Greeks didn’t bother to build on the top of the hill. Instead they built their town sprawled around the base of the Tel and only used the Tel itself for a temple to Zeus. I must confess that I found the Greek ruins around the base much more fascinating than the Egyptian and Israelite ruins at the top.

From Bet She’an we drove up the Jezreel valley to Megiddo and more specifically Tel Megiddo. While this was a much larger Tel, there wasn’t nearly as much to be seen due to the absence of a Greek presence. However, this site gave a much better picture of what exactly a Tel was and how it worked.

After that tour we headed north and west to Canna of Galilee where we were to partake of the feast. This was the highlight of my day. We arrive about 3:30 in the afternoon, much earlier than we had originally planned. Because of this, Dr. Fisher’s friend who had invited us was not even at home when we arrived. So, showing great hospitality, our host’s brother generously invited us wait in his home. We spent nearly an hour visiting with him, his wife and his son. During this time I made the greatest discovery of the trip; Arabian Coffee.

I was hooked at the first scent. You’ve heard of Cowboy Coffee where you can through the horse shoe in the pot and it will stand up? Well this stuff’s so black, strong, and think that the horse shoe would float! Oh yeah, my kind of coffee. I guess my enthusiasm made it out into my facial expression because I endured a great deal of teasing from our hosts about how this coffee would make my beard grow thick. Hey, can’t hurt and it’s worth a try. Especially when it tastes that good!

While the wondrous taste of the coffee was still in my mouth, our host made his appearance. Speaking in halting English he welcomed us all very, very warmly. With him as our guide we embarked on a tour of the two local churches; one a Franciscan Catholic and one a Greek Orthodox. Our host belonged to the Greek Orthodox. Both were amazing. The architecture, the artifacts, and (in the Greek Orthodox one) the wood carvings were all well worth seeing. As we were leaving the Greek Orthodox church the priest asked if we would allow him to serve us coffee. So, much to my delight and Beth’s horror, we drank another small cup of Arabian Coffee. Mmmm….

By this point it was rapidly becoming dark so we made our way back to the house where we would be feasting and promptly began. Man, when they say feast they really mean feast! Two salads, stuffed vegetables, roasted chicken with vegetables, and multiple sauces and drinks. The food was wonderful and the fellowship was even better. For desert they had fruit, cookies, and (best of all) more of the nectar straight from the gates of heaven that they called Arabian Coffee. This time I was able to have two glasses.

After thanking our host and his wife profusely, we made our way to the Sea of Galilee itself and our Kibbutz right along its shore. It was dark when we drove in so we really didn’t get a good look at the Sea, but it was still cool to know that we were along the shores of Galilee.

With such an exciting day and dealing with more than a little bit of jet lag, I decided to spend my evening in a simply marvelous fashion. I slept. Yes, despite the four cups of Arabian Coffee from that afternoon and evening I zonked out and enjoyed the very comfortable bed provided for me.

*A deep, very KJV sounding narrator’s voice begins drolling in the background*

“Thus ends the account of the first day in the travels of Jonathan Marshall. Tune in next time to hear the fascinating continuation of this and other stories. If you have enjoyed this tale, please consider donating to the ‘Line Jonathan’s Pockets Foundation’. Thank you, and good night.”