Today was a much shorter, but still wonderful, day. We started with a 45-minute drive from Haifa to Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle. In the Gospel account, Jesus, his mother and his disciples are invited to a wedding. When his mother notices that the wine has run out, she urges Jesus to do something about it. After much encouragement, he turned the water into wine. While there is some debate among scholars as to the location of the church, the most commonly held belief is that it was at the Wedding Church of Cana we visited today.
The church is now a Franciscan Catholic Church. We were able to go inside but there was a service going on, so we only got as far as the front door. It is a small church, but still very pretty.
We also saw a replica of the jug that held the water/wine. Each of these jugs could hold enough liquid for 80 people and there were 6 jugs. So, the wedding attendees had quite the open bar.
In the basement, there were ruins of the original church where the wedding was held.
Then it was on to Nazareth, where Jesus spent his youth. During Jesus’ time, only 125 families lived in the city. Now there is a population of 80,000 and the traffic to go with it. More than 74% of Israeli citizens are Jewish, almost 18% are Muslim and another 2% are Christian. The remaining citizens are from a wide variety of religions. There is, though, no Jewish presence in Nazareth. 70% of the inhabitants are Arab Muslims and the rest are Christian.
Our first stop in Nazareth was the site of the spring the inhabitants during Jesus’ time would have used. It was about 1/2 mile from where they lived. Why not live closer to the water? That’s what I asked. The answer is that the land was not suitable for habitation, so families lived in the caves and walked to get water, wash clothes, bathe, etc.
Mary’s Well is reputed to be located at the site where, according to the Greek Orthodox tradition, Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would bear the Son of God. This event known as the Annunciation.
Just behind this, is a Greek Orthodox church, behind which is the actual spring. There were literally hundreds of people there, so we didn’t even attempt to go down the stairs to see it.
The 1/2 mile walk to the caves where the Holy Family lived was difficult for us as it had bumpy cobblestones, steep hills, narrow sidewalks and a ton of traffic on the one-way streets. So, Peter ended up walking a fair amount of it while I had help with the wheelchair. Seriously, everyone on the tour has been amazingly helpful. I’m so grateful for them.
We finally arrived at the Basilica of the Annunciation, which holds the cave where Mary lived. According to Catholic tradition, this is where the Annunciation occurred, not Mary’s Well. But since we visited both sites, we have all our bases covered.
The original church was built in 570AD. The second church was built in the time of the crusades, about 1100. The 3rd church, the one here, was constructed in 1954.
Due to the number of spiral stairs we would have had to climb, we didn’t visit the upper church. Had we gone, we would have seen the cave that the Holy Family lived in while Jesus was growing up. Here’s a pic I found on Wikipedia.
We were on our own for lunch, which we ate very quickly as it took forever for our order to be delivered, then it was back to the bus for the hour drive to Caesarea National Park where the remains of the ancient city of Caesarea Palestinea are located. Tazchi said the tour would take 75-90 minutes and we really weren’t interested enough to do the entire tour. We’ve seen so many ruins and after a while, they all start to look alike. We did the first 30 minutes to see the amphitheater and palace.
After seeing the palace, Peter and I peeled off with a couple of others and headed for Golda’s Gelato shop Peter spotted when we got off the bus. Rachel had never had gelato before, so she enjoyed some with us.
It was a much shorter ride home tonight, so we were back in our room by 5:15. We just got back from dinner and as soon as I finish this, I’ll be relaxing for a while before heading to bed. We check out of the hotel and spend the last 4 nights of the tour in Jerusalem. Tomorrow, we spend a good part of the day in Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank of Palestine. It’s still part of Israel but is controlled by the Palestinians. It should be interesting.