"Holy Land Tour - Day 7" Tiberias, "Church of Annunciation ","Church of St Joseph',"Wedding Church at Cana".[Saturday 1-11-2008]

Guide Me Eleizer.Gilboa. explaining the site of the ruins of st Peters home and the synagogue(Galilee)

Woke up at 0600 hrs and as usual went for a walk near the vicinity of the hotel, a cold pleasant morning and i felt of being in some quaint European town ,reminder of my sea-faring port voyages to unknown city's and continents. Observed a lot of cars with bicycles harnessed externally like "Haversacks" onto their aft dickey cover heading towards the 'Sea of Galilee" area, the first time that i saw "Bicycles" being transported by "Luxury Cars". After a short walk around the hotel locality, myself being one of the few visible pedestrians i later returned to the hotel, showered and reported for breakfast in the main dining lobby. Breakfast and food was typical "Western Continental" in Israel, "Japanese Sushi" being the delicacy i found different, besides ,food although "self-service", "second helpings" of the main dish like chicken,Beef steaks,Lamb chops and fish fillets were not allowed.After breakfast we boarded the "tour Bus" and headed towards the Sea of Galilee area onto a hillock overlooking the sea and the entire "Golan Heights", famous in world news for the "Arab-Israeli Wars".
First time in my life i witnessed the enthusiasm of "PROFESSIONAL CYCLING" something which was a television sport to us Indians, where the humble bicycle is considered a "poor mans" transport in major city's like Mumbai and Bangalore where i have residences and was the "freak cyclist" of these city's! Saturday (Sabbath day) is a public holiday in Israel and hence a cross-country cycle race was organized around the sea of Galilee with all the participants arriving at the "Starting Point" of the race in their cars, the "Rough terrain bikes" strapped onto the back of their vehicles.Such week-end bicycle races are a common sport in Israel as indicated by the specialized flexible temporary "harness locks" fitted onto the cars for "Bicycle transport", akin to a taxi or car carrying luggage on its " roof carrier". All the bicycles were either "Mountain Bikes" or "Rough Terrain" with very few "Racer bicycles" since manny local week-end holidaymakers also carted their bikes to the remote mountains and used them for local "Bicycle trekking", a very popular mountain sport.After visiting the hillock overlooking the Sea of Galilee we next visited the Churches of Annunciation and later the workshop and church of St Joseph.Majority of the buildings in Jerusalem and Tiberias were made of a combination of Limestone and granite, hence the buildings look drab ,and ugly from the exterior akin to Mumbai's government "Housing board colonies", barring a few skyscrapers in New Jerusalem city. The wealth of the residents of these buildings can't be gauged by a common tourist unlike India where just a "Bus passage" from the airport to South Mumbai could make a first time tourist understand the economic equations of a particular locality just by its buildings and road cleanliness and the same applies to Cairo!Later after lunch visited the wedding church at Cana and also purchased the "cana wedding wine", a typical tourist product, selling on a religious significance in Christianity.I purchased two bottles of "Cana Wine" for religious as well as a "collectors item", since one normally doesn't visit the "Holy land" regularly, a once in a life-time journey of discovery.We returned back to our hotel a bit early and toured the city of Tiberias individually, a typical small and beautiful "One horse city".As mentioned earlier ,according to me, the cost of living in Israel is on par with Europe to the average Indian tourist where conversion of the "Israeli Shekel" into "Indian rupees" while purchasing common products could be a real drain on the wallet.Did some "window-shopping" in the stores and found out that the cost of an all terrain bi-cycle at approx US $'s 330(Rs 16,500) to be cheaper than the purchase of a inflatable "Rubber Dinghy" without an "Outboard engine" at US$'s 280(Rs 14,100 approx), as sailing was my profession and cycling my daily exercise in Mumbai. Purchased a bottle of local "Israeli Vodka" as its always been my habit to taste local cuisine or alcoholic drinks of a touring country, the cheapest available drink at 6 Euro's(Rs 420 approx) and later made my way towards the hotel.Later in the evening, tasted the "Israeli Vodka" and went off to dinner, later watching the television on the giant flat screen television kept in the main hotel lobby for tourists, also explaining the reasons for the pathetic "14' colour T.V" in the individual guest rooms.The "Paid Television channels" available in Israel are numerous including "Hot adult channels" and "Playboy" which in the era of "Internet Sex video's" can be considered a tame channel.Most of the channels available were in "Yiddish" with not a single "Indian Channel", rest all being American.

At a "KIBBUTZ".Understanding the Israeli way of  communal living.