Israel Pilgrimage
January 11-20, 2001
How you’ll experience Israel in 10 Days
Day 1(1/11-Thursday) Depart New Orleans
Day 2 (1/12-Friday) Depart Zurich at 9:55A and arrive Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport, at 2:40 pm where we will meet Tom Brimmer, and our NET bus. We will drive thru the citrus groves of Sharon Plain thru the Wadi Milek, cross the Jezreel Valley and up the Jordan Valley to overnight at Ein Gev on the Eastern Shore of the Sea of Galilee. We will spend three nights at the Kibbutz Ein Gev. We encourage everyone to rise early on Saturday morning to greet the dawn on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. This will be a once in a lifetime experience for most people and we will get to spend three nights on the Sea of Galilee.
Day 3(1/13-Saturday) Israeli breakfast each day. You will find the breakfast meal interesting and delicious. We will have a devotional on the bus shortly after we depart our hotel at 8:00 a.m. Tour begins at Kibbutz En Gev. We will make a quick stop at Kursi where Jesus healed the domoniac. Then continue our tour with a boat trip across the Galilee to Nof Ginosar. We will see a fishing boat like Peter would have used from the time of Jesus. We will visit Tabgha, Primacy of Peter, Capernaum, Chorazim and Mount of the Beatitudes. We will travel north and see ancient Hazor, visit Caesarea Phillippi and weather and time permitting travel up Mount Hermon to visit Nimrod Fortress. We will complete our day by crossing the Golon and traveling back down to Ein Gev where we will overnight.
Day 4 (1/14-Sunday) We will depart En Gev at 8:00A and journey across the Galilee visiting Cana of Galilee, Nazareth, and the ancient city of Sepphoris. Then we will journey to the Mediterranean Coast and visit Rosh HaNikra, the Lebanon border and completing our tour day at the port city of Akko. We will travel back to En Gev for our evening meal.
Day 5 (1/15-Monday)We will have our bags down for loading on the bus at 7am, breakfast and departure at 7:45am. We will travel to down the Jordan Valley to Bet Shean where we will visit that ancient Roman and Philistine City. When we depart Bet Shean we will visit Megiddo, and Mount Carmel where Elijah slew the prophets of Baal. We will have lunch on Mt. Carmel at a local restaurant. Caesarea on the coast will be our next stop. Then we will travel down to Jericho and visit where Joshua and the tribe of Israel entered the Promised Land.
When we depart Jericho we will travel down to Qumran then back to the Old Roman Road to Jerusalem from Jericho and arrive in Jerusalem at 6:30pm. We will check into the St. George’s Cathedral Guesthouse where we will have our evening meal and spend our evenings for the remainder of the trip.
Day 6 (1/16-Tuesday) After an 8 AM visit to the Garden tomb, we will spend all day in Jerusalem. Some of the things we will visit will be the Arab Market, Damascus Gate, Kidron Valley, Western Wall, Moslem Quarter, Christian Quarter, Russia Church and the Temple Mount. This will be an extremely interesting day.
Day 7 (1/17)-Wednesday) Today we will visit Masada, Tel Arad, and Beer Sheva. We will journey back to Jerusalem on the Kiryat-Gat to Jerusalem highway. We will turn right at Kiryat-Gat and travel up the ancient road past Lachish, see where David slew Goliath and Samson wooed Delilah.
Day 8 (1/18-Thursday) Today we will visit Bethlehem in the morning and travel around the area visiting some of the significant sites including the Mount of Olives, the Jerusalem overlook, St. Peter in Gallicantu, Mt. Zion and other locations as time permits. One of the important activities today will be to discuss the city of Jerusalem and get a good sense of where things happened during the Davidic kingdom.
Day 9 (1/19-Friday) We will be visiting the Jewish Quarter, several archaeological digs and the Burnt House. The afternoon will be free for revisiting a place that we hurried past or for shopping and collecting the few things that you would like to bring back home.
Day 10 (1/20-Saturday) We will depart Tel Aviv in the early a.m. and arrive at home in the early evening.
Hotels:
*Ein Gev Resort Village, Galilee. 011-972-6-675-8027 (fax 675-1590)
*St. Georges Cathedral Guesthouse, 20 Nablus Road, Jerusalem 91190Tel 011-972-2-6283302,
*Fax-2-6282253
Contact in Israel will be Tom Brimmer. (H) 011-972-2-676-0862; cell phone 011-972-052-874-285; 011-972-053-464-718
CAESAREA- Theater
Our guide, Mehmet Koc was exceptionally knowledgable about the city of Ephesus. He went into great detail about the theater, events in ancient times that took place there and updated us on the current uses of the stadium. This is a majestic stadium. The pictures do not do it or the setting justice.
Don was walking down from the top. We actually spent time going from top to bottom and side to side. The stage is impressive. It was expanded by the Romans from Hellenistic times. When you stand at the top, the connection with the stage is still good. Remember that they didn’t have sound equipment in Roman times and everyone still heard what was going on on the stage. Impressive!
Day 3 (11/17-Friday) Early Israeli breakfast each day. We will have a devotional on the bus shortly after we depart our hotel at 8:00 a.m. Tour begins at Kibbutz En Gev. We will make a quick stop at Kursi. Then continue our tour with a boat trip across the Galilee. The boat will dock at Nof Ginosar. We will visit Tabgha, Primacy of Peter, Capernaum, Chorazim and Mount of the Beatitudes. We will travel north and see ancient Hazor, visit Caesarea Phillippi and weather and time permitting travel up Mount Hermon to visit Nimrod Fortress. We will complete our day by crossing the Golon and traveling back down to Ein Gev where we will overnight.
