After about 7-hour travel (with over 1 hour layover at Zurich airport), I arrived in Tel Aviv at 3:30 in the morning. Surprisingly the plane from Zurich to Tel Aviv was completely full – I realized later that it was the last day of the Passover holiday in Israel so many people were going home finishing their holiday and they want to be back before Shabbath – Friday sundown. I picked the last window seat on the plane and was going to take a good nap, however, a young Jewish couple were sitting across the isle and they would like to switch seat with me. Although I was not too happy, oh well, as a Christian, I had to, right? While asking for forgiveness about my unwillingness silently, I changed to the middle section and didnt sleep at all for the 4-hour flight so was dead tired when I landed.
Although it was so early in the morning, the airport was almost packed. I guess many flights arrive at that time. I got my rental car from AVIS (funny thing is that there is a passcode lock in the car so I need to input the code in order to start the car – this I have never seen in other countries!!) and a GPS device (note: GPS rental is extremely expensive in Israel – about US$13 per day while my car was only $35 per day!) and first things first, catch my SLEEP! I parked the car in the parking lot and slept 6 hours on the backseat. At 11:30 am, I got my energy back and ready for my adventure in the Holy Land!
My first destination is Old Jaffa (Joppa in the Bible) – its situated inside Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is a relative new city built by the Jews as an extension of Jaffa exactly 100 years ago. Of course now it is the second largest city in Israel and became the commercial center of the country. It was not difficult to find Jaffa with the help of GPS – only about 15-min drive from the airport. Although the temperature was not that high (about 23 degree), the sun was so strong that my skin was burning! From the old Jaffa port looking over Tel Aviv, I was really really impressed – never know Tel Aviv is this beautiful! My previous impression about israel is all about wars and desert. But the city looks so beautiful with the white sand and blue Mediterranean sea!Jaffa is a place for the beginnings in the Bible: Jonahs journey, Tabithas restoration to life, and Peters conversion of Gentiles all began here. In Jaffa, Peter was divinely led to think out of the box. The story in Acts 10:5-23, finds Peter on the rooftop of the House of Simon the Tanner (the house was closed for renovation but I took a picture by accident:)), where he had his famous vision (Acts 10:12-13), that led him to preach the Gospel to the gentiles at Caesarea. Peter’s resurrection of the righteous Tabitha (Acts 9:36-42) is marked at the Russian Orthodox Church of Tabitha. Unfortunately the St. Peter church was closed until 1600 so I cannot visit inside since I needed to leave for my next stop: Caesarea. This church was built between 1888 and 1894. I walked around the narrow alley in the old town and overlooked at the Mediterranean sea from the old fishing port, it was truly enjoyable.
About 50-min drive later, I arrived in Caesarea. Although GPS doesnt really have the exact location, I managed to find the Caesarea national park myself. The drive was rather pleasant since most of the Route 2 was along the Mediterranean coast. Caesarea, an ancient port city with almost 2300 years of history is now more of an extremely rich residential community managed by private organization instead of municipal government. King Herod built a massive manmade deep sea harbor in 23 BC which now is mostly under the sea. It underwent vast changes with the change of governance (Romans, Byzantine, Arabs, Crusaders, etc), earthquake and mediterranean sea shift. Current ruins are from the Helenistic period (3rd century BCE) to Crusader period (12th century). After watching a movie introducing the history of the harbor, I had to sigh that no matter how magnificent the human creations are, its just a blink of eyes in the long history. Just like in the Chinese saying: watching the high mansion being built, watching it collapse… The harbor Herod built was so phenomenal at that time, but it can never fight time. There is nothing lasts forever in this world but we can only seek that in Gods kingdom. Simon/Peters vision led him to Caesarea and Pauls missionary journey also disembarked here. Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea while later being persecuted in Rome. So this is a very important stop in the Christian history. In Byzantine time, it was one of the most important Christian centers and according the Christian history, it was here that the first idol worshippers was converted – the Roman centurion Cornelius.
After Caesarea, I planned to go to my next stop according to the suggested Christian itinerary: Meggido. However, I was not able to find the exact spot. Since its getting late, I decided to drive to Tabgha directly. My destination is Deutsche Verein vom Heiligen Land (Holy Land German Association)s Pilgerhaus Tabgha, which was recommended by my Israeli friend Dorit. However, they dont have a exact address that I can input into the GPS, just direction from Tiberias. So I drove to Tiberias instead and then looked for Route 90 to get to Tabgha. Tiberias is obviously a tourists town since its located right on Lake Galilee and kind of busy so I just drove through. The view of the lake is really beautiful though. Route 90 was along the lake and the landscape along the way was extremely lush and rich – I now understand why in Bible it was the Canaan promise land.
One thing I found difficult was to disguise myself as a tourist in this country – I am just too different, especially as a Chinese solo female traveler – the combination caught too much attention and too much curiosity in this place. Everybody asked me where I was from and why I was here alone along the way which after a while gets a little tiring, and also unsafe which I realized later in Jerusalem.
Around 18:30 that day, I finally arrived at the Pilgerhaus Tabgha – driving through a 24×7 secured iron gate, the buildings were situated right on the lake. Its such a peaceful place! I really fell in love with the place once I arrived.
The first thing I did after checked in my room is to take a walk along the lake. Sitting on the rock of the lake beach, thinking that Jesus was preaching and spending time with his disciples at the exact same place was just overwhelming. It is probably one of the best place in the world to pray and read Gods words! So I ended my day with prayers by the lake that Jesus spent most of his time around – how perfect…