update Carl

Things were tense in Jerusalem but they opened up the wailing wall at the temple so that was back on our schedule. It was our first stop before leaving Jerusalem for the Mediterranean coast. There were guards all over with machine guns but I wearing a complementary yarmulke made it to the wall to pay my respects. We then hoped on the bus and headed out of town to the west. As one leaves Jerusalem in the central mountains the land gets better and greener. In general this is a green time of year in Israel. It is obvious to me that the Canaanites and Philistines on the coast had much better land than the Israelites in the hills. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin who had Jerusalem south had the worst land. The other tribes who were north of Jerusalem had much better land even if it was in the hills. Our first stop was at Caesarea where Harrod the great built a very advanced port city and palace. It included a race track where I was able to practice my chariot driving. We then drove to the very beautiful Haifa on the sea and had lunch at a restaurant high on a hill overlooking the harbor. It is the best place in Israel to live. After lunch we traveled to Akko also on the coast to visit an extensive fort that was the headquarters for the Knights Templar and the Hospitaliers during the crusades. Our guide took us through a bunch of vendors in an alley where a portly native American lady in our group purchased a belly dancing outfit. I hope she doesn't feel inclined to model it. Later I encountered an Arabian horse that is the only one I have seen in Israel. Then we headed back across Israel through the green Karmiel valley with mountains on either side. We descended to the sea of Gaililee to the Nof Ginosar Kibbutz near the city of Tiberias. The Kibbutz is 670 feet below sea level per my Garmin Oregon 300 GPS. I knew that the dead sea was below sea level but didn't realize that the upstream sea of Galilee was also so far below sea level. This means that it is warmer here than in Jerusalem.

Carl