The Sea of Galilee

Thanks to the hospitality of the Benedictine sisters in Tabgha, I was able to spend three days by the Sea of Galilee. Some things are obviously different from when Jesus walked around (and on) that lake - such as the banana and mango plantations - but the landscape and climate is otherwise much the same. It was considerably warmer than Jerusalem, being about 1000m lower, and the rains of winter made it much greener than my previous imaginings. In many ways it was reminiscent of Wales or the Lake District in summertime. Apart from the palm trees, etc.

The main purpose, of course, was to visit the sites of the Gospel stories. It was fascinating to be in places where I know that Jesus and His disciples walked, talked, and ate. They've even built a church on top of one of their breakfast tables, as well as building another one over St Peter's house.

This is the aforementioned breakfast table,

where Jesus and the disciples ate some fish and bread (John 21:9-14)

The view outside the church (the water used to come up to the rocks,

but years of low rainfall and increasing use of water mean that the level has dropped significantly)

The church over St Peter's house in Capernaum

This rock marks the place where Jesus fed 5000 with five loaves and two fish (Mark 6:35-44)

Not everything had a church built over it: this is the view from the Eremos,

a small cave where Jesus sometimes prayed

This is one possible site of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

No particular connection to Jesus; but this rock hyrax (Proverbs 30:26)

seemed to be posing for a photo, so I duly obliged