- The City of Nazareth as seen from our hotel room terrace
Yesterday was a very interesting trip with a couple of “bumps” along the way, figuratively, of course. First, the hotel forgot to turn back the clock so the automatic wake up call roused us from our much needed sleep at 5:00 am instead of the usual 6:00 am! Then there was the issue as to where to eat a decent lunch since everyone was disappointed at the previous day’s set menu (mostly salad and the chicken was super-dry) and the restaurant’s rude staff. Geva, our tour guide promised us an a la carte menu and would consist of meats like shish kebab (not sure of the spelling) and beef. However, when we arrived at the restaurant their menu was similar from the day before except for the shawarma. To make a long story short, every one ordered the expensive lunch and ate while Trini and I and Luz and my brother-in-law sat in the restaurant’s patio since we refused to eat. It was not the price but the choices of food that the restaurant offered was the reason we did not eat.
There was also the issue of rotating seats as some of our fellow tourists wanted to seat up front. Geva let us decide among ourselves but with a large group of 40 a unanimous decision was impossible. Those with the louder voice was heard – first come, first serve!
We went to hear a Catholic mass in a nearby chapel in Arabic and we were welcomed warmly by the congregation. After the mass, the bus drove us to BET SHE’AN, one of the world’s best preserved Roman cities. Ongoing excavations at this UNESCO World Heritage site have revealed time-worn colonnaded streets, bathhouses, theaters, etc. (This was very similar to the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey). It was so awesome to visualize the thriving modern city during that time! I wanted to walk around and explore the area more and climb the steep stairs up a hill with more ruins but the temperature was going north – and the majority of our group refused to move an inch (bragging aside, there must be only a handful in the group including myself that is physically fit to do the strenuous walks).
After the disappointing lunch break, we went to CANA where all the couples in our group renewed their wedding vows (including us) at the Sanctuary of Our Lord’s First Miracle.
According to the bible, CANA of Galilee was where Jesus turned water into in a wedding feast He attended, His first miracle.
After the renewal of vows came the souvenir shopping and wine-tasting (the wine was so sweet, not my kind of wine)! We saw Geva holding a chilled bottle of Corona beer and we asked him where he got it. He said there were three more bottles left in the souvenir store where we had the wine-tasting. Luz and Bob quickly grabbed them and sipped it slowly savoring them. The Antonios (Trini’s cousins) also wanted some beer. They were directed to a juice store and we all stood along the narrow street enjoying the cold cerveza while our “newly wed” spouses sat around drinking delicious fresh pomegranate juice. The boys decided to buy a case to take back to our hotel and we grugdingly paid $3 per bottle!
Despite a few disappointments of the day, we ended up laughing and chatting with other tourists from different parts of the world! Ahhhh, what a big difference a cool alcoholic drink can do to your attitude….
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