Synopsis of day: Sepphoris and Nazareth while Blergh.
Spiritual Sites visited: Nazareth.
Biblical Connections: Sepphoris was the largest city in the Galilee in the time of Christ, and it is possible Joseph or even Jesus found work there. Nazareth kind of speaks for itself.
Highlight of the day: Like Kerri, the mosaics in the house at Sepphoris were standout. However, I really also did feel true joy when I made it to a bathroom in Nazareth.
Lowlight of the day: Feeling blergh for most of the day, and that 'broken calf' is becoming more troublesome.
Favourite quote/word: “SHHHHHH... Silence .... SHHHHHHHHHH” from the loudspeaker at the Church of the Annunciation, one of the guards was periodically trying to remind pilgrims that silence was required. It seemed many forgot every few seconds.
Favourite photo:
Mosaic of a woman at Sepphoris
Cultural-shock moment: We went into the largest supermarket we'd seen in Israel. It was really crowded but kind of fun, and we found the gluten free section! Kerri bought what looked like a chocolate yoghurt and ended up being a diet soy pudding which neither of us could stomach. The breads were all in baskets and you could just grab them with your hand to put in paper. There were so many products that we'd never seen before, and there were a lot of things we recognised as American products. Most probably for the expatriates.
New food consumed: A mixed berry fruit compote and yoghurt which was great, and a spoonful of Kerri's ick pudding.
Favourite purchase: Entry to the toilet.
The thing I lost today: Nothing, I just kept * finding * things that I needed to pack.
Random act of crazy: I punched myself in the head accidentally and my one of my reading glasses' lens fell out.
What Arthur did next: We can't remember.
Something I want to remember: Those mosaics were cool.
I wasn't feeling well today in various places, needed to visit toilets far too often and was generally feeling bad, This meant that I wasn't nearly as excited by Sepphoris and Nazareth as I could have been, I really would have preferred to be back at the Pilgerhaus reading a book. But I figure you can't come to Israel on a Holy Land study tour and not see Nazareth. Thankfully the Church of the Annunciation there was much nicer than the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem but there were less ownership issues. We were confronted by some large banners from the local Moslems which were strongly worded and directed at Christians.
View of the modern city. Towards the centre is a black dome, the Church of the Annunciation.
Inside the dome.
Nifty lights.
Stained glass window.
A statue of Mary where *she* is bruising the serpent with her heel.
Part of an explanation for the exterior. Is this a word?
In Nazareth we also got to go into the Sisters of Nazareth convent which was an enormous change from the busyness of the Church of the Annunciation.
We got to go underground and see the remains of a C1 tomb, which was far more like what Joseph of Arimathea's tomb would have looked like.
Earlier in the day we went to Sepphoris, which was the largest city in the Galilee region at the time of Christ. There was an important synagogue there which had zodiac signs in it, and further uphill, a Crusader outpost which had significant connections to a loss to Saladin. The most interesting things in Sepphoris were the multitude of mosaics, especially one in a wealthy Jewish house near the top of the hill.
It was largely devoted to Dionysian depictions, but also had a beautiful female face on it. Gila said the blush on the woman's face had 17 different shades and I know it was Kerri's highlight, and it was just lovely. There were more mosaics down in the business district area of the city, including one about Egypt which was large and topical for some of us.
As this was our last evening in Israel we had some packing to do, and my bag has reached seriously heavy levels once more.
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