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Just when I thought everyone staying at my B&B was from Europe and it was just me and Clint and Theresa, from the States, I met a couple from California. I saw them in the breakfast buffet line and the husband had on a “Dixie Chicken, College Station, Texas” t-shirt. I nearly dropped my fork in mid-air. College Station is the home of Texas A&M. So, I jumped up and asked them where they were from and why did he have on a Dixie Chicken t-shirt. Turns out he was a graduate of A&M and his son was attending a college in Jerusalem. My son, Will, is also a graduate of A&M, so we talked about “Aggieland” a bit. How small a world that I meet people from California, who had gone to school in Texas!

We had a lovely weekend in the Galilee and ended up staying at the Scots Hotel. Just a wonderful hotel with great food. Our rooms overlooked the Sea of Galilee. I got to see the sun come up on Saturday and Sunday morning. The sun comes up over the Golan Heights.

I did my usual tour of Aniam and the artist’s village on Saturday. Will took some photographs of the country side and then we visited the ancient village of Katzrin.

The highlight of the of the Katzrin excavations was and remains the ancient synagogue. Contrary to the simple dwellings, the synagogue towered to a fair height and was constructed of large, carefully worked stone.

The lintel with its pomegranate and amphora decorations is resting on on the vertical stone sides of the doorway at the entry, evoking for the visitor an elegance of times past. Two rows of pillars with decorative capitals divided the space of the structure into three area and supported the hall’s ceiling. The audience attending the synagogue was seated on stone benches facing the center of the hall. The Holy Ark which held the Torah scrolls, was made of wood and stood upon a stone platform adjacent to the southern wall that faced Jerusalem.

The archaeologists believe that the synagogue had been standing for as long as 1500 years. The synagogue’s layout looks very much like the ones at Caprernaum and Korazin.

Sunday night saw much needed rain in Jerusalem. The weather this morning is cooler, but clear. I really wish I knew how to read the forecasts. The high in Jerusalem will be 17 and the low will be 10?

I just read Cindy’s Jerusalem Journal. What a gifted writer. Her web site is: CDaniel997@aol.com to subscribe. Worth signing up for.

I headed off for the City of David to look around. The city is south of the Temple Mount (actually across the street) and is only twelve acres but is said to be the location of king David’s palace. The Ark of the Covenant was housed here and King David made this his capital. Dr. Eilat Mazar has been excavating here since 2005. She believes she has found the remnants of King David’s palace. Her “dig” is very impressive and I saw people working on the site.

I see in the Jerusalem Post that Israel is going to help China on Olympic security for the 2008 in Beijing. “In addition to boasting world-class security standards, Israel has a special interest in ensuring there is no repeat of the Palestinian terrorist attack during the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which 11 Israelis were killed.”

Technion: Human divers can learn new techniques from thrifty sea elephants
Haifa aeronautical engineers have deciphered the mechanism which allows 300-kilogram sea elephants to dive 500 meters into the sea for four minutes at a time and cover a huge distance of 4 kilometers. The scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology believe that what they have learned will be of use to human divers in improving their abilities underwater.”

I have one more museum to visit before I leave Israel on Thursday.

This entry was posted by Sandra on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 7:03 am and is filed under From Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.