Trip to Galilee (Modern Israel Class) Day 1

Starting our day off by looking at map of Israel's borders.  We went on a 3 day trip with my "Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel" class, where are theme is the borders of Israel...who settles there, who are neighbors are, historical conflicts, etc.

 Looking down into the Jordan Valley from a war memorial.

 This war memorial remembers the soldiers who have fallen in the Jordan Valley area, protecting the borders of Israel.

 Now we are at the site of Old Gesher, a former Kibbutz. We are getting ready to make bread to be baked in the really old stone oven that has been used for decades there.

Don't we look fabulous, read to make our foccacia bread, they will bake it for us, and we'll eat it up for lunch:)

Here we are hard at working, making that bread, putting all kinds of toppings on it.

 This is the view from the Kibbutz Gesher, right on the border of Jordan (the border is actually in the middle of the Jordan River, which is right down the hill).

You can click to enlarge and read this description.

 This train bridge was blown up by the fighers at Gesher after the war, to prevent Jordan from using the bridge to attack.

 Here's another bridge over the Jordan River at Gesher, this one originated in the time of the Romans in Jesus' day.

 Rachel is sitting behind this man, who doesn't seem to want to talk with her. She is on a bus at Gesher, part of the museum there.

 We are at a cemetary at Kinneret, another kibbutz museum near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. This is monument to Theodore Herzl, the father of Modern Zionism.  Kinneret was the first Kibbutz of its kind in Israel in the early 1900's.

View of the sea of Galilee from the cemetary.

 I was drawn to this grave marker....read the inscription, wonder how they earned that reputation?

 Back at En Gev, we all took a dip in the Sea of Galilee. The water was slightly warm, still cool and refreshing, it was wonderful!!

 You have to stay within the buoys to swim!  That's a group of JUC students in the clump of people.

 The beach at En Gev....many are enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  Can you even imagine swimming in the Sea of Galilee. It was outstanding:)

This is the view from my hotel room at En Gev. We had a beautiful day around the Sea of Galilee.