Israel and Jordan, 2011—Day 2

More Flying. We continued flying through the night, and neither of us slept much—perhaps a couple of hours each. Both of us had window seats, and had not sat together on any of the three legs of the flight. Having a window seat made it difficult to get up and stretch our legs and use the restroom as frequently as good health would dictate.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at approximately 12:45 PM, and had no trouble de-boarding, picking up our luggage, and going through Israeli customs.

Caesarea Maritima. Our guide met us at the airport where we boarded the bus, and had enough time to visit Caesarea Maritima. Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great in the time period 25-13 B.C., and was one of King Herod’s most complete architectural projects and likely the first and largest man-made harbor in the Mediterranean Sea, complete with lighthouse. It was the capital of the Judean Province, and was the residence of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilatus. It included a large aqueduct, a hippodrome where chariot races and other events occurred, and a coliseum-type theater. Affluent residents lived here and the area contained numerous shops and public places. It was here that Cornelius was the first Gentile convert to Christianity and was where Paul, as a prisoner for 2 years, boarded the ship for his trial in Rome (Acts 10). Caesarea Maritima became the center of early Christianity in Palestine after the Jewish revolt in the first century, fell to Muslim control in the 6th century, the Crusaders in the 11th century, back to the Muslims, and lay in ruins until modern times.
Enroute to Tiberius. After touring Caesarea Maritima, we made the hour and a half road trip to Tiberius on the the Sea of Galilee, our home for the next three days and nights. Along the way we crossed through the Jesereel Valley, and saw the area where prophets predicted Armageddon to occur (Revelation 16:14-21). We arrived at our hotel, the Gai Beach Hotel, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in new Tiberius about 7:30 PM. (Note: the Sea of Galilee is freshwater, is 700 feet below sea level, and has a maximum depth of about 150 feet; its circumference is about 32 miles.)
Our big challenge of the evening was finding out how the converter worked for Israeli electricity. Luckily, both the CPAP machine and laptop computer will work off of the higher voltage current in Israel, using only an adapter for the plug.