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From Spring back to the Winter – from Tabgha back to Jerusalem

18. Februar 2012 von Florence

The third (and last) great exkursion in this year took us around Jerusalem and Northern Israel on the footsteps of the Crusaders.
We became slowly but steadily experts in architecture of the Crusaders’ time as we visited on monday the two ancient mosques of Ramla, the beautiful St. George’s Church in Lydda with the tomb of Saint George himself, the monastery of Latrun and Emmaus-Nikopolis. On Tuesday we left to the Galilee, starting in the Judean Desert with the beautiful mosaics of the Good Samaritan, continuing to the magnificent fortress of Belvoir near Tiberias and finally to the remains of the mysterious Church of the Anchor high above the Lake of Gennesaret.
After hearing the very tragical story of the Arab village of Bar’am and getting a little lost in the wide hills of the very north of the country, we went on to visit the Cliffs of Rosh HaNiqra near the border to Lebanon. One of the highlights of the whole journey certainly was the walking-tour to the castle of Montfort with its impressive scenery. The next day we visited the Jewish town of Safed / Zefat with its remarkable ancient synagoges, then the Druze sanctuary near Tiberias and finally the famous Horns of Hattin. There, in 1187, the final battle between the Crusaders and Salah ad-Din took place. We commemorated this event with a self-written play on the very battle field, which was actually very funny, but it really brought history to life. On the last day, we had to say goodbye to our beloved monastery in Tabgha and went to Acre, where we visited the Bahai gardens and then the beautiful medieval Old City with its ancient port and citadelle. In the end we were drenched with rain and sea spray, but this was a very worthy ending of a beautiful excursion.

What I personally enjoyed most during this exkursion was the incredible variety of landscapes. We started in the Judean Desert, a desolate countryside except for some Bedouine sherperds. Then, as we went towards the North along the Jordan Valley, the hills slowly became all covered with grass and flowers. The area around the Sea of Galilee looked like a mix between Ireland and some tropical paradise, as it has been raining a lot this winter, the country is bursting with fertility and joy. High up in the north, we found ourselves in an area belonging to the south of the Lebanon, a very open landscape where the hills are grown over with olive trees and other low trees and bushes, with rosemary and thyme, scattered Arab villages and desolated churches. In the medieval Acre, the storm coming from the Mediterranean almost knocked us over, the rain came down in sheets, and on our way southwards the coast presented itself as a small and fertile strip sandwiched between the Sea and the very close-by hills. And then: back home in Jerusalem, amidst the Judean Desert. This morning, after a stormy and rainy night with showers of sleet, there was on some spots even a little snow, but a couple of hours later, it was difficult to believe it had been there, as the sun had already made it all disappear...

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