Day 5 of our Holy Land Tour

Our day started at the Royal Plaza Hotel in Tiberius.

We stopped for a few moments in the West Bank town of Jenin to view the spring of Palama. Jesus would have stopped here on his journey through Samaria.It is located in the only valley travelers took on their way to Jerusalem.

These are some of the ruins of Sabastia. King Omri, father of Ahab, both of whom reigned over Israel from here. Omri called the town Shimaron, the Greeks couldn't pronounce "sh" and called it Simaron and the people Simareons... from which we get Samaritans.(Or so the story goes).

Camel ride for Rebecca!!

Here's Neal riding like a pro!

The camel was getting tired by the time Pastor Steven got his ride!!

But he perked up when Caitlin took a ride!

This ancient amphitheater is located here in Samaria.

Our guide, Wisam, was explaining his take on John the Baptist and the locusts that John ate. Here he pulled a pod off of the "Locust" tree and said it tasted like chocolate. We each had a chance to chew off a piece, spitting out the shell, and the meat of the pod did have a chocolate taste. Is it possible that Johnny B. ate locust pods instead of grasshoppers?

Wisam called it carob beans...

This church on the site at Sabastia had a tomb which is thought to be the tomb of John the Baptist. (His body only, his head was buried somewhere else)... weird!

This is the tomb!

We also had lunch in this town... it was the best lunch yet!

This flat bead was seasoned with sesame seeds, olive oil and other unknown spices. It was delicious. You covered it with humus, cucumbers in yogurt, and all kinds of other stuff... yum!

Howard led devotions at Jacob's Well, where Jesus encountered the Samaritan Woman and told her about the Living water.

This beautiful church is built over the well.

This is the ceiling of the church.

Joan and many of the women got to draw water from the well!! Joan has only one husband by the way :)

Pastor Steven drank out of the community cup from the well water. We are watching him for ill effects!!

This is Jacob's Well!

This man is the one responsible for having the church built! He is filling souvenir bottles with water and sealing them with candle wax.

Some olives growing in the courtyard.

A beautiful flower growing in the courtyard.

A weird looking puff ball sort of thing growing on a shrub.

At the end of the day we ended up in Jerusalem. We played a CD of Howard singing "The Holy City" as we drove up the mountain to Jerusalem!! It was a perfect ending for a perfect day. (This is our hotel room)