The ride from Haifa to Nazareth is only 50 km and takes about an hour. I tried to get in at Abraham’s Hostel, but it was fully booked. Settled for another place called Antique Hostel, which turned out to be a bit of a run down hostel. Completely hidden away in the center of Nazareth, and the last 500 meters only on foot through narrow streets and alleys. Miracles in this part of the world are not uncommon!! - and I received mine when I stopped the bike, looked at the wall in front of me, and saw a sign for the place. One plus point at Antique hostel though, is the view over Nazareth from the roof top. 

I shared a room with Amer, living close to Hebron in Palestine. His English was reasonable, and from what I understood, he had been given a 48 hour pass to spend in Israel. A very frustrated 28 year old man, who would dearly love to find a girl, get married and start a family. He had a reasonable job in a bank, but claimed that he would need around 125.000 shekel (around € 30.000) to make that happen, having to pay for the party, the jewelry for the bride, the dress and so on. That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, he said. We decided to go out eating, and had a nice evening with lamb kebabs and beer. The more people I speak to in this part of the world, the more complicated it gets. I hope one day the puzzle will fall into place, for me.

The next morning I got out of bed at 6.00 and left for Tiberius and The Sea of Galilee. You don’t have to spend very long in Israel, to realize that it is a small country. It was only a 30 minute drive from Nazareth to the lake. Arriving from the western side there is a lookout point over the lake, which is placed at zero meter (see -0- marker on photo). Some 700 feet below that point the lake is situated, the lowest freshwater lake on earth, only surpassed by the salty Dead Sea, a few kilometers further south. At the lookout point was placed some kind of glass cabinet full of books - like a small library (see pic.). Presumably to be read at this spot with a view to the lake. Sadly, the whole area was full of plastic bags, bottles and other rubbish.

The lake has a shoreline of about 50 km, and I took a drive along the lake. I obviously had to stop and “test the water” - didn’t carry, I can reveal! But the water was incredibly warm. Because of it’s position, sudden and violent storms can occur without warning.

From the lake I continued along road 90 along the Jordanian border, past Jericho and direction Jerusalem. A trip of some 200 km through a totally dry and desert like landscape, interspersed only with a few small olive and palm plantations. Before turning off the R90 towards Jerusalem there was a sign stating: Dead Sea 3 km (see pic). I will be at the Dead Sea later in the trip, so gave this opportunity a miss.

I was quite surprised at the size of Jerusalem. Almost 900.000 people. I am using an “old fashioned” map when travelling in Israel, so it is often a challenge to find addresses in cities, without a gps. I finally arrived at Abraham’s Hostel after having crisscrossed the city a couple of times. I was going to stay there for two nights. My roommates were Vincent, 50 years old and from Spain and two young delightful girls (sisters) Joke and Lea, from Holland who had rented a car to see the sights of Israel.

I booked a tour of the old city of Jerusalem, and spent about 3 hours trampling through the old city together with another 20 people. It was relatively quiet due to the sabbath, apart from the Arab quarters which were bustling with activity. We had a really great guide, who gave us all the facts with a nice bit of humor included. Interesting to hear that the entire old city measure less than 1 x 1 km! Within that square you have the quarters of the Armenian, Moslem, Jews and the Christians as well as the Temple Mount. A brand new visitors center is being built in that area at the moment, and already looks impressive.