We had to wake up at 5:30 this morning to prepare for our trip to Galilee. We started with a long bus drive but it was a beautiful trip. We had a great guide today that really had a wealth of local knowledge to share that really enhanced our experience, especially since we were faced wih a lot more concrete and big churches built over the top of places we wish we could see intact. Some highlights on the drive up to Nazareth made even the long ride very interesting. We were shown the place where the last battle of Armageddon will take place as well as Mount Tabor or the Mount of Transfiguration. We have noticed that even though some of the sites may not be so historically/scientifically accurate it is nice to get an idea of the general geography. We have also noticed that the Catholic church loves to assign specific locations for the biblical events.

Our first stop was in the town of Nazareth where we visited the Basilica of the Annunciation. The church was built over the traditional site of Mary’s home, located in a grotto, where she was visited by the angel Gabriel. The church was beautiful. One of my favorite times of the day was looking at the different gifts of art donated by dozens of countries and cultures to commemorate Mary and Jesus or the Immaculate Conception. Nearby was another church for Saint Joseph built over what is believed to be the home of the young Jesus and his family.

We passed by some important places but didn’t have the opportunity to explore them ourselves. The mount of beatitudes was near a church that was built over the place Christ multiplied the loaves and the fishes. There are mounds of volcanic stones just like in some of the pictures. We also passed through Cana, where Christ performed his first miracle of changing water to wine at the wedding. Tiberius was another byway on our trip. Everything is so big and modern; we really had to use our imaginations.

We stopped at a site also owned by the Vatican enclosing the excavations of the city of Capernaum, where many of the apostles came from and Christ spent much of his ministry. Again we saw Simon Peter’s home and I bet you can guess what was built on top of it. There is also much of a synagogue intact that was built over the synagogue they believe Jesus frequented there. We listened to a lively spiritual given by a Nigerian group. Capernaum is right on the Sea of Galilee. It was exciting to see the place where so many wonderful stories from the New Testament happened.

Our final destination on the trip was the River Jordan. The area is kept pretty for visitors. That’s where John might have baptized Jesus. Lines of people were going down to the water to get baptized. It was like a baptizing machine. Two people from our group even went in. I was envious of the people being baptized where Jesus was and where it was that beautiful. Elisa and I waded in for the sake of being in the River Jordan.

• Photos in Galilee