Today I am on a local one day tour and I am doing the same again tomorrow. it turns out the other people were on the bus yesterday and we are mostly at the same hostel.
We went up through Tiberius, Capharnaum and Tabgha to the Sea of Galilee. This is the area where Jesus did some of his best work, turn water into wine, walk on water etc. Further north is the Golan heights, probably one of the most disputed pieces of land on the planet. Israel grabbed it off Syria in 1967 then Syria grabbed it back in 1973 only for Israel to grab it back again.
On the way we stopped at Mt Beatitudes where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount. Of course there is now a Church on that exact spot. We stopped to look and while we were there, with about 100 busses of other tourists a nun came out of the church with a microphone and started yelling "you people go out to the carpark and take your photos, You are too loud, this is a place for prayer, you are too loud go out to the carpark" It was pretty funny cos the people, who all payed an entry fee, just ignored her. We were leaving so I didn't see what happened in the end.
We then went to the Odum winery. I didn't know they had wineries in Israel but apparently they have about 300. They were not shy with the tastings and a couple of us got into it a bit. The wine soon loosened people up and we all started to get to know each other a bit more. I asked if they had a port and theyut it is fortified with pure alcohol not brandy so I gave it a go. It is beautiful so I bought a bottle. A young American girl asked about a Cab Sav so we had one then some one bought up a cherry taste and they have a cherry wine. That had to come out for a taste and ahe bought a bottle of that so we are having drinks at the hostel tonight.
We had lunch at Mt Bental. It is right on the Syrian border and from the top you can look into Syria. There are UN forces everywhere keeping an eye on the place and there is a huge base just down the road.
On the way back to Nazareth we stopped for a swim in the Sea of Galilee cos it got to 41 deg today and they all felt hot. I didn't think it was that bad.
Tomorrow I am on another tour, with most of the same bunch, to Haifa.

Thanks everyone for the birthday messages.