A day in the Galil

Thursday, July 18, 2013

A day in the Galil

The Mona Lisa of the Gallilee at Tzipori

Our New Pet Cow at Farod, as yet unnamed

Another breakfast delivered (apparently Friday’s will be served in the Dining Hall for a change of pace) and another feast.  No cat joined us today, and we had more food that we could eat.  There are a lot of sweet and friendly Kibbutz dogs, though none like our Waldo (who wrote to us yesterday – some of you have read his facebook posts in the past).

We took off for Tzipori, a city in the Lower Galilee that was occupied mostly from the first through seventh centuries of the common era, a regional commerce center and a strategic center as well.  Tzipori was known for several things – it didn’t revolt against the Romans and decided as a community to get along with them.  Jews and others live together.  In the 4th century synagogues and churches co-existed in the same community.  Everywhere you look around the site, there are pomegranate, fig and olive trees, beautiful views and amazing archeology.

Tzipori is known for its Roman era mosaics throughout the site, in public buildings, synagogues and private homes.  We spent a very hot two hours walking around and seeing the sites.

We then went down below the tel to the Moshav of Tzipori – we were looking for a few cottage industries but managed only to find a dairy making excellent cheeses from goat and sheep’s milk.  They were mostly French style soft cheeses, with a couple of hard cheese and some things like bulgarit and labane  It was a nice break from the heat.

We then headed to Nazareth Ilit to look for someplace to eat (we had a hard time finding something) and drove around a bit and then took a scenic route through some neighboring Arab villages to come home to Farod, but we took a brief detour to Karmiel to get schwarma for me and Abby.  We were quickly full (Israeli portions are outrageous).  I took a nap after that.  Now I’m sitting in a Gym lobby while Abby and Judy dance.  Upon arriving to our room at Farod we were greeted by our new pet, pictured above.  Help us choose a name.