Extra thoughts

I'm going to add to this page from time to time as I think of things that have no good place chronologically.

Caesaria-this is where we toured on the first "official" day of the trip just after we had picked up the main group from the airport.

I was amazed to find that Jerusalem was not the "go to" city in Israel 2000 years ago. Jerusalem was where the Temple was located, to be sure, but the real place to be was Caesaria. Jerusalem was hot and dusty. Caesaria was cool and cosmopolitan. Caesaria was the place of government. Jerusalem was the religious center full of people who had a range of ideas about how things ought to be.

You could almost feel the ghost of Herod the Great wandering the ruins with us, still so proud of all that he had created there. Echos of Roman soldiers and the clatter horses hooves seemed to linger the air. Here is where the Apostle Paul appealed his case to Caesar and set the course of his life toward Rome.

The waves of the Mediterranean sea make their way relentlessly across the remaining ruins of the walls of Herod's palace and swiming pool. What a sight it all must have been when at it's hey day. Phillip, the evangelist, lived in Caesaria and this was also the place where Cornelius, the centurion, and his whole family was saved when Peter presented the gospel to them.

OK. Bedtime. More later.