Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee is almost due east of Haifa.  That means it's northeast of (and further from) Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  So naturally all of the tours leave from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, not from Haifa.  Go figure.

I considered options of who to see a place that the guidebook gave a rare 3 stars to: hire a private guide ($$$$), go to Tel Aviv a day early to take a tour from there (with the hotel room that makes the price of the our $$$), or take a bus to Tiberias and improvise (we have a winner).

Actually not entirely a winner, more of a mixed success.  The sea (lake) was pretty but not spectacular.  There were no tours available from there, and the ferries across the sea were only available to groups.  I stumbled upon the tourist information center which was mildly helpful.

I did inadvertently end up hitching a ride.  I'd explored one area and returned to a bus stop and asked the people there if the bus went to a certain location across the sea.  The answer I got, first in Hebrew which probably hurt my understanding when it was repeated in English, is that the girl's mother was coming to get her and I could ride with them.  Eventually I  parsed this accurately and took them up on their kind offer.

And I had a very flattering moment.  As I was exiting the restaurant after lunch a group of a dozen or so Africans was walking in....one of the women in the group said to me "you are very beautiful, thank you".  Needless to say, I thanked her (with a straight face no less!).  Then the last woman in the group asked where I was from ("the States"), I asked her the same question ("Kenya"), I replied that one day I'd love to visit Kenya, and we rather informally invited each other to visit our respective countries.  As I chuckled to myself about the generous and misguided compliment, I realized that my Eastern European mutt looks must be rather exotic from the Kenyan perspective.

Bottom line, I had an interesting but not entirely satisfying day....seeing things solo means it's very easy to get only a small piece of the picture, and it would seem that the Sea of Galilee's picture needed more illumination.  Maybe someday....