May 13th, Mt. Tabor, Capernaum, Fortress Belvior

Louis got back from his morning mass at 7:30 and we immediately took off for Mt. Tabor. It was nice to have a companion for a little while. And an expert in Catholicism at that. When we got to the top of Mount Tabor the place was swarming with Catholics, and Louis seemed to know half of them. Apparently there were several Catholic youth groups doing Holy Land study camps and Louis used to be involved with them quite a bit. With so many Catholics and His Holiness himself in the Holy Land all at the same time you would think that another Crusade had been launched.Regardless, it was neat to have this guy with me as we visited all these different churches. We went to the Monastery on Mt. Tabor, the Mt. of the Beatitudes, and Capernaum. To be honest, the Churches were all neat but it was not the kind of spiritual awakening that others have talked about. It was neat to look at the Sea of Galilee itself but the Chapels were less than inspiring. I had more fun watching Louis stop at every altar to cross himself and to say a prayer. His pilgrimage was different than mine and I enjoyed learning from him.

Our sojourn together ended and I dropped him off at another meeting of the Catholic Church. It had already proven a full day but I had one more stop I wanted to make before calling it quits, the Crusader's fortress Belvior.

I drove about 30 minutes south of the Sea of Galilee and then took a dismal dirt road in the middle of nowhere that lead up a steep mountain. I got the fort and the first thing that struck me was how massive it was. It is almost completely made out of Basalt stone and is incredibly well preserved with many of the Vaulted ceilings still in place. It was constructed on top of a strategic mountain that overlooks Israel's western valley and could thus control any Muslim forces that tried to cross over the Jordan River. The fort withstood many attacks until it finally fell in 1183 to Saladin. I had the fort to myself almost the entire time with only a small group of Europeans who came and left. As I was leaving a small Muslim school group arrived for their afternoon field trip. The Christian's had left the fort in the hands of the Muslims once again.