Day Tripper Nazareth and Zippori

With special needs children to care for, it’s impossible to have or take a holiday. Taking the children along to visit interesting places (for us that is) is not a good idea either. Our children don't like to make long trips, are not interested in sightseeing and most places are inaccessible for wheelchairs anyhow.

In the last couple of months Wim (Bill) and I took some mini-breaks during the Sunday mornings the children are at school, but longer trips were not possible. At least, not together.

Not it so happened that I needed to make a research trip to a potter in preparation of my new novel. Our friend Will was willing to drive and accompany me, and also add to his knowledge base for the Beit Avraham. It became a very long trip, full of blessings and wonderful, interesting sites.

The potter in Nazareth gave us a tour with explanation about ancient and modern pottery. He was the grandson of a pottery artist, who began around the 1920's in Nazareth.

Then we drove to ancient Zippori, a town with a rich history of archeological finds from Roman (1st century AD), Byzantine, and Crusader periods.

We walked over the ancient cardo (colonnaded street) where you could still see the ruts of the wagons in the stones. Even though they only had been excavating minimally, everywhere you looked you saw ancient colums sticking out, mosaic floors were abundant; there were ritual baths (mikva’ot) and a synagogye, also with a beautiful mosaic floor.

The weather was perfect. Only the day before the heat wave broke, giving us pleasant spring weather during the many hours we had to spend outdoors.

Through the Jordan Valley we went back to Jerusalem again, taking pictures along the way, and arriving safe and sound 12 hours later.

What a privilege to be able to live in this wonderful country where history lies at our fingertips!