After an early breakfast, we left the hotel at 08:00, travelling first to the Mount of Beatitudes. Very peaceful, with lovely gardens for meditating in. A domed church sits at the top of the mountain, looking out over a gloriously sunny Sea of Galilee.

Next to Peter’s Primacy, where we said mass before going down to the shore where Jesus cooked fish for his disciples.

After that, we enjoyed boat ride on the sea, with a Union Jack raised as we sang the National Anthem. We were also taught Israeli dancing on board. We could look back and see the Mount of Beatitudes properly, its shape making sense of it being chosen as the location for the sermon Jesus gave there.

Our next stop was Heptapegon, the Church of the Multiplication, which was the site of the feeding of the 5,000, also known as the miracle of the loaves and fishes. This is in an area called Tabgha, the area in which Jesus performed many miracles.

We visited Capernaum next, where Jesus stayed with Peter, James and John, preaching in the synagogue and healing Peter’s Mother in Law. The size of Peter’s house makes it clear that although he was a fisherman, he had been quite wealthy.

Lunch was fish and chips, Israeli style!

After lunch we travelled to Caesarea Phillipi to the spot where Simon acknowledged Jesus as “my Lord and my God” in return to which Jesus declared Simon to be Peter, the rock on which he would build his church. The setting of this was in what is now Banias Nature Reserve at a temple to Pan; unfortunately it was closed so instead of walking to the waterfall where three rivers converge to become the River Jordan, we got an alternative – a panoramic view over into Lebanon and Mount Hermon.