All About Quaint

There are many words to describe what we have been visiting/seeing since we arrived here: amazing, stunning, historical, significant, wonderful, ancient, religious, archeological.

But Tuesday was all about "quaint".

Not to be undone by our lack of internet connection, we ventured out based on advice from Robbie, Auntie Mona, Laurie and Miles that we must see Zichron Ya'akov - about 30 minutes south of Haifa, with just a map in hand (versus the map in combination with google map instructions).

And with barely a wrong turn, we found ourselves in a completely charming...yes "quaint"...little town. We strolled the several blocks of shops, cafes and art galleries and were completely enchanted. There were historical markers along the way, giving the history of the early Zionist settlers of the town.

We visited the Museum of the First Aliyah which, in spite of the corny re-enactment films, brought the town into its historical significance -after all the ancient history it was nice to hear more on the "recent" past of the country and get a feel for what it was like for those first wave of immigrants. Side streets were filled with more shops, art galleries and studios.

We then found our way to the Tishbi Winery tasting room/cafe and had a delicious lunch - Jim can't stop talking about the beer bread pastry with camembert cheese, topped with pomegranate jam appetizer. Sorry, we ate it up so no photos! We had purchased Tishbi wine last week to bring to Laurie and Miles and it was great - unfortunately we didn't end up finding the actual winery which is just outside of the town.

We then headed out to find (again, no google map instructions) the artist colony of Ein Hod, which Laurie and Robbie had also said was a must do. We impressed ourselves and wound our way out of Zichron Ya'akov, headed back towards Haifa, found the turnoff, but then ended up in a residential area clearly inhabited by artists. But Robbie had mentioned a great Argentinean restaurant (not that we were hungry already) but since we didn't see that we figured we were in the wrong place. So we figured we needed to head further up the hill where we saw signs directing us to a different spelling that could have meant Ein Hod.

After waiting for these passing goats

and passing a stinky cow farm, we came upon a town. A few narrow blocks in it was clear we were in an Arab village, not an artist colony. We gave up, headed back down the hill (no more goats; still stinking cow farm) and finally spotted the turn we needed and we were in another version of "quaint" - but this one more artsy.

This was the village that featured the artists that live in the surrounding homes - so there were art galleries as well as artists' homes/studios. One gallery featured all of the artists and then you could move on to some of the individual studios (more so if you take a tour).

Art was everywhere

including even the most mundane spots, like the post office boxes

and garbage cans.

Below is a video of a stroll through the center of the village - just to get a feel of the place (just a reminder that if you are viewing the email notification version of the blog, you may need to go to the actual website, which you can easily do by scrolling back up to the title of the blog and clicking on it):

We spent the most time in the home of the Magal twin sisters. Their father, Ben-Zion Magal immigrated from Kishinev, Russia to Israel (then Palestine) in 1933 and with his wife, also an artist, settled in Haifa. In 1953 they became one of the first group of settlers in this artists village. His paintings were featured - wonderful depictions of Jewish life in the Shtetl as well as Israeli landscapes. We met the twin daughters who are both ceramic artists. We have an eye on a bowl and may be tempted to go back. They were a kick to talk to.

We ended the day taking Laurie and Miles out to dinner as a thank you for how wonderful they have been. Great restaurant - Fatoush I think- in the German Colony of Haifa. Balmy evening, great to eat outside, and lots of good stories and discussions. The nightcap was we got to see the Bahai gardens and shrine all lit up.

So, it is possible to have a good day, a quaint day, without the internet as our guide!

(but, I won't lie, we are very happy that our connection has returned)