A Good Day NOT to Get Lost!

These were the signs that made it very clear that we should not go any further north. Below you can see the barbed wire and part of the military outpost that sits on the border between Israel and Lebanon).

While we have found that many things are not clearly marked, the Israel borders are.

Here you can see (although you are not supposed to - I later saw a sign stating "no photos!") part of the military post at the border just above our Saturday destination -- to see the grottos at Rosh Hanikra, less than an hour from Haifa.

I am going out of order, so won’t forget to tell you about Thursday and Friday - long post covering three days - so sit back and relax! But we started our Saturday at the northern most tip of the country.

The cliffs at Rosh Hanikra are the only point on the Israeli coast where cliffs, versus sandy beaches or low rocks, meet the sea. A cable car (billed as the steepest in the world) The cliffs were also impressive, a mixture of soft sea sediment (chalk) mixed with flint.

took us down to view these stunning grottos – viewed walking through a tunnel.

Also at the site were the Israeli portion of the British Train tunnel, built at the onset of WW II, to connect Israel and Lebanon (Haifa, Beirut and Tripoli) for military purposes. In 1944 it was used to transport Jewish refugees (in exchange for Germans living in Israel who’s sons were serving in the Nazi army). In anticipation of the risk of the passage being used to transport Lebanese weapons once the state of Israel was established, the Israeli fighters blew up the bridge that connected the two tunnels in March of 1948.

Next we headed back towards Haifa to visit Akko (also knows as Acre). The old part of the city (harbor area) is an Arab village and archeological site. While the current look is reflective of the period of Ottoman rule, excavations under the city are from the Crusaders who, after taking Jerusalem in 1099, established Akko as their main port.

We had a nice lunch at a seafood restaurant (with an Arab twist...hummus is everywhere...) on the water. Very convenient for the wait staff- when clearing our plates, Jim had left a small piece of pita bread (I know, hard to believe) and the waiter just tossed it into the water to very happy fish – first some little ones had at it, but were completely overtaken by a school of slightly larger fish that literally raised out of the water in a clump as they all latched on to that bit of pita bread. Sorry, happened too quickly to get a movie.

We walked through the narrow streets and alleys, looking at remnants of the old city, underground tunnels used by the Templars (we all read The DaVinci Code...), and curious sites along the way...

We are still fascinated with the Arab markets (souks or shuks) so we can't stop taking pictures of them

Hookah pipe anyone?

We headed back to meet Laurie and her husband Miles for an early evening walk on the beach.

We had picked up a bottle of wine along the way, so that combined with fruit, nuts and banana bread on their deck ended a wonderful day. We have found that we have much in common in addition to the people that connected us up.

The drive to the beach was the first time that Jim has been able to be a passenger, so gave him a break. We have been a good team of driver/navigator and today even found a “short-cut” back to the house so that we didn’t have to drive through downtown Haifa. Today we did notice tons of police cars out – some with pulled over cars, but many others just driving along with lights flashing – and nobody pulls to the right to let them pass. We asked Laurie and Miles who clarified that they use a loudspeaker when they want to pull you over. One thing that we are appreciating is traffic lights flash before they change. So a red light will flash before it turns green; a green light will flash before it turns yellow to red. I have shown you pictures of the inside of the flat – but here is the exchanged car (the beautiful bougainvilleas help us find our way),

the building we are in (the whole top floor)

and the stairway to the entry (but we are lazy after our days of walking and are using the elevator from the parking entrance).

So back to Friday – in anticipation of everything closing early (mid afternoon) for Shabbat, we planned just a half day of activities, taking a short drive to see the nearby Druze villages (cities really) of Isfiya and Daliyat el Carmel. Druze is a religion that combines the teachings of Judaism, Islam and Christianity and is recognized in Israel as a separate religious entity. Their culture is Arab/language Arabic.

Walked around a bit (and stopped for lunch on the return)

Here is a store that advertised "American Style" furniture and home decor...hmmm...I guess Jim and I are doing something wrong in our house!

We then went on to Deir al-Muhraka Carmelite (a 12th century Catholic religious order) Monastery, on the summit where they believe that Elijah battled the prophets of Baal – considered the mountain home of Elijah. Lovely gardens and outdoor chapel,

A small indoor chapel

.

and incredible views from the rooftop.

I had expected to see emotional tourists in Nazareth, but didn’t. But here – wow.

There was a Chinese group that first held a very evangelical sounding prayer service in the outdoor chapel, then arrived on the rooftop, sounding their shofars

and, huddled in small groups, continued to tearfully follow their leader…quite something.

Here is a video showing the panoramic view and also letting you hear the sounds of the shofar and the zealous prayer leader of the group.

FYI - a technical note: if you are reading the version of the blog that is imbedded in your email notification, you may not be able to view the video - so you can go to the actual blog at www.gioiatravels.blogspot.com and you should be able to view it (as well as the jelly fish one from that posting). Other option is to go to the youtube link at http://youtu.be/PNzqibRXBAs)

We got back to Haifa in time to walk up to the nearby bakery for coffee, pastry, a loaf of bread, and a mini-quiche that we had with salad for dinner. We relaxed to one of the English TV stations – mostly old movies in English with Hebrew subtitles. I have also been relaxing with my new best friend – my Kindle (with apologies to my local bookstore and library – but purchased for “travel only”).

On Thursday we spent the day in Ceasarea (but the freeway exit was Qesarya – we are learning – thank goodness I had done google maps and had a road # otherwise we would have missed it), about 40 minutes south along the coast. It is and archeological site – quite fascinating as you can view all the different layers of the societies that were built there – the name is due to King Herod building this port and castle dedicated to Ceasar. Before entering the national park, we went to the Rali Musuem (Thanks Robbie for the suggestion), an architecturally lovely museum dedicated to the Jews exiled from Spain and Portugal. Great display there explaining each of the ruling eras of Ceasarea – what they tore down and built over

– all of which we were able to view once we arrived at the HUGE site.

This is from one end looking up towards the other end, and doesn't include the aqueduct which was a short drive north.

Loved the combination of ruins and sea views.

Above you can see just part of the Herodian Amphitheatre (chariot races).

Jim has picked out our new summer home site...

While we struggle with most direction and street signs, here in the Ceasarea National Park, we had very clear street signs directing us to the various ruins and parts of the old city.

The aqueduct is actually running along a public beach - providing shady alcoves for relaxing. I only spotted one jelly fish on this beach, so we may go back at some point to see if we can swim.

This picture shows part of the moat surrounding the area.

In addition to the historical and archeological fascination, also a popular site for weddings and Bar/Bat Mitvahs.

So I think that brings you up to date. Today (Sunday) we plan to just relax and not get in the car. In the coming week we have plans to go to Tiberias (Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias/Kinneret), Golan, Tel Aviv and Zichron Ya’akov (wineries) and Ein Hod (artists community).

I see Jim sitting with a pad of paper, so perhaps he will add to the post with some quality prose!