Hunting for Tile

As mentioned in the post that announced this trip, I told you that the original summer plan had been to remodel our master bathroom. That would have involved searching for tile. So here we were in Israel on Wednesday, searching for tile…just through the countryside instead of at a design center (which would have been air conditioned). But more about that later.

We started our Wednesday in Nazareth

to see Mary’s Well (Jim is my tour guide – the spot where God told Mary that she was expecting his child) at the Old Church of the Annunciation (there was also a newer one in the center of the city with mosaics of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, donated from countries around the world).

So as it turns out, we didn't find the tourism office until we were just leaving Nazareth, this well is the water source for the ACTUAL well ...which we did see later, but didn't realize what we were seeing. Oh well...

This is then newer church of the annunciation

We also walked through the old city,

where the tiny alleyways are crowded with Arab market stalls.

It could not have been more different from Haifa, including hearing the Muslim call for prayer echoing through the city – which for us was a call for food. Many falafel/kabob/shwarma spots to choose from and SO good.

Back into the car we wound our way up, down and around and with very few signs reading “to Haifa” we managed to be back on the open road. We were told my many people that we had to visit Tsipori, just a few kilometers outside of Nazareth – to see the beautiful tiles – so we were so proud to find our way to route 79 (the tour book said it would be an exit from 79).

It is important to explain something about the names of things. First: street names change as you drive on them. Now that is a quirk that we are used to – in Pleasanton, to drive downtown, we can take Hopyard, which becomes Division, which becomes St. Marys, or we can take Santa Rita which becomes Main St. The quirk that we are NOT getting used to is that the city names change. So in planning our day, we knew that we wanted to go to Tsipori (which is also called Sepphoris) to see the 3rd century AD Mosaics and the supposed birthplace of the Virgin Mary. Several kilometers after leaving Nazareth, there it is, a turnoff sign for Zippori. Yet a third name? I consult my map, and see no mention of Tsipori or Sepphoris, but do see Zippori. Assuming it must be one and the same, we take the turn to be met by a “Y” in the road. One looks to be towards a town, the other towards a National Park. We head briefly down the National Park road – bumpy, nobody on it. We doubt ourselves thinking we don't want to be headed to a camp grounds, so turn around and head into the “town”. That doesn’t seem right either, so we head back to 79 thinking Zippori isn’t really a 3rd name. We continue on, pretty much giving up, but Jim needs coffee so we pull over to a gas station/café. As we sit, I continue to examine maps/tourbooks that we have along with us and finally, in one small brochure we had picked up in Nazareth, found a brief mention of the archeological site located in Zippori National Park. So, with a u-turn we headed back the 10 minutes we had traveled and were thrilled that we did.

The Zippori National Park is solely dedicated to the archeological remains of a city (excavation began in the 1930’s) with some artifacts dating to before 103 BC, and best known for the beautiful tile mosaics on the floors of the various remains of buildings. Located on a hilltop, there were also incredible views of the fertile valleys around it as well as views of the hilltop city of Nazareth.

I mentioned earlier that tile shopping for the bathroom model would have been air-conditioned - and this was most definitely not, being an archeological dig site. But there were a few nice shady spots along the way which, combined with our water bottles, kept us going.

Here is the view from the top of one of the structures.

and just a sampling of some of the tile mosaics.

And the fortress, with the stairs leading up to it.

Covered with dust, once home we showered and then walked up to the “main street” area near the house (no surprise, there is a “shortcut” staircase that we can take) and found a bar/burger (including veggie burgers) place for dinner. Even thought it is just a 6 or 8 block area, lots of people out, soccer games on the TVs everywhere, live music on the porch of a store.

We have found Haifa to be a very good base from which to do day trips here in the north and coastal part of the country. In spite of the seemingly long time we are here, we have a long list of places we want to go – amazing how the time is flying by.