Israel - Day 37

We awoke this morning in the port city of Haifa, Israel. Haifa is in the northern part of the country and is Israel’s third largest city. Most of the city’s 240,000 residents in the not too distant past were in shelters while Sudam was lofting his scud missiles at them. Our tour guide for the next two days, Moishe, picked us up at the port and we were off to concentrate on the Jewish sights of Israel.



We stopped for a photo of the Baha’i Gardens. The temple is under restoration so is missing its top. The world headquarters for this religion is located in this city as it contains the tomb of their first prophet.



We then headed further north to the port city of Acre, a primarily Arab seaport. Jeff and I watched a Jewish artist hand chisel silverplate in his shop located in an Arab shopping arcade. We, of course, bought a small dish before walking the sea walls of the port. Fishermen were threading their nets with bait to entice the fish. There are lots of buildings from the Crusades including The Knight Hospitallers Quarters which was under renovation but we were able to sneak in and got a photo. An interesting city but one you can easily skip if you don’t have the time.






We then headed eastward towards the Golan Heights for a stop in the hilltop town of Safat. This was a very interesting town with very old synagogues and lots of buildings marred with artillery holes from the 1948 war. The town has a long shopping arcade offering Jewish souvenirs amongst the synagogues. The viewpoint from the city gives you an incredible appreciation of what Israel was faced with before the 1967 war. Prior to then, the Golan Heights before they were taken over by Israel were part of Syria. These heights look directly down upon Israel. I always thought the distance was greater but in Safat I felt I could touch the Golan Heights. The strategic importance of these hills to Israel is now very obvious to me. It was a very interesting town especially to demonstrate the closeness of Israel’s enemies.






We dropped out of the hills and headed south past the Sea of Galilee and then followed the River Jordan to Bet She ‘an. You could truly appreciate the importance to Israel on being on good terms with Jordan; it is not the difference of one being located in San Francisco and the other in Los Angeles, but much more like one being in Sausalito and the other being in San Francisco. The Bet She’an National Park is an incredible Roman ruin spread over 400 acres. A severe earthquake in 749ad destroyed the city and remained unearthed until Israel became a nation. I would highly recommend a visit to this site if you enjoy archeological sites.







We passed into the West Bank through a check point and drove past the Palestinian controlled city of Jericho. We dropped to 1,200 feet below sea level as we approached the Dead Sea. By the way, the River Jordan appears to be more like a small ditch nowadays which was quite surprising to me. We headed west to begin our approach to Jerusalem. It is amazing to see that the West Bank comes right up to the city. There are large amounts of condos and shopping centers in this area that the U.S. has now said are illegal and can no longer grow. How in the world would such a large amount of growth be allowed and now be questioned? This drive for me really showed the political conundrum that we now face.

We entered Jerusalem and stopped at the Jewish Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. What an incredible museum (no photos allowed.) It is located in a brand new long A-shaped building. At the top of the “A” is a glass top allowing light to filter down the concrete walls into the depths. We spent a few hours here but could have easily spent a few more. It was a very moving experience.

We finally made it to our hotel, the King David. What a hotel! Our room had a large verandah with a table and two chairs along with two chaise lounges. All of this overlooked the Old City of Jerusalem. Wow, wow, wow! We had a terrific dinner in the kosher meat restaurant of the hotel and then took a leisurely walk at the Citadel mall located down the street.

Can’t wait to see some more of this great city tomorrow!