Many of you want to know about my trip to Israel and asked if I’ve taking pictures. Be careful of what you ask because you might get it. I took over 1300 pictures, but am going to weed them down and share them in stages:
We flew El Al since it was my first trip to Israel. El Al is known for safety and we got a glimpse of it right off the back. Even before we hit the check-in counter we were greeted by El Al employees and asked a number of questions included why was I going to Israel? Do I know anyone in Israel? How do I know them? Do I know Hebrew? Where did I learn it? Etc. Shira and I passed and move through the rest of check in and security without a problem. The plane was late taking off, but according to my mom that is part of the El Al mystique of never publishing the real time they are taking off (I think they were just late). We arrived and made it through everything (lots more question and answer time), exchanged money, and managed to find a train.
Haifa was the major British port. The train station is near the port and we stayed at the Port Inn which actually was near the train station. The hotel was a combination hostel and hotel they have dormitories and private rooms. We opted for the private room it was sparse, but comfortable. After a nice shower it was time for an early dinner in Haifa. Luckily there were plenty of food choices within walking distances. We opted for Havana Plus as it had a decently priced English menu. Apparently the restaurant’s main specialty was hookahs, we had pasta. It was very good. After a long struggle we managed to stay awake until almost 9pm in attempt to counter jet-lag.
The hotel provided a great breakfast highlighted by an awesome chocolate spread and some healthy stuff too. We then headed for the Carmelit, Haifa’s subway. Shira being the cable-car connoisseur discovered that it was an underground cable car. It definitely was the coolest subway system we’ve seen. The subway took us to the center of Haifa completed with some great views. We wondered around for awhile up and down some hills. We found a cool sculpture garden and then a little café for a chocolate croissant (a very chocolate day). Apparently 1100 is a prime time for a mid-morning snack as there were no seats. We then found the entrance to the Baha’i Garden in time for the English tour. For more information on the Baha’i check out their website: Bahai. We learned that Haifa is the world headquarters for the faith and that Baha’i followers come for pilgrimages (we met a few at the hotel later that day). The garden is very beautiful and offered some really nice views of Haifa.
After the tour we took a taxi to the cable cars for another view of Haifa. The ride was much shorter than expected, but it made for a good story and took us to a nice place for lunch. Although Shira learned that being “healthy” isn’t always the best option, when she opted out of sugar in her “apple juice.” After lunch we went to the Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum (my wish as I’m a big fan of Leon Uris’ Exodus). It was a little bit of a challenge to find the entrance, but we did and were greeted by a surprise; not only did the security guy want to see our passports he scanned through to see all the places we had visited. We obviously weren’t too scary, so we were let in and had a good visit. I’m looking forward to using the material I found for my students. The museum features the ship Af-Al-Pi-Chen which was used to go through British blockade following World War II. We also learned that neither Shira or I want to spend much time on a submarine.
After the museum we walked along the beach and found some pretty cool exercise equipment. Since we had done so much walking, we figured we could get a little upper body in as well. The weather was nice and we made back to the hotel to sit in the garden for a bit. We took the Carmalit back up the hill for dinner at a Kosher Chinese Restaurant (the food was good, but the highlight was the free wifi!) We amazed ourselves by navigating the Carmalit and returning to the hotel without getting lost!
Here is the link to the pictures: Haifa photos
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