The Bahai Gardens in Haifa are a big drawcard to this coastal Israeli city. We entered from the top where there is an amazing view down the carefully manicured terraced gardens to the Shrine of the Bab and indeed right over the city and out to sea. The shrine with the golden dome is for the ‘Bab’, the messenger or prophet who preceded the founder of the Bahai faith Bahá’u’lláh. More on Bahá’u’lláh in my post on Acre which is home to his shrine. […]
Churches
Sea of Galilee
Our 3 week housesit was up and it was time to leave Jerusalem, a city we had become so familiar with. We took a bus to Tiberias, located by the Sea of Galilee. We walked uphill from the bus station to our air bnb – which had sensational views. All we wanted to do was stay on the verandah and look out at the lake… known by locals as Kinneret or Lake Tiberias. Our host was a lovely Jewish woman who greeted us warmly, […]
Ramallah, Palestine
Ramallah, just 10km north of Jerusalem, has become Palestine’s de-facto capital, home to the Palestinian parliament, government ministries and the offices of the President and Prime Minister. Closely associated for me with the Intifada and Palestinian resistance, Ramallah is today the most affluent and liberal city in Palestine and the cultural hub of the West Bank, with many famous Palestinian activists, poets, musicians and artists residing here. We took a Palestinian bus from Jerusalem for the short trip, without much of a plan of […]
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Famous as the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem is a small city in Palestine, whose residents are living with the severe inconvenience and economic impacts of a huge wall that Israel has erected. Not only does it impair residents ability to commute to work in Israel and the West Bank, it cuts many residents off from their own farm land. 🙁 It is illegal for Israelis to travel to Bethlehem (or any other town in Palestine), but plenty of tourists make the short trip from […]
Christian Jerusalem (2 of 2)
Follow the route Jesus walked up to his crucifixion. See churches, his prison and sites where he performed miracles.
Christian Jerusalem (1 of 2)
Jerusalem has so many Christian hot-spots: where Jesus had his last supper (Mt Zion), taught, rested and prayed (Mount of Olives), did miracles, agonised (Gethsemene) and where he was crucified (now Church of Holy Sepulchre). I’ll cover these and more… but first something I should have mentioned in my Holiday Season post… I witnessed and accidentally got stuck in the middle of the Jerusalem March, an event during Sukkot that has people of all nations march for a few hours through the streets singing […]
Krakow (Part 2)
Legend has it that Krakow was founded on the defeat of a virgin-eating dragon! A statue of this dragon is to be found betwen the Vistula River and Wawel Castle and if you’re lucky, you’ll see it breathe fire. The legend goes that as well as eating cows, the dragon found virgin girls particularly tasty. Given the King had a daughter who could very well be the dragon’s next victim, he offered the daughter’s hand in marriage and half his kingdom to anyone who […]
Krakow (Part 1)
After a pleasant four hour train trip from Warsaw, we arrived in Krakow around 4.30pm on a beautiful sunny spring day. Our BnB was a lovely studio apartment that was completely Ikea furnished and decorated. It was just across the river from the castle and the main part of town. One of the reasons this placed grabbed my attention when booking was that it included the free use of 2 bikes. The men’s bike was really big and the seat was up really high […]
Day-tripping from Prague
Kutna Hora is about 85km from Prague and definitely warrants a day trip. Together with friends Gena and Chris we took a train to this town which boasts a number of sights including the famous ‘Bone Church’ aka The Sedlec Ossuary. This was a pretty crazy place to see! The whole underground chapel is decorated with human bones. 40,000 people have their resting place here!! The reason being that around 1278 a local abbot went to Jerusalem and brough back some soil which he […]
Prague Castle
We headed to Prague at the end of September 2016 to meet with our American friends who were going to be in the city for a few days. I had visited Prague twice before (in 1995 & 2006) so was mostly looking forward to hanging out with our friends rather than sightseeing. But I have to say the city really impressed again! In a city full of fantastic architecture and magnificent buildings, Prague Castle dominates them all with its place on the hill overlooking […]