It’s more than two months after we left Israel and I am writing my last blog post about the country. We had so many experiences there and perhaps we saved the best for last… hard to compare of course as there were many wonderful and varied experiences. I’m not quite sure where the Negev desert or the Arava Valley starts and finishes but we enjoyed driving through this region anyway to get to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city. The mountains just across the border in […]
Israel
Negev Desert, Israel
Leaving the city of Tel Aviv behind, our destination was Mitspe Ramon- a small town on the edge of the magnificent Makhtesh Ramon – the crater that’s not technically a crater. En route to Mitspe Ramon we stopped to explore the beautiful En Avdat National Park, located in Wadi Tsin. We had terrific views of this valley from above – where Ben Gurion has his tomb. We descended the hill, parked the car and walked into the canyon itself (where the white arrow is […]
Israeli Food & Markets
Part of the fun of traveling is eating out, discovering new dishes and buying food in the markets. The first thing we noticed in Israel was how expensive eating out was, so we tended to go for cheaper eats where we could. This may be why our experience of Israeli food was dominated by hummus and falafel! If you order ‘hummus’ on the menu it typically comes with pita bread and pickled vegetables and/or olives, sometimes with falafel and usually with small side salads. […]
Tel Aviv
Everyone will tell you that Tel Aviv has a completely different feel to Jerusalem – but it’s hard to know just how different it is until you spend time in both cities. Where Jerusalem has religion and history so in your face, Tel Aviv breathes freedom and the future. They couldn’t be more different. As much as we loved our time in Jerusalem, the vibe we got from our short stay in Tel Aviv was that this was a great place to live and […]
Haifa, Israel
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. […]
Caesarea, Israel
Getting to the ancient port city of Caesarea was not easy– first of all it was hard to make it clear where we wanted to go as we were saying ‘Seh-zeh-ree-ah’ but the locals pronounce it ‘Qasaria’ with a hard c. I had to write it down to be understood! After switching trains correctly we arrived at the nearest train station to the ancient site and headed for the bus stop, only to discover that the bus left about two hours later … approximately […]
Acre, Israel
Music greeted us as we wandered through the old city of Acre (Akko), on the Mediterranean coast in northern Israel. We found ourselves at the water’s edge on our first evening in the city listening to someone playing the bagpipes and another a drum, young men dancing and families clapping. It was a great atmosphere! The Old City of Acre was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site for its substantial preservation of Medieval Crusader buildings and the 18th and 19th century Muslim town which […]
Golan Heights
Internationally recognised as Syrian territory, the Golan Heights has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. Antony was keen to see the area so we hired a car for a day from Tiberias and set off to the north east of the Sea of Galilee. First stop Mount Bental for amazing panoramic views of the area. After Israel captured Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, it was under Israeli military administration but then in 1981 Israel passed a law to administer it as […]
Israel Museum
‘Israel Museum’ is a bit of a misnomer as there are several museums and art galleries in the one place as well as sculptures and models outside. We spent most of a day here during our stay in Jerusalem, starting at the model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. This was a model of the ancient city at its peak just before the Great Revolt in 66 CE when it was destroyed. The model has a scale of 2cm = 1 metre and […]
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 […]