Israel: Haifa/Rosh Hanikra

After enjoying our free days we jumped right into more tours. Again we were picked-up from our hotel and taken to a bus and then met our guide (Norbet.) Norbet is originally from France and even though it was an English-only tour he translated everything into French for the few French and French-Canadians on the tour (which got annoying.) We first went to Caeserea roman ruins. I have been to Roman ruins in different parts of Europe and so wasn’t so impressed with this one. It had everything all the other ones did, but was still nice to look at. After Caesera we drove to Haifa. We didn’t see much of the city except for driving to the Bahá'í Gardens. It was the first time since we went through TSA security at Logan Airport in Boston 6 days earlier that we had to go through any type of security – or had even seen any security. It was just a guy with a wand looking in your bag. The Gardens gave a great view of Haifa and so it was nice that we got to go there. We didn’t stay long and after leaving Haifa we went to Acre.

In Acre we stopped at the shop of the last Jewish family in the town who was also a metal-worker (most of Acre are Israeli Arabs – not Palestinians.) We stayed at that shop way too long, but I was finally able to go to an Israeli Post Office and buy stamps for my post cards. I had been trying for days throughout Israel to get stamps, but they were so hard to find - as was a mailbox, but I think I found a working one and put all my post cards in it. I'll have to wait and se if anyone writes me that they got a postcard. We then went to a local restaurant where they had long tables with different salads and lemonade on it. You could then order shawarma, chicken schnitzel or falafel. I got the shawarma and it was pretty good.

After lunch we drove up to the Lebanese border to Rosh Hanikra. Rosh Hanikra was built by the British during World War 2 to bring supplies from Palestine to Lebanon. Once the British left and the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948 the Israelis destroyed parts of the place so the invading Arab armies (coming from Lebanon) couldn’t use it. There was a cable car at the site, but the line was several hours long because of the holiday – if you are sick and tired of always hearing about the holiday and the closings and crowds caused by it you are not alone – I was very sick and tired of always hearing and experiencing the delays. Instead of the cable car we left our big tour bus and got into a smaller bus that drove us to the tunnel and grottoes. I have been to grottoes (in Malta) and underground caves before and while these ones were very small and we spent less than an hour there it was still a very cool place. Rosh Hanikra was our last destination for that day and so we then drove back to the hotel.

It wasn’t all that late when we got back and so we walked to a busy street and had dinner at a Mexican/Tex-Mex Restaurant called “Mexicana.” It was pretty good. After the restaurant I walked into a nearby market to get some waters for our next tours. I  got four bottles (all we needed) and saw they had a Kinder Egg -  it was the first Kinder Egg I have had since December 2014. I brought that and the water to the cashier. She said something in Hebrew and then switched to English. She told me I couldn’t leave the store until I bought 6 bottles of water. I told her I didn’t want 6 bottles – only 4 bottles. There was now a huge line behind me and I was getting extremely angry at this stupid woman. The only thing that saved me from opening up every swear word I knew and making a huge scene was the Kinder Egg. I hadn’t seen any Kinder Eggs in any of the other places I had previously been to (and as it turned out didn’t see any Kinder Eggs anyplace else afterwards) I bite my tongue and got the 6 bottles of water and my Kinder Egg and said a few, very loud, choice words to that dumb woman as I was leaving the store. We then went back to the hotel to rest up for our next tour.