Haifa

OK, I don't really know where to start.  What a great 24 hours!   Firstly the guy, Eran's recommendation on the beach was perfect.  I got a massive jug of sparkling water and all these salads free as soon as I walked in.  So I was stuffing my face as I chose my fish.  Obviously these salads were immense but I made a good effort and they were willing to bring me more, which I obviously refused! I chatted to the waitresses about what was in some of them.  Catherine Weller, if you are reading, it was like a different taste sensation similar to the salad we had at the Morrocan restaurant in Bath.  My favourite was called Soom Soom.  I will try and recreate it once I'm home.

And this was the toilet sign for the ladies.  Obviously the man fish looked far more male.  But it still confused me at first.!

 So this is the train I took from Tel Aviv to Haifa.  It all went really smoothly apart from the massive gap I almost fell down with my bag.   Luckily a guy helped me and stopped me from vanishing for ever.

After an hour of flying up the country through pretty rough scrub land I arrived in Haifa.  I'm staying in The Port Inn and it's lovely. Here's the link  http://portinn.net/. 

Here is the mezuzah on the door of my room.   All observant Jewish houses have.them on doors to rooms.   The Ashkanazi tilt them to face the way in.

I was given a really clear introduction to the city by the owner and lots of bus numbers and train and walking routes.  It's beautiful here.

 It's so much more chilled here than in tel Aviv.  I suppose it's because it's a smaller city and far more working class and industy based .Haifa is renowned for having the best relationships of any city in Israel between Arabs and Jews.  I've seen people walking down the street together,  kids playing in the park together and also to top it all off I had a coca cola today with the bottle written in Arabic!!

Cars also stop to let you cross at the zebra crossings and they seem to be quicker to smile at you when I smile at them.

I went straight to the underground line (only one)  to take me up Mount Carmel. /   Yes, you should be honoured that you are still so famous here in Haifa Carmel.

The bizarre walls of the underground.
!

Once I got to the top I headed for the Baha'i gardens. For the 5 million Baha's in the world these gardens and the shrine of their leader are a must for pilgramage.  I loved the Bahai temple I saw in Delhi so I knew I had to come and see this one too.  As I was wandering along I got a few shots of some flowers as well.

 A park and a park sweeper.

 View down on the Baha'i Gardens with the shrine of their leader at the bottom.

 Some various winter flowers that I liked.

 I am going for a tour around the gardens on Thursday when there is one in English.  It is far more common to have tours in Hebrew or Russian!

I then stumbled upon the best secret find in my opinion so far in Israel, this wonderful sculpture garden.  I can't really express how much I liked it here.  Here are some pictures.

I stayed here for ages.  I want to go back.  It was a  lovely place.

I then stuffed my face again with felafel.  Now this was in an Arabic run place and I have to say it was the best I have ever eaten..  I haven't eaten a thing since and I still am not hungry.  All of the food was crammed in one pitta.It defied reason.

I then got back on the train and headed back to the beach at Hof Carmel.  I got chatting to this old Jewish guy who was going to Tel Aviv.  He was from Cape Town but his family were all Lithuanian (they all died in the holocaust apart from him and his sister who got smuggled out as kids to SOuth Africa) He was an Atheist Jew but said if he had to convert it would be to the Baha'i religion.   He had just come back from Cambodia, where his son had just married a Cambodian.  We chatted about the joys of Ankor Wat and within 7 minutes I got off the train.  he wished me a safe and pleasant trip and he was gone.

I then headed for the beach where I managed to catch the sunset.

I was so pleased with my sunset experience I had to celebrate...

 with a beer and free snacks.   One annoying thing is big beers are 27 shekels and small ones are 24.   This doesnt help me drink less!

Then I came back on the train and have been sitting at the free Internet for the last hour or so.   Time to head back out soon I think.
Tomorrow I am taking the bus to Nazareth.  It's 45 minutes away I've been told and I can go and see the places where Mary got the news from Angel Gabriel that she was pregnant.  Yes...places, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox don't agree on the site and have two different shrines.    Of course I will be going to both and giving you my opinion of who is right!  Nazareth is an Arabic run town but not inside the West Bank so I can get there easily and yippie because Nazareth is  known as the FOOD CAPITAL OF ISRAEL!   Oh my God, how excited am I.  Bye.