Israel/Jordan Day 4: Transfer day to Sea of Galilee

Today, we were introduced to Herod the Great, the King of Judea and probably the most productive builder of monumental structures in the entire country.    After another awesome breakfast we loaded our bags into Eric's car and headed North to Caesarea.

Little did I know when we got to the town that this was also the headquarters for the quartz countertop leader, Caesarstone (my Mum's voice in the back of my head was "you can write it off, all of it!" lol).  The main attraction of the seaside town is the Caesarea Maritima - an ancient port manufactured out of artificial caissons by Herod and built up with a hippodrome, palace and theater.

With Eric's enthusiastic story telling and a cheesy but informative short film, we got a pretty good sense for Herod the Great and what he meant to the early development of area.  

Next up was a short drive North to the town of Haifa, home of the infamous Baha'i gardens.  Baha'i is a relatively new religion, founded in Iran in the 19th Century with over 5 million followers.  It sounds like they tried to encompass all major religions and seem pretty socially ahead of other major religions.  They were allowed to base their "head office" in Israel after being persecuted in many countries, on condition that they not solicit people to join their religion in Israel (maybe we should make a similar deal with the Jehovah's Witness guys...)

The gardens were closed to visitors, but we chatted up a well armed Baha'i security guard from Cameroon.  He was on an 18th month assignment to volunteer at the compound, and disappointingly had never heard of Pascal Siakam!  He also said their religion requires a donation of 10% of your "wealth" (I assume, income?) to the church every year.  I guess that means you can buy or build a lot of nice buildings!   

After leaving Haifa, we continued North to the nearby (everything is nearby in Israel... it's tiny!) Akko or Acre (most places have a few different names!).  After another amazing Shawarma lunch (we are completely addicted) we headed to the ruins and remains of the roman fort city built on the water.  

I have to say, this place was amazing.  Like many big sites in Israel, there are layers of cities built on top of each other, and there is still quite a lot of excavating and discovery going on.  Eric said that during the "corona" period (for a sec, I almost thought that was something like the "bronze age" or something... that's how much we were already in vacation mode!!!), they had unearthed another large chamber that he had never been in.  The Roman fort, later occupied by many others, including the crusaders, was mainly underground, with other buildings that were more modern built on top of it.  Really stunning and amazing to think they are still uncovering these buried city streets and chambers.

Alex and I followed Eric as we went down a narrowing tunnel and he explained that we were walking in one of the escape tunnels that the crusaders had built when they took over the city.  The tunnel was one way, but as it narrowed ever more, we heard some women's voices coming towards us.  All I head was "no" from Beth or Kim, and I looked back and they were gone.  Too funny - they bailed so fast - it would become on ongoing joke with Eric during the trip.   Eventually, Eric went back and brought them "safely through".... glad they weren't hear during crusader times....

After the fort, we walked the alleys and cobbled walkways of the old city that is on top and around the roman fort.  The call for prayer started playing, and I was brought back to wandering around Istanbul.  I love the call to prayer echoing throughout the city from minarets poking their way above the low story buildings.  Beautiful.

We left the coast and drove east towards the "sea of Galilee" (more on that in a couple of days).  Our hotel was actually located right on the "sea" in a Kibbutz.  

A kibbutz is a commune in Israel where the members all work and contribute to the running of the kibbutz. In return, their basic living necessities such as food and accommodation are provided free. If people do have jobs away from the kibbutz in the cities then they submit their wages.

Modern day Kibbutzes... Kibbutzi??... are typically becoming privatized and less focused solely on agriculture as time goes on.  Our hotel was named after the name of Kibbutz, Nof Ginosar Hotel.  The whole place was kind of like something you'd find in the Caribbean - low, two-story clusters of hotel quads, linked together with walking paths to the main building.

We gorged on the buffet (that's what your supposed to do at a buffet, right?) while eying, for the first time in Israel, some larger groups of what appeared to be Christian organizations.

Though the girls would later draw a blank, Alex and I killed them in Euchre, piling on to our huge winning streak from Peru.