Our final excursion in Israel with Carol was to Haifa. Haifa sits on the coast in the north. It is the 3rd largest city in Israel, after Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with about 300,000 people. It’s less than an hour’s drive from Mishmar HaEmek. Carol gave us a really good tour of the city.
Like many cities and villages in Israel, Haifa is situated around and on the Carmel Mountain Range. There are essentially 3 parts to the city. There’s a downtown section that is near the sea, an older residential section that is halfway up the mountain where many Russian Jews immigrated, and a kind of newer, more ritzy section at the top of the mountain.
We drove into Haifa through the downtown commercial district and along the seaport. Haifa is a big shipping terminal as well as an oil and gas terminus. The downtown section is very ethnic with Turkish and Arab communities. It is also where the German Templers first settled in Israel. We visited what’s called the German Colony. Many of the Termper structures, which are in their original location, have been renovated and are businesses, restaurants, and boutique hotels.
Haifa is home to the world center of the Bahai faith and there is a big shrine here in Haifa. We visited a Bahai shrine in Australia. Although we didn’t actually go to the shrine, we saw it from both below and above. The shrine is centered in an amazing promenade with gardens.
You can see part of the port and that big granary building in the shrine from above picture. And, we’re only two-thirds of the way up Mt. Carmel. The views from the top of Mt. Carmel are quite breathtaking. Standing on the top are the mountain are twin towers of about 30 stories tall, so I imagine the views from those apartments are worth the price one pays for the apartment.
We walked through a lovely park and wandered around the scenic overlook area. We then drove to a Stella Maris retreat center. This would be a wonderful place to retreat to as it is also on top of the mountain with stunning views.
We then headed back to Mishmar HaEmek on a route through the Carmel mountains. It was a nice drive through forested hills which offered nice views of the sea in some spots.
We came to the Druze village (city really) of Isfiya. I had never heard of the Druze religion. They are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from western Asia. The religion grew out of Ismalism, but the Druze do not identify as Muslims. Wikipedia says, “they practice Druzism, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic and ethnic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad and ancient Grekk philosphers like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Citium. Adherents of the Cruze religion are called The People of Monotheism.” Reading about this religion makes me scratch my head as it is quite substantial in all the things it believes. Carol said it’s a secret religion, but it certainly seems to be very complex.
We stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant. We ordered 3 dishes to share, which was an enormous amount of food. We also got a giant pita. The food was really good, especially a big salad that had all kinds of dried fruits and nuts in it. We also had a cauliflower dish and an eggplant dish. It was all delicious and I ate way too much.
We got back home after a lovely day touring Haifa. Unfortunately, that great lunch was the end of me. By early evening and into the night I was quite sick. It couldn’t have been food poisoning because Carol and Christine ate exactly the same things as I did. But something didn’t agree with me and my body got rid of it. My thought was that Carol will never invite us again because first I come and infect her with a cold, and now I suffer another sickness just as we are about to leave. Some guest I am.
What a great adventure. We certainly have now established that your weak point is your stomach; knowing what to do about that is still a mystery, huh?
Boat cruise next? Flight to Athens?