Wednesday, October 27, 2010 – Haifa, Israel – 82F - Sunny

Distance Traveled from Ashdod: 79 Nautical Miles

No tours today – it is a beautiful day in Haifa.

  

Haifa and Mt Carmel from the Equinox

We are going to walk around the port area and try to get close to the Baha’i Temple Grounds.  The Baha’i Hanging Gardens and Temple are the “Eight Wonder of the World” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We are going to walk to David Ben-Gurion St, the street that leads up to the Baha’i Temple and Gardens.  This are is known as the German Colony but is now pretty much an Arab neighborhood.  This makes our goal of finding a kosher hamburger or hot dog place daunting – and ultimately unsuccessful.  Along the way, I noticed some funny holes in the wall of one of the older buildings.  You don’t need to be a CSI to know that these are bullet holes (Haifa was the scene of some nasty fighting in 1948).

Bullet Holes in an old building

There is a concert scheduled tonight at the base of the hill and some of the equipment being used to set up is spewing smoke making my picture of the Gardens look foggy.  In the second picture, we got into the gardens (the gates are guarded) and I was able to get a really shot of Ellen and the Gardens.

Top:  Baha’i Gardens and Temple plus smoke; Bottom:  Ellen in the Garden

We walked to another neighborhood past the pier entrance to look for souvenirs but did not see any.  The neighborhoods were interesting with Hebrew and Arabic spoken.

Me and a major street parallel to the pier

From there we went back to the ship.  Tonight, we are back in the Dining Room for a relaxing dinner.

After dinner, we got really good seats for the live Belly Dancer Show in the Grand Foyer.  However, all the other passengers stood in front of us so the viewing was difficult (and the photo taking impossible).  She was a good dancer.

Showtime tonight featured Jamie Allan “Maverick Magician”.  He specializes in card tricks (some very good ones) but the audience is cool to his humor. 

We catch some of the music around the ship. We are docked here overnight so a good night’s sleep is a possibility.