Israel 31 January. Low 20s

Up early at 5 am for a departure from hotel at 6.15. Our scheduled departure is 8.55. Proceed through security and passport control ok and we have a 90 min wait till take off. Getting a bit tired of all these early morning starts. My cold has moved from my chest to my sinuses, so maybe I am picking up. There are four others in our group who sound much worse than me.

As we fly into Tel Aviv there is a lot more greenery around, it is nice to leave the sparseness of the desert behind. As we drive from the airport the city has a much nicer feel about it. Very clean and orderly, and while the traffic is heavy it is not chaotic. The buildings are modern and typical of any major city.

Our first stop is the Diaspora Museum, unfortunately there are major renovations underway and we are restricted to two sections, one displays models of Jewish synagogues from all over the world. The other display is on Jewish humour - it is amazing how many actors, singers and comedians were Jewish.

We then travel to Caesarea a town on the coast created by King Herod. He built a breakwater to create a harbour for ships and it became a prosperous Roman town and was once the Roman capital of the region.  His descendants allowed the area to deteriorate and following earthquakes and attacks by invaders there is little remaining of the port area. One of the invading armies were the crusaders and they fortified the town further by building it up as a walled city, but they too are overcome but some parts still remain. The town fell on hard times and was little more than a village until the Rothschild family stepped in and financed the development of the city. It is now thriving again.

From here we travel up Mt Carmel and pass through two Druze villages.  They are called villages, but to us they are the size of towns. The Druze are a minority race in Israel where their religion is a mix of Islam, Christianity and Jewish. 

Our hotel is on Mt Carmel on the outskirts of Haifa, it is a boutique hotel and the rooms are fantastic. They also have a happy hour from 5.30 to 8 where wine and snacks are provided. It is not two for one though, IT IS FREE!!!. Israel is a very civilised country, you don’t even have to pay to use the toilets!

Tomorrow we can have a sleep in, we don’t depart until 8.



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