We made very long drives from Haifa up to Akko, from Akko down to Caesarea, from Caeseara down to Hertzilya, and from Hertzilya to Tel Aviv! We got lost twice and certainly not fun both times! (Mainly due to Zev's lack of direction). Nevertheless, it was a day full of fun and great company.
Akko: It was a spur of the moment decision and since Jess and Wendy raved about its beauty, I decided to check it out. So we drive 45 minutes out of Haifa to visit the Old City. It was a beautiful, beautiful walk. Unlike the Old City of Jerusalem and Cordoba, Akko was actually relatively clean and grime free. For most part, the area was mostly Arabic but fortunately, unlike Cordoba, there were actually signs in English for certain places and arrows indicating that you were going in the right direction. So we passed an old synagogue, the Turkish baths, some mosques (actually they blended in with the architecture that I didn't realized it half the time), and a Turkish bazaar. W
e also saw the aquadect- majestic. I'd like to go back and explore more deeply as it was small and confusing in a fun way.
Caeseara: We did not actually go to the park but just visited Moshe and Phyllis Pollack at their rented villa. We got a little lost since we later discovered that the area was made up of "clusters"- neighborhoods. The house was great- it had a large, circular great room with skylights with rooms branching out from the sides. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, Phyllis insisted on feeding us a meal, including lasgana made with matzah. Her daughter made delicious Passover brownies! Atop their villa, I could see the sea- the area was so beautiful. It largely reminded me of Florida- filled with sunshine, pools, pretty houses and gardens, and of course, the water/beach. There's a running joke that Caesarea was only 10 minutes away from Israel because the residential area was nothing like the rest of Israel because it's just so nice and a lot of houses had pools- most Israelis don't own a pool!
Hertzilya: We met with Zev's cousin, Rakel, and her family. She was supposed to meet us in Tel Aviv to give us a ride to her apartment so we wouldn't have to get lost in the dark but we were running so late and Zev really wanted to see everyone that day. So Grandma lost the battle and drove us there. I met Rakel's daughters who were so curious and lovely. One of them spoke very good English and mostly talked with me while the other two were a little shy about using their English but were content to listen. They were absolutely fascinated by some of the things I showed them on the Internet including Facebook! Two of them attend Tel Aviv University and the youngest is waiting to go into the Army this summer. And... of course, we were fed with more food... oh my god. Do they ever stop... even Rakel told Zev that she'd just serve a small, typical Israeli dinner. Best part: We had lasgana again! I think I've had my share for a fair amount of time for a while.
We got lost in Tel Aviv for an hour. Wonderful. I was so exhausted that I think I wouldn't even cared if I slept in a hostel instead of a 3 star hotel. I couldn't even imagined how tired Grandma must be after driving all day.... she had never done so much driving in her whole life- 7 hours in two days.
Akko: It was a spur of the moment decision and since Jess and Wendy raved about its beauty, I decided to check it out. So we drive 45 minutes out of Haifa to visit the Old City. It was a beautiful, beautiful walk. Unlike the Old City of Jerusalem and Cordoba, Akko was actually relatively clean and grime free. For most part, the area was mostly Arabic but fortunately, unlike Cordoba, there were actually signs in English for certain places and arrows indicating that you were going in the right direction. So we passed an old synagogue, the Turkish baths, some mosques (actually they blended in with the architecture that I didn't realized it half the time), and a Turkish bazaar. W
e also saw the aquadect- majestic. I'd like to go back and explore more deeply as it was small and confusing in a fun way.Caeseara: We did not actually go to the park but just visited Moshe and Phyllis Pollack at their rented villa. We got a little lost since we later discovered that the area was made up of "clusters"- neighborhoods. The house was great- it had a large, circular great room with skylights with rooms branching out from the sides. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, Phyllis insisted on feeding us a meal, including lasgana made with matzah. Her daughter made delicious Passover brownies! Atop their villa, I could see the sea- the area was so beautiful. It largely reminded me of Florida- filled with sunshine, pools, pretty houses and gardens, and of course, the water/beach. There's a running joke that Caesarea was only 10 minutes away from Israel because the residential area was nothing like the rest of Israel because it's just so nice and a lot of houses had pools- most Israelis don't own a pool!
Hertzilya: We met with Zev's cousin, Rakel, and her family. She was supposed to meet us in Tel Aviv to give us a ride to her apartment so we wouldn't have to get lost in the dark but we were running so late and Zev really wanted to see everyone that day. So Grandma lost the battle and drove us there. I met Rakel's daughters who were so curious and lovely. One of them spoke very good English and mostly talked with me while the other two were a little shy about using their English but were content to listen. They were absolutely fascinated by some of the things I showed them on the Internet including Facebook! Two of them attend Tel Aviv University and the youngest is waiting to go into the Army this summer. And... of course, we were fed with more food... oh my god. Do they ever stop... even Rakel told Zev that she'd just serve a small, typical Israeli dinner. Best part: We had lasgana again! I think I've had my share for a fair amount of time for a while.
We got lost in Tel Aviv for an hour. Wonderful. I was so exhausted that I think I wouldn't even cared if I slept in a hostel instead of a 3 star hotel. I couldn't even imagined how tired Grandma must be after driving all day.... she had never done so much driving in her whole life- 7 hours in two days.
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