Haifa, Israel

The Sea Day passed, as sea days do. A little of this and a little of that. Ending with, perhaps, the production show that of all I have seen on the high seas was the worst! Can’t really describe it but there was choreography that involved a lot of waving arms and slinking bodies. Acrobatic dancers floated over the stage in lighting that made some of them look like they were in fish tanks. I kind of wished they had drowned!

But morning today dawned bright and full of promise as at last we were in Israel. This was the whole main point of this trip! We are in Israel. I wish it had been a land trip, but three full days will have to suffice. Our first stop is in Haifa. We had a tour scheduled to take us to Nazareth, past the Dead Sea, into Galilee. It was supposed to be at 8:00 a.m., two hours after our arrival time of 6:00 a.m. Last night we were told to notify private tours to not pick us up before 10:30 due to the strict immigration laws in Israel.

Our tour was booked through Viator which has always been a very dependable company and warrants an on time return to the ship. The local company was Ben Harim. Carol booked the tour before with left home because all the ship ones were sold out. Unlike Viking which seems to have enough contacts and options to add more tours when needed, Celebrity apparently does not. Of course, Viking has a more limited number of guests and knows how many will be on included tours for sure doue to thier booking system. Carol contacted the tour agency and quickly had a positive response that they follow the ships and know the arrival times and processes. They would be waiting for us.

Our assigned group to go ashore was #4. Ship tours always have priority. We sat waiting with people who had 7’s and even 11’s to leave the ship. I wanted to follow a tour group down and tag ourselves on to the end of it, but we had people come into the waiting area that tried to go ahead of their number. They were sent back to wait their turn with us. When 4 was called we were at the front of our group. Lucky thing that as they counted off groups of 50, the shuttle bus capacity, there was single ahead of us. So, they didn’t split up Carol and I but let us both go.

We slowly made our way down to Destination Gateway on 2. Then we exited with our SeaPass cards and showing that we had our passports with us. On shore we were directed a bus. We were first to board and then had to wait for another group to fill up. A bus left while we waited for our ride to “the big tent.” Bad thing was they took 2 from that group to the bus that was leaving while we waited. I felt like if we had had our seats on that first bus our day would have gone better.

Once in the tent we could see it was truly big. We walked quite a distance to join the queue and wend our way to an immigration officer. She checked our passports and took a picture of us. Then into another line. W3e placed our passports on a scanner which then printed a small landing card. As the comedian later said, “They took a picture of our picture!” A man then looked at the passport, looked at the landing card, and looked at us!

Finally, after more winding through the tent we were in the parking lot. Several people were holding sings trying to gather their people. We did not see one for us. Someone asked who we were looking for and they said he had just been there but went to a bus. We started checking out the bus signs but couldn’t fine the company, or person. A Celebrity Shorex person let us use their phone to call the company. The ship provides them with emergency phones for just such purposes.

Turns out our tour left about 30 minutes before we had gotten there to the pickup point! No surprise there, right? Now what to do. We saw someone we knew by a taxi so Carol asked if we could chip in and join them. But the reason they were in the parking lot is that the woman changed her mind because after all the security etc. she was “afraid to go into town.” We ended up boarding a secondary shuttle but for a way to get out of the working port and into town. We talked with a few people on the short ride and when we got to the drop off place still had no plan. People went walking in different directions in the very hilly town. By now it was almost noon.

A cab driver approached and asked did we want a ride and where to. We definitely looked lost. It seemed the best option. The couple from Texas didn’t want to share a taxi so we figured, what do we have to lose! Yes, I had that thought too!! He wanted $200 to take us to Nazareth but it was already too late to go to the other holy places because the ship was sailing at 7:00 p.m. Distance and time and traffic was an undeniable trifecta which soon became the burden of our three days in the Holy Land.

The driver pointed out an ATM which was by a bank. (I like to use one by a bank so if there is a problem there is also a resource.) We did not have enough between us in dollars as most of our cash was in the safe onboard the ship. I cautiously used my debit card to withdraw what I thought was $200. Wrong again. It was shekels. 500 more were needed. (700 shekels is equalr to $200 USD.) I had taken a picture of the license plate and Rame was conveniently also in the shot. I also gave him only half of the money and tucked the rest away safely.The car was comfortable, and he was a good driver. His English was not great, but we could understand when he pointed out various buildings, parks, and gave us a little history.

The land quickly goes from a coastal climate to a more arid desert clime. It does not make an impact on your memory, though, because it was all pavement and buildings for the whole 45k or 29 miles from Haifa to Nazareth. There is a major highway and signs are in Hebrew, Arabis, then English. If I were driving, we would have missed our turns for sure by the time your brain can register the English version!

These are pictures of Haifa which also has high speed trains tha run almost soundlessly. In the outlying towns the streets are narrow to the extreme but still have parked cars and a lot of motorcycles. The buildings are all light colored and remarkably similar whether they are a store front or a home or a school, or industrial. The closer we got to Nazareth the tighter the roads and the more congested.

We thought Rame would drop us near the site of the Church of the Annunciation, but he found a parking spot, opened our door, safely guided us across the street and into the cathedral. He stayed with us the whole time which was great. No worry where to find him later and he did an excellent job as our private tour guide.

The courtyard of the church behind its limestone wall is broad and lovely. Not exactly quiet but the crowd is speaking respectfully and in awe of the dedicated history of the place as primary in the story of Christianity. It is difficult to explain the beauty of the simplistic design. Not ornate but certainly bringing the mind to a place of peace and contemplation.

The simplified interior created a space that you could follow around the wall in a logical order or center yourself in front of the scared space. A bench was there in front of the grotto of the ‘cave home’ of the Holy Family where we sat and reflected and thought what our faith means to us. Rame then indicated a way to go up into the rotunda. The easy stairs and ramp circled the church and then gave a beautiful view of the space. Altogether a quiet feeling of being at peace. Because we now had a private tour we could take as much time as we wanted to think, to offer the names of our family and friends up to God the Father through Mary, the chosen Mother of His Son. We could look forward and recognize what faults we needed to work on for a better life.

As we left Rame pointed out the Lantern in the Cupola representing that here was Jesus the Light of the World. We went down to the crypt of the church of St. Joseph which is centered on the workshop where St. Joseph was the important father figure for Jesus. Nearby was what remained of the family well which was shared in the tiny village.

It was, all in all, a wonderful experience.

https://www.seetheholyland.net/church-of-the-annunciation/

We walked around outside for a bit and then back to the car for another twisting ride through the steep and narrow streets of Nazareth. Back to the highway and a return to Haifa. I was sad that there wasn’t time for everything that had been planned but traffic is, I reiterate, crazy!

In the city we wound our way up the steep streets to the overlook of the Bahai Temple of Haifa. The security checked our bags and then allowed us to enjoy the first two, highest levels of the garden. The view of the city was very beautiful Haifa was painted in its best light from this viewpoint as opposed to as see from port level or even city center where we first met our taxi driver/tour guide. Because of our delay getting off the ship we missed the English free tour of the garden at noon. I was glad we at least got to view it from above and from the vantage point could easily identify the nine concentric circles of the design. Had we taken the tour it would have involved climbing 600 stairsteps and my Galaxy tracker doesn’t count those!

https://www.touristisrael.com/bahai-gardens-in-haifa/2293/

We took a lot of pictures of the stunning views while we eavesdropped on official tour guides telling their groups the most important things about the gardens and the Bahai traditions. We were not rushed but time was getting near to reboard the last port shuttle. Rame dropped us at the right spot. We thanked him and paid the rest of what we owed. We safely and happily made the most of what started out as a dreadful day! It had now been an adventure! Back on board we showered and changed for dinner in the Tuscan Restaurant where one dish is better than the next. Richard Harris was the comedian, and his show is very funny and very clean. He is married to the singer we enjoyed but they travel in opposite directions. Check him out online and you may enjoy his stories as well. He is supposed to be on board with us for the crossing.

We met people at the theater that were waiting with us in the morning. The ones who had #7 finally left the ship about an hour after us. The ones with the #11 could not disembark until about 1:00! We were back in our cabin early to get ready for tomorrow. We have a 10-and-a-half-hour tour with the ship Shorex team. Jerusalem and Bethlehem will really be the peak of our trip!