Israel

Week 28 and 29

After 6 months in Latin America we were happy to be travelling to a new part of the world - the Middle East, first stop Israel. We flew into Tel Aviv from Buenos Aires, with quick stopovers in Sao Paulo and Istanbul. It was a long 20 hour journey and we were pleased to get off the cramped plane - the buses in South America were like travelling in first class in comparison!

We spent just over two weeks in Israel, with a good portion of that time enjoying some beach action in Tel Aviv. It was great to be by the sea and have good weather! We used Tel Aviv as a base, staying with family and taking buses to most of the destinations we visited.

Enjoying breakfast at La La Land on the beach

Loved the beach!!!

Accommodation in Israel is a lot more expensive than South America.  I'm not sure we could have survived on £80 a day if we would have had to pay for accommodation as well! Food was also very expensive, especially when eating out, so we bought lots of fresh produce in the local market and cooked lovely dinners at home most evenings.

When we arrived, it took us about 3 days to recover from our jet lag but that didn't stop us from starting our adventures. 

So here is the run down of the places we visited ...

Tel Aviv

Much to our surprise Tel Aviv is much more modern than we expected with lots of restaurants, bars and cafes dotted about everywhere. There are also lots of shops where you can buy lots of lovely clothes and jewellery.

Shakshuka

There is a lovely beach which stretches almost all the way to Jaffa (about 2.5km away) and is a great place to people watch. Lots of people playing bat and ball (seems to be a national obsession!), volleyball, jogging or using the outdoor gym equipment - they like to keep fit here!

People dancing during Shabbat

Outdoor gym in the background

Volleyball

Bat and ball fanatics! 

There is a fantastic outdoor market called carmel market which sells almost everything. We visited it a few times mainly to purchase lots of delicious fruits and vegetables.

Carmel Market

We both really enjoyed Tel Aviv and would happily visit again but with more money next time! It took a lot of will power keeping to our budget - we could have easily blown a whole months budget in one week here!

Jaffa

After just an hours walk from the centre of Tel Aviv, along the beach front, you reach Jaffa, an ancient port city. The main attractions here are the old town and the port which are really nice to walk around.

Poser 1, with Jaffa in the back ground ...

Poser 2, with Tel Aviv in the backgroound ...

So strong!!!

It was here where we were introduced to the delights of Arabic food! It is delicious and plentiful! We had eaten so much beef in Argentina it was lovely to eat something different and eat some fish!

Yum Yum Yum!

Port area, our restaurant is in the background.

Haifa

We caught bus 910 from the new bus terminal in Tel Aviv (7th floor, 25NIS each) to Haifa at 1:30pm and arrived at Haifa at 3:00pm. 

The main attraction here are the Bahá’í Gardens. By the time we found our hotel (Hotel Eden $57/night), checked in and found the gardens, it was too late to actually visit them! We did get a good view from the gate though!

Carmelit the only metro system in Israel 

Bahá’í Gardens

We wondered around the different tourist areas and had another massive meal in the area known as the German Colony.

OMG! how much food!

1 day here is plenty, as long as you arrive early in the morning! As the gardens were closed the following day, we left Haifa early the next morning.

Akko

Learning our lesson from the day before, we woke early and caught a Sherut taxi to Akko (26NIS each, 45 minutes).

Akko is the Acre of the Crusaders and is the capital and port of the Latinate Kingdom of Palestine. The town has an interesting history and a visit here is well worth it!  We spent 3 hours wondering around the old town and visited various archaeological sites. The most impressive was the subterranean crusader city.

Gate leading ino the old town

View of the port

Old Mosque

Produce available in the Souk

Hubbly Bubbly

Hmmmmm

First time trying falafel in Israel - it was delicious

Nazareth

Bus 343 (26NIS each, 1.5 hours) took us from Akko to Nazareth. Finding our hostel was a little bit difficult as we had no map and there didn't seem to be any road signs in the old area. Even the taxi driver couldn't find it and had to call the hostel for directions!

Nazareth is small in comparison to the other places we visited and you can see all the main attractions in 1 day, once you can understand where you are on the map! It took us well over 1 hour to find 'Mary's Well', which is in fact only a 5 minute walk away from our hostel!

Mary's Well

Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

Arabs, Jews, Catholics and Christians all live here, so there are a lot of churches and mosques dotted about everywhere. The most impressive church and one which dominates the Nazareth skyline was the Basilica of the Annunciation - the largest church in the Middle East and one of the Christian worlds holy shrines. The church is believed to stand on the site of Mary's home, where angel Gabriel was said to have appeared to her and announce that she was pregnant with the son of God.

There is also meant to be a great souk here (Arabic market) but unfortunately, despite 2 attempts, it was closed both days we were in Nazareth.

Nazareth is also known in Israel for good food, best in Israel. We sampled some delicious dishes in an Arabic restaurant and were completely stuffed afterwards.

Jerusalem

Spending time in Israel during Easter was a great experience (and sometimes frustrating as lots of establishments closed over the holiday period) and a visit to Jerusalem on the Thursday before Easter Friday was an eye opener!

Getting to Jerusalem was an easy 1 hour bus ride (19NIS) from Tel Aviv. We spent 1 night in Jerusalem and stayed at The Ambassador Hotel (£80). The first day was spent wandering around the new town and visiting the amazing but also sad Holocaust Museum (free!). You could easily spend a good 5 hours in the museum but unfortunately we only had 2.5 hours as we arrived later than expected. We caught a taxi there from the bus terminal (35NIS).

It is well known fact that taxis will often try and rip off tourists in Jerusalem and that's exactly what they did to us on the return journey into town from the museum. Even though the driver had put the meter on, he charged us 150 NIS for almost the same trip we had taken earlier that day (35NIS). Loosing the argument we had no other choice but to pay him - that was our evening meal out of the window, grrrrr!

The second day was spent wandering around the old town and reliving Jesus' steps and visiting places where he supposedly died and was resurrected (there are 2 possible places where this is believed to have happened).  First stop was the Garden Tomb, one of the places historians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

Skull hill - where Jesus could have been crucified

Entrance to the tomb

Inside the tomb

Damascus Gate

We decided that it would be a good idea to have a guide to take us round so we would understand the history behind what we saw. We paid $12 each for a 4 hour guided tour (New Jerusalem tours). It was well worth it!

The old town is split into different quarters catering for different religions who believe Jerusalem to be one of their sacred places.

The main ones we visited were the Christian quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Muslim quarter. Each of these quarters have a main focal point for visiting pilgrims and tourists:

Christian Quarter -Church of Holy Sepulchre (second possible place of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection). While we visited here they were holding a ceremony to remember Jesus' last walking steps.

Where Jesus placed his hand while walking to his death - Via Dolorosa.

Ethiopian Christian pilgrims

Jewish Quarter - The Wailing Wall (Western wall). 

It was so busy in the morning ... 

... later on in the afternoon I was able to get a little closer

Muslim Quarter - Temple Mount (golden dome) . Unfortunately we were not allowed to enter because of Easter activities.

Old Jerusalem is extremely busy over the Easter weekend.  We were literally amongst thousand of pilgrims from all over the world trying to visit the same places we wanted to go and see. Needless to say we couldn't see everything but we got an real idea why this place is so special to so many people.

Statue of King David

The Cenacle - Probable place of the Last Supper

Masada and Dead Sea

As we had no car, the only way we could visit Masada and the Dead Sea during Shabbat (Friday and Saturday) was to take part in an organised tour ($60 each).  It was a long day on a bus being hurried around by an eccentric history enthusiast! Not ideal! However we enjoyed visiting the ancient fort of Masada and floating in the dead sea.  I also enjoyed smothering myself in dead sea mud!

Cable car to Masada - a lot easier than walking!

View of The Dead Sea

Sde Boker, Ein Avdat National Park and Mitzpe Ramon.

About 2 hours south of Tel Aviv you reach a beautiful part of the country which is mostly covered by the Negev desert. The scenery is spectacular and was very different to what we have already seen during our previous adventures.

We got here by car, kindly arranged by the family member we were staying with.

First place we visited was Sde Boker which also homes Ben Gurion and his wife's grave (Israel's first prime minister - an important place for Israelis).

From Ben Gurion's grave, there is a road that leads directly to the Ein Avdat National Park. We headed down the road into the spectacular scenery we had seen from on top of the mountain. 

We walked for about 1.5 hours around the national park, enjoying the landscape.

Afterwards,  we drove to Mitzpe Ramon and stayed the night at the Ramon Hotel. The main reason for visiting Mitzpe Ramon is to see the Ramon crater which is a huge crater which was once was covered by a sea.

View of a portion of the crater

We woke early the following day for an anticipated 6 hour trek in the crater which a lady in the Visitor's Centre had kindly advised was an excellent walk. With map in hand, we drove to our starting point. After few wrong turns here and there, we completed the trek in 4.5 hours.

We climbed to the top of this mountain ... 

... this was the view from the top!

The crater is a beautiful place to hike around, a few days here would be ideal but as time was running out we had to make our way further south to Eilat. This was a little bit tricky to organise as it was a public holiday in Israel so most buses were not running. The only way we could get to Eilat was to travel back up to Beer Sheba and catch a bus back down to Eilat (60 NIS each).

Eilat

Known as the Vegas of Israel, Eilat is a beach resort catering for what seemed to be vacating Russians and Israelis. Not quite as nice a Tel Avis but it was pleasant to wonder around and sit on the beach for a couple of days and prepare ourselves to enter Jordan.

In summary Israel is a great place to visit. There is so much to see and experience.  In hindsight there is one main point I would change to make exploring this country a little easier - rent a car so you are not constricted by public transport, especially during Shabbat. A more expensive option but you would get to see a lot more.