Israel Day 3: Caesarea, Haifa, Acre & Rosh Hanikra
Israel Day 3: Caesarea, Haifa, Acre & Rosh Hanikra
Thursday, July 26, 2012
New Years Day is quite possibly the worst possible day of the year to schedule a tour, especially one that begins early in the morning. Regardless of this fact, I had done so.
Exploring the old city is a rather surreal experience. As you explore, on one side of you waves crash against the shoreline and on the other crumbling ruins rise into the heavens. While peaceful, the area is also slightly creepy. Unlike Mesada, Caesarea was sparsely populated by tourists when I visited. So when wandering the ruins there is a distinct feeling of being in an ancient ghost town.
While exploring I met a fellow tourist named Simon, a photographer from Germany. He was with the same bus group as me and we would end up spending the remainder of the day photographing things together.
During our trip to Haifa, the weather began to change. Clouds rolled in and it began to rain. At this point our tour guide presented us with two options: we could delay lunch and head directly to Rosh Hanikra, or we could head to Acre and hope the weather held out for the grottos. We decided to delay lunch and to end the tour at Acre, a decision that would later prove to be a smart one.
Gusts of wind and torrents of rain slammed into our tour bus as we arrived at the grottos. As the only way down to see the geological site is cable car, if the wind gets too high everything closes down. It turned out we had arrived just in time and taking the cable car down to the grottos was a wet and wild experience. Our car rocked fiercely back and forth, and the ocean would occasionally spray up into the vehicle. Despite the downpour, we made to the caves safely.
On our exit from the Grottos, we encountered some sort of creature that lives near the ocean. I have no idea what they are, but here’s a photo of one eating scraps of food left by tourists. He was hungry and so were we.
On the way to Acre for a late lunch the sky clouded up, and it began to rain. We pulled into a small cafe and had pitas. We then ventured out to explore the city... and then, half of our group got lost.
Seriously. LOST. ::BOOM:: They just vanished.
Meanwhile it began to rain. Hard.
The missing half of our tour was still nowhere to be found. The ocean was churning and the waves surged onto the docks the small ocean front town. It was growing late and it was time to leave.
With half of the group still nowhere to be found we loaded onto the tour bus and did one last spin around the village. It was then we encountered the rest of our group stumbling out of a local pub. Needless to say our tour guide was not happy or impressed. While we saw many exciting and interesting places, the highlight of the trip had to be the vague comments and insults our tour guide directed at our missing tour mates.
Rain pitter pattered down the bus window and as we headed back to Tel Aviv, I dozed off.
Me at Caesarea. Photo taken by my fellow photographer/tourist, Simon.
Photo taken with iPhone 4s