Thank you all for the compliments! Yesterday we went to the city of Acre and a place north of there, Rosh Hanikra. It was a long day, and today will be another long day as we head south to the northern part of the Negev. I will write much more tomorrow on our day at sea. Today, I was just checking in to see if there were questions, and I am so happy that you are enjoying our trip along with us.
Before I can write about our days in Israel, I need to write about the process for getting into Israel by ship. Most ports have some kind of procedures for allowing passengers off the ships, and some take longer than others. For Egypt, we got into port soon after midnight, so that passengers can start to leave the ship by 6:30 am. This is much longer than average. Israeli security got on the ship with us in Athens on Saturday. We turned our passports over to the ship when we boarded, and the Israelis reviewed all of them while we were in Rhodes and Antalya. We received them back the evening of our stop in Iskendurun, right before meeting with Israeli security. That was a very quick discussion, and then we could go to dinner. We did hear through the grapevine though that some people were pulled aside and interviewed for a long time, but they did not fit the profiles of most Holland America passengers.
Wednesday was our stop in Haifa. We had a private guide, who knew we wanted to go up to Acre, which is pronounced Akko in Hebrew. To go with that, we also decided to go to Rosh Hanikra, a town to the north. Almost everything in Israel is close distance-wise, but because of traffic and terrain, we opted not to go too far a field so that we could have enough time in Akko.
On our way north, we passed a small memorial, Yad L’Yad, a Memorial to the 14. This memorial was dedicated to a group of commandos who died while trying to blow up one of the bridges that linked the British territory of then Palestine to Lebanon and neighboring unfriendly countries in June 1946. It was a defensive maneuver because those trains were used to smuggle weapons to the Arabs, while the Jews were not permitted to have guns to defend themselves. While we were there, we saw an Israeli soldier in training marching with a full pack (approx 50 kilos). He had been walking for days and was exhausted, but we saw the military bus from the road later, so he did not have much further to walk from where we saw him.
Then we went to Rosh Hanikra, which means Head of the Grottoes. The main attraction there are grottoes which have been formed by erosion of the chalk in the rocks by the sea. There are small tunnels that have been built there for people to walk thru to see the grottoes. They are beautiful. Before the walkways, the only way to see them was by swimming, which is very dangerous. Right above this natural wonder, we got another history lesson. In the rock above the grottoes, the British had built a railroad tunnel in 1943, which went straight into Lebanon on the other side of the rock. It was this railroad that the Palestinian Jews tried to take down in 1946 but did not succeed. Instead, they later blew up the bridge right outside the tunnel I At Rosh Hanikra in March 1948, and we were able to see the remains. A new concrete bridge is there now, and the Israeli part of the tunnel is now used as a theater for a very goofy movie. It weird to sit there, knowing that Lebanon was on the other side of the wall of the “theater”. We also got to see the gate to the border on top as well and saw a UN truck drive through. We agreed that UN stands for United for No-Good.
Then we drove south to Akko. It had been a Roman town, a Crusader town, and Ottoman town, and now as an Israeli town, there is a lot of careful excavation going on to determine what actually was there and where. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the bay, and then went exploring. We walked through a tunnel that the Knights Templars built to escape to the shore in case of attack. (This was very well restored, and there is a boardwalk through it that makes the tunnel accessible to wheelchairs.) There were other places we saw as well, but I want to tell you about the Hospitalier Knights complex we got to see. Our guide took us in and described how the place looked before it was excavated (“Pretend none of these rooms to the left are here!”) and then took us step by step through the site and described what was uncovered and when. At one point we got to a huge staircase, and he told us about how archeologists were trying to decide what it was used for. Then we turned the corner, and saw a drawing from the 1600’s that a tour guide had discovered in a library, because she wanted to learn more about the place since she was giving tours there. It was amazing to see that picture of ruins with a staircase to nowhere (the actual building had been destroyed by the Ottomans), and to think it had to be uncovered 300+ years later. I loved that we got the feeling of what it was like to excavate a site, and we never had to pick up a shovel.
We then went back to the ship. Although we did not see a lot of places, I thought the pace was about right so that we got to see each of the places we went to in enough depth, We will just have to come back.
Before I jump into my notes about our second day in Israel, I want to clear up something.
We have been to Israel before. That is why we are going to places off the beaten path. But if YOU have never been, you need to go to Jerusalem. There is nowhere else on earth like it. Yes, you can say that about any place, but whatever your faith or lack thereof, there is something in Jerusalem that will move you like nowhere else. I have been there 3 times and Phil twice. If there enough time to have gone back there this trip, we would have.
We were docked in Ashdod for our second day in Israel. This port is about 40 years old, and was built by the Israelis to have a backup port to Haifa’s, being in the middle of the coast and further away from the more hostile neighbors to the north. It is also closer to Jerusalem, so it is very busy. Our tour guide talked to us about how both the port and the town of Ashdod havegrown over the last 25 years. When he was growing up, the coastline was just sand dunes. There are still some there today, but they may not last long. More immigrants will move in and there will be more places to live. Our guide told us that unemployment has not changed much in the last 2 years, which I was very glad to hear.
Our first stop was a kibbutz, or collective village, just north of the Gaza Strip called Yad Mordechai. Yad means “memorial” in this case, and it is named for Mordechai Anilevicz (Annie-LEH-vitch), who led the Warsaw Uprising in the Ghetto against the Nazis in WWII. While today it is known for its honey industry and the bees they raise for fertilizing crops and flowers, we went there to see where the people of this kibbutz held off the Egyptian army northern advance for 6 days in 1948. After that, the Egyptians occupied and destroyed the kibbutz, but these 6 days were crucial. It helped the Jews get reinforcements and reorganized during the Israeli War of Independence, after they had been attacked by all their neighbors. Many of the trenches used to defend the kibbutz are still there, along with the few guns that they had, at the positions they had been used from and a tank that they were able to disable after it broke into the kibbutz. We bought the book about this battle, The Six Days of Yad Mordechai by Margaret Larkin, and Phil finished it in 2 days.
We then took a quick stop at a memorial to the Israeli paratroopers who helped defend the country in 1951-1956. Their job was to respond to aggressive raids into Israel from the neighboring countries, and they were successful in reducing those raids and making the Israelis feel safer. From this memorial, we were able to see most of the Gaza strip.
Then we went to the town of Sderot. This is the town that has been most affected by the unrelenting shelling from Gaza, because of their proximity to the border. It is pretty quiet these days, but until recently, it had been the focus of media and political attention. The Jewish National Fund has built a secure indoor playground for the children there and there have been shopping trips to the town from other parts of Israel to show support for its people. These days the town appears to have returned to normal, at least as normal as you can be when the main media arms of the world pretends that nothing is out of the ordinary. However, we saw ugly concrete bunkers in backyards of the nicer homes and slightly larger bunkers on the roads near the less affluent homes. Apartment buildings have their bunkers underground. We also got to see a display of the different types of rockets that rained on the people; the remnants are kept at the main police station and we took some pictures.
We continued on to the museum next to the Air Force college. The main attraction is the static display, where you can see all different kinds of planes, some that were part of the Israeli military and some that were inadvertent gifts from their neighbors. We saw two Russian planes that they acquired when the pilots defected from Iraq and Syria. Another pair of MiGs came from Syria when the pilots mistakenly landed at an Israeli airstrip. We also saw a Lavi prototype. That plane was designed by Israel Aircraft Industries, but the US convinced Israel not to produce it and purchase US made planes instead. I kept thinking about my nephew Joshy, who would have been in airplane heaven. While we were there, we saw quite a few planes overhead, flown by students from the college. Our guide told us which year student was flying each of the planes - as they progress, they get to fly more advanced planes.
From there, it was a short trip to Beersheva/Beersheba. This had been a Bedouin village in the 1920’s but it is now the main city of the Negev, Israel‘s desert. We saw the large hospital there that serves the whole south of Israel, and Ben Gurion University, which is right next to it. The university is named for David Ben Gurion, who loved watching the desert bloom, and this is the center for research about agriculture in the desert. We stopped to eat here, and when the guide pointed out that the restaurant had no meat, I thought for sure that we would be moving on. But then he mentioned that they served felafel, and Phil was sold. Guess I need to serve it more often! We were in the old portion of Beersheva, and saw a wedding party in a park, taking pictures. She was clearly from an Ethiopian family, and he looked like he could have been from Eastern Europe. This is not an issue is Israel, and it certainly wasn’t for them.
Then it was time to head back to ship, and we got to see rush hour traffic in Israel. I was really sorry we had to leave, even though we still have more wonderful places to see on our cruise.
We had one day at sea after Israel, and then we visited Alexandria in Egypt. That was a looooooooong day, where most people went to the pyramids, but we stayed closer to the coast. I owe you a write-up about that day, but it took me longer than normal to write about Israel. We are now on our second day at sea after Egypt, and tomorrow we will be visiting one port a day again, until the end of the cruise in Rome.
I have not talked much about the Rotterdam or anything shipboard, because this is such a port intensive itinerary. I will be happy to answer questions though, so feel free to let me know what I need to find out.
We booked another cruise between Israel and Egypt, and it will have more sea days!! We will be on the ms Veendam from Buenos Aires to Santiago in December 2010, after the regular college football season, but before Xmas and the bowl games. There are still plenty of cabins to choose from if you want to join us. Please give it some thought!
Tonight is the Indonesian Crew show, so there is a list of Indonesian phrases in today's program, and there will be an Indonesian Coffee and Tea ceremony in the afternoon, and an Indonesian late snack after the show. I have been practising Indonesian when I can, and I will try to pass along some to you now. Barry Farber, who wrote "How to Learn Any Language" says that "Indonesian is the easiest major language for a foreigner to learn." I hope he is right! It certainly is a charming language - the words for Thank You, Terima Kasih, directly mean "You have my heart".
Terima kasih (tuh REE muh KA-sih) - Thank you
Sama sama - You're welcome
Selamat malam - Good bye!
Have a great day today and I hope Phil's Hebrew got a good workout.
Char is referring to 2 sentences I deleted from my post about Northern Italy, since I was afraid it didn't make sense there. I will add it here:
"I have another day in Israel to write about, but I need to stop writing now. We need to get off the ship very soon for our day in Egypt. Phil said he is going to practice his Hebrew today. Wish us luck!!!"
Thanks, Lulu! I'm just glad I made DH bring his own laptop this time, so I could do this.
Had a cooking class today with the head chef of the Pinnacle Grill, HAL's specialty restaurant restaurant onboard. We made Peppercorn Steak with Bourbon Sauce, Chicken Piccata, and a Pear dessert (I will have to post the name later.) The class came with an apron (!), a copy of Food and Wine magazine, and a 6 month subscription, and of course the recipes. Then we got to sample the food in the Pinnacle. The only drawback is that I have ruined my appetite for dinner. What a wonderful problem.
We are watching the bridge cam RIGHT NOW as they are evacuating someone for medical reasons. The Greenhouse spa is closed and we just saw 2 people lowered to ship on ropes.
Signing off so I can go topside and get more info. It's night here now, so I don't know if we will get pics. -M
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