Today was a transit day as we went from Tel Aviv to Haifa. We took the train for the 1 hour trip north. Israeli trains are very nice -- air conditioned, quiet and fast and with wifi on board. Cool.
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| Bahai Gardens in Haifa, Israel |
We arrived at the Haifa Central Station and walked the two minutes to the Port Inn on Jaffa Road. Our lodgings are very nice and it was good to get settled into our room. We went for a walk, exploring Haifa for a couple of hours. Our wandering took us to the German Section on Ben Gurion Street. It's a beautiful area just to the south of our lodgings full of shops, cafe's and hotels. One can see the Bahai Gardens up the road.
The Bahai Gardens, located on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, are one of the most visited places in Israel. The design of the gardens started in 1987 and were opened to the public in 2001. We expect to take a tour of the gardens in the day day or two. From our viewpoint, the gardens are more than beautiful. They're up the side of a hill and at the top is a beautiful domed "temple".
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| "Jam" -- a music venue in Haifa. |
We've had been thinking about renting a car for a day or two, so we checked the Internet for car agencies. It turns out that one must take the train "one more stop" north to a town (or suburb of Haifa) called Lev Hamefrats. We caught the train easily and made the one-stop trip is about 10 minutes. The station is in an extensive shopping mall called the "Cinemall" -- so we took our time looking around. We found 3 car rental agencies -- none of which had a car for us. So, we've decided to use public transportation to go to our preferred designations -- Safed and Caesarea. Safed is a mountain-top artist colony and Casarea is a town built by Herod the Great in 25-13 B.C.E., so part of the adventure will be getting there.
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| "Jam" Band. |
On our exploration of Haifa earlier in the day, we discovered a "club" not far from our lodgings called "Jam". It's a music venue with different artists performing in the evening. After returning from Lev Hamefrats, we walked over to Jam and enjoyed a hour of music by a local rock band. The music was good -- and the Guinness was even better!!
