Haifa, Jerusalem & Bethlehem - a trip too far

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29^thApril Haifa, Israel



Haifa is surrounded by Mount Carmel and the city is sometimes described as where ‘Carmel touches the sea’, it is Israel’s third largest city and he entry port to the Holy Land. As we had lost our visit to Egypt because of the troubles there we had an overnight in Israel as the alternative.



There is plenty to see and do in Haifa, which is divided into three main parts, banking & commercial, Hador Carmel a residential area and Mount Carmel the main residential area. We hoped to explore Haifa on our own the second day if we had the time and energy.



Our main focus on the first day was a visit to Jerusalem & Bethlehem. You obviously cannot do all the regions with only a two day stopover, other areas the tours covered were Galilee, Masada & the Dead Sea, Nazareth and the River Jordan. A couple we have met took a private tour to the River Jordan to get baptised!!



I will try and be as constructive as possible with our tour because whilst we visited all the places it should have done, time constraints and organisation meant it was far from satisfactory.



The tour did not get off to a good start when the driver missed the turning for a rest stop where refreshments had been laid on with the coach having to visit a petrol station with only a port’a’ cabin as the loo and NO refreshments.



We arrived in Jerusalem mid morning and visited Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives for a panoramic view of the city. From this viewpoint you can see, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Dome of the Rock and overlook the Valley of Kedron.



Our next stop was to the Garden of Gethsemane, and we were not prepared for the number of people stopping at each of these sites. For me there were just too many tourists. Within the garden is the Church of All Nations, built in 1924 with contributions from 12 nations (there are 12 cupolas representing the nations) this is where Jesus spent his last hours before being arrested by Roman soldiers.



From here we went to the Old City, entering through the Dung Gate (you can guess why). However before entering into the main square we had to wait while the Bomb Squad detonated a suspect package with a controlled explosion – apparently an everyday occurrence!! After entering we were given 10 minutes you could visit the Wailing or Western wall (part of Temple Mount). At this point we lost a member of the party which delayed our tour of the Old City.



Jerusalem is about 8/10 feet higher than 2000 years ago, and you can walk the way that Jesus walked along the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering and see some of the Stations of the Cross. The Old City streets wind uphill towards Calvary finally arriving at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.



Again two or three times we lost members of the tour party (at one stage we had lost five), so we were delayed even further before reaching the endpoint of this part of the tour. It does detract from the enjoyment of the day.



The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is believed to enshrine the sites of the crucifixion, entombment and resurrection – it was so crowded here!!!



We left the city via the Jaffa Gate to board our coach to go to lunch, only one problem – no coach. The driver again had messed up and we had to walk about 15 minutes (down a dual carriageway) to locate him. In a word – Nightmare!!



Our final visit after lunch was to be Bethlehem, 5 miles from Jerusalem. It took 70 minutes to get there, 30 of those minutes were spent parked in an underground car park waiting for the local guide. Bethlehem is in the Palestine Authority so a local guide must be used. The visit here was to the Church of the Nativity and it was apparent as soon as we got off the coach it was not to go to plan. The queues were so long it would take about 2 hours to get through the Church so the guide gave us about 20 minutes to look around after a brief explanation. It is believed that in the crypt is the Silver Star marking the spot where Jesus was born. The blurb says that around the town are the ‘Shepherds’ Fields’ where they watched their flocks by night and by the way we passed a souvenir shop called ‘The Holy Manger Store’.



And there lies a problem with the whole day’s visit, for us the whole area is so commercialised its losing its credibility.



Our last stop before leaving Bethlehem was guess what – a souvenir shop, must of the tour party had enough by then (we still had about one & a half hours travelling to do) and were ready just to set off back to the ship.



What was to follow was like a sketch from any comedy you could name, the driver got lost – heading South instead of North, flagging down another bus for directions, doing a U-Turn in the middle of the highway, on his mobile phone getting directions before finally finding the correct road after taking us over hill and dale.



We got back to the ship over two hours late.



Haifa the following day had lost its appeal and whilst it would have been nice to visit some the attractions especially the Baha’i Shrine & Gardens on the slopes of Mount Carmel we viewed them from the stern of the ship. We later found out he Gardens were closed for the day so that saved us a long walk!!



Not the best experience we have had!!



Next stop Naples, Italy

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