RTW 2011: Day 27

This morning we met with an older man from the Kibbutz and he took us on a brief tour of the living areas. I had given myself a brief tour of their gardens last night, which were gorgeous. Our tour took us to their synagogue, houses, day care center, laundry facilities, and their furniture factory. The idea behind a Kibbutz is for it be self-sustaining, as in everyone is able to work on the Kibbutz and do their job which benefits everyone else. They began in agriculture, and they still do some plant and animal farming, but they also have a furniture factory which builds synagogue pews, and also their hotel.

After our tour we visited the old city of Acre (or Akko). Acre is home to the most sacred site in the Baha’i faith. We didn’t go to it, but we did stop by the Shrine of Bab in Haifa, the second most sacred site. It was very beautiful. We didn’t go inside, I think you’re only allowed in by special permission or something, but we did get some great photos.

We also visited Tel Megiddo, the site where the battle at the end of the world is going to take place. We didn’t stay very long though, just a brief walk up to the overlook and then we left again. I would like to spend a bit more time there in the future and see more of it. It’s all ruins, but there are apparently some very interesting tunnels.

Next stop was Caesarea, where we watched a couple of movies about what the city looked like at different time periods, and how it was built. This city is pretty cool because it has the old ruins, as well as a modern day city. There was a chariot racing stadium, and a beautiful amphitheater overlooking the ocean. Also, there are enormous aqueducts to bring water from the mountains to the city, since there was no water in the Roman time period to drink in Caesarea. All in all, a great place to spend longer in than we did.

That ended our tour, and we went to our last Israeli hotel in Tel Aviv, The Grand Beach Hotel. The next day Josh and I spent in Tel Aviv. We walked through the city a little bit, and there were wedding dress shops everywhere. I have never seen so many in one place before. We ate at a nice place on the beach and watched the sun set over the ocean. Tel Aviv didn’t feel anything like the rest of Israel though, very modern and like every other city.