Rosh HaNikra railway line, caves and border crossing

This view shows facing southwards from the most extreme north coastal point of Israel.

This is Rosh Ha Nikra (meaning Head of the Grottos)  a place of natural beauty, containing not only natural caves, but a museum built on the site of a railway line which goes from Israel through Lebanon through to Turkey built by the British in WWII, not running any more of course!

There is a nearby Kibbutz, the white tent you can see in the distance is a banana plantation, apparently British Jewish comedian who created Borat and Bruno characters Sacha Baron Cohen once lived here.

The left field has all the fruit picked.  The right hand one shows the bunches of bananas has blue plastic bags round them to keep out insects and birds, as well plastic sheeting around the whole field.  Means the fruit doesn’t have any chemicals on them instead.

The entrance to the cable cars and visitor centre.

Amusing looking warning signs in the cable car, the journey down was something like two minutes or so I think.

The tunnels, long since blocked off, as its impossible to cross over to Lebanon through the regular borders, carried trains all the way up through the middle east.  These days in holds a cinema screen and some chairs for a presentation showing the history of this railway route.

Ancient grafitti in Hebrew here, not sure of age, not so easy to see unfortunately from this picture, could be good to bring some crayons and paper and make some rubbings if you plan to come here.   On the right, some modern scribbles.

The caves are beautiful.

Traces of copper and iron in the caves, also some tiny fossils of creatures on the rock outside.

There is a very pleasant walk that winds around inside the caves and along the edges of the cliffs.

The border!  Beyond here is a military base, and a demilitarized zone, before you reach Lebanon.

Only 120Kms to Beirut, Lebanon!

www.rosh-hanikra.com

Yad Vashem visit

A month ago, I went with some friends from work to see Yad Vashem museum.

This concrete bridge over car park has a a scripture from Ezekiel 37 : 14 “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.”

The triangular building on the left is where the exhibits are, in the middle is a ticket hall, although entrance is free, but brochures can be bought and radio headsets can be rented for languages other than English and Hebrew and a cafe and toilets are in the basement.

The museum doesn’t allow the public to take pictures, but I did get one of this tall domed roof hosts photos and documents of children.   I touched on recently how members of the public with families who perished have been invited to submitted to Google recently in conjunction with Yad Vashem.

There are many things that I feel shamed reading about, how Christians accused Jews of being ‘Christ killers’ and how the British denied boat loads of Jews desperate for a safe place to call home from docking with (The British Mandate of) Palestine.  This was many things that were shocking in addition to the  precise way the Nazis committed large scale genocide.

You would think that lessons would be learned from a murder on a mass scale like this.

There are number of things today that deeply trouble me.   One is that are worryingly parallels between Nazi fascism and today’s rhetoric from Arab nations, and bits of this are echoed in the western media.  Some of these things was the Nazi’s call to boycott Jews, as some vintage propaganda posters were shown in a cabinet.   Other similarities are the Nazis burning books, and countries today turning off their internet to try and keep the public in ignorance.

Its crazy today that some people try to change history and pretend this awful event never happened.   There is also a secondary type of hatred, and that is from people who consider the previously mentioned people to be a credible authority of information.

It was only a few years after this terrible part of history before the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948.   A nation born in a day.  Isaiah 66 : 8 says “Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.”

This photo I took at the end of the museum, is this amazing view of the north of Jerusalem onto a forest.   This beautiful and dramatic view is a nice and concludes a visitor’s trip by showing the land that the Jewish people waited so long for.

www.yadvashem.org.il

My mention on Google’s holocaust records project.

Next, a head of state spotted…

Akko – out and about

This beautiful arcade is what people imagine some of the most romantic parts of the Near East should looks like.

Sadly its off limits as they are mending the floor!  I would love too see these arches when bustling with people and with brightly coloured drapes hanging up and old Arab men sitting around chatting, drinking strong coffee and playing Sheshbash (Back Gammon)

Canaries are a very popular pet among Arab people and the cages are often outside in a shop or above seating in outside cafe.

Hello sir, can I help you?  My name is Mustafa, I am just filling in today as the canaries are on holiday.  Can I interest you some mint tea?

This little chap was one of the friendliest Cockatiels I have seen in a while, greeting me with song as a I walked past this shop.

This shop is run by Arabs and Jews together raising money to help disabled people.  The mottos on the Tshirts appear to be a bit suggestive but they are promoting using braille.

I like the interesting character of what things people keep in their yard.   Just like Jerusalem you see all kinds of things, this is a shop selling statues.

But this is just someone’s idea of a non conventional outdoor lounge it seems, complete with barber’s chair

The juice stand with a bit of a twist.

I am not sure if this is someone’s idea for a joke or a novel way to get a spare bedroom for guests to stay, but I saw this lifeboat (or is it a submarine?) complete with winch system ontop of a house!

Next, some sad events in Akko….

Akko – getting there

Oops, this was actually meant to be part one of Akko, not to worry…

The trains here in Israel are pretty good actually.  Cheap, comfortable and on time.

Many of the carriages here are double decker, similar to the ones I saw in the Netherlands quite some years ago where I went from Amsterdam to Utrecht.  Something impossible to operate in the UK given countless bridges and tunnels not having enough height.

Two changes are required, one at Haifa and one at a small town I don’t recall the name of.

After maybe a mile and half of walking from the station, I was coming near the beach…

Akko has been through many different owners, Arabs, Crusaders, French, Turkish, Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.

The Templar tunnels, not that long but worth the small 10 Shekel fee to visit.  Headroom gets a bit narrower as you go further…

Fans of the video game “Assassin’s Creed”‘ may like to know that this city was used as the location for the game.

Here Acre has a fun collection of passageways and alleys that are fun to explore.  Check out official site at www.akkanet.net (More Muslim slanted, Arabic only)  translation here

This link from Jerusalem Post has a good run down on Akko:- www.jpost.com/Travel/TravelNews/Article.aspx?id=176791

Akko – arriving at the old city

I took a trip to Akko, as this place is very rich in history, its just a brief train ride from Netanya too.   When leaving the station it looks fairly unremarkable apart from a sign on a hill and some palm trees, to get to the coast required about a mile and half of walking.

There was signs of bad weather in Netanya, here it seems the sea has been pretty fierce indeed.

Only a few miles down the road is Caesarea which part of the ancient Roman city walls are under the sea now, it seems its easy to underestimate the power of the Mediterranean!

Islamic worship places meets a fishing community.


Fishing is a big part of Akko, and the array of fish and shellfish was quite amazing.  I was quite tempted to get some prawns as I have not had any in a long time, they are strictly not kosher, so you won’t find them for sale in a Jewish city.   Take a closer look at what’s on this trader’s table…

Next I will show some interesting discoveries, treasures and sad events I experienced in this city.

Mount Hermon snow trip: Part 5 Badgers Rock!

1/ Go forth north!2/ Snow patrol3/ Sloping off4/ Nimrod’s Fortress5/ Badgers Rock

I have mentioned this little creatures when I went to Ein Gedi, next to the dead Sea.   Lots of them live around the rocks, they are pretty active and move fast.

These are Hyrax (also known as Rock Badgers)

They look like giant Guinea Pigs.   I wondered if people ever ate them, after all they are a bit bigger than a rabbit.  I checked the bible.  Leviticus 11 : 5 The hyrax, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you.”

Ah.  They are not Kosher. Oh well 🙂  The bible mentions them quite a bit actually.

Arabic inscription on some stone up here.

Some amazing views from up here.

Lastly, just before we went home we stopped off at a friendly Arab restaurant on the north part of the Galilee just close to Tiberias.

1/ Go forth north!2/ Snow patrol3/ Sloping off4/ Nimrod’s Fortress5/ Badgers Rock

Soon: visit to Yad Vashem holocaust museum.

Camping on the beach

I went camping with our young adults group at church, on the coast at Rishon LeZion which is south of Tel Aviv.


Sunflower Man! Camping on the beach, my friend here thinks he is a Middle East superhero from this big orange towel.

Nearby there were some outside showers which are there to wash sand and salt off you, these were being used by some divers in frogman outfits to wash off their prize catches.

The only thing is they proceeded to gut the fish also here, not so pleasant for other people at the beach to have to walk in fishy guts, yuck.

Crabs, along with lobsters are not kosher, therefore very few Jewish people even completely non-religious eat any type of shellfish.   I am wondering if there are Arab owned fish restaurants that cater for tourists that want all type of sea food.

I slept on the beach without a tent, this was great as the temperature was just right once in a sleeping bag borrowed from another Bridges for Peace staff member, it was super comfy so I slept really well, and there was time for worship, football and card games before it started to get dark.

The next day after a bit of a lay in and getting some lunch – off to a place called Midras back towards Jerusalem for caving!  This was kind of scary, I have done this before, but this seems extra difficult, these rabbit hole sized gaps are small meaning pushing yourself on your stomach had to be done, as well as alternating between feet first or head first and sometimes going around tight right-angles, with people behind you.  My fear was people stopping in front of you meaning you cannot head any direction.  Every so many metres of distance was a small cave that maybe 6 people could gather in.

Here this cave was interesting, it reminded me of the Sarlacc, the creature embedded in the ground with teeth from Star Wars Return of the Jedi, however after climbing down, its actually a Columbarium Cave which means dovecote in Greek.  Doves were raised for food or for ritual purposes and was popular during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Our friend Stephenson who is originally from the Caribbean was quite nifty at climbing these little alcoves to get on a platform at the top.

This pyramid shamed structure made of dressed stone is the only one of its kind in Israel, the top three rows are missing.  Its likely it was erected as a shrine to those buried in the caves nearby.   This is known in Hebrew as a Nefesh. (soul)

This tomb has a sliding stone to close it shut, just like the tomb of Jesus and other ancient tombs built for wealthy people I have seen in Jerusalem.
It was in use at the end of the first century until the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE)   Sadly it was vandalised 15 years ago.

There is a lot of tombs and holes around the place, some not so obvious as hidden by bushes.

This was a really good weekend with some exploring and fellowship with folks I know well and new people too.

In Sepia: Holyland pictures collection part 3

Part 1234 5 6 7

Cafe with hand operated orange squeezer with plenty of stocks of citrus fruits.

Tourist shops in the old city.

Street path in Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerualem.

Greek graffiti in the Church of the holy Sepulchre

Part 1234 5 6 7

Yom Kippur in and around Jerusalem

This week I had my Christian friend John come to visit, John is an older gent also from Portsmouth UK, but originally from Malta.  He has Jewish roots, and his family came from Armenia.

He is here to see the Feast of Tabernacles which is coming up soon which is hosted by the ICEJ, International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem.

So I got to show him a lot of sites around here, a few days ago it was Yom Kippur, a holiday, in which Jews fast for a day.

We went around the UN headquarters at the end of my street and around the forest overlooking the city, then made our way into town.

There are no cars around the centre of town.   None at all.   I might see a police car once an hour or so.  This is normally a busy street.

This was unusual.   There were a lot of Arab families in the park picking some of the wild olives.   This man and his son was smarter than the others, as a large tarrapaulin was laid out to catch the dropped ones.  Funny as in the year I have been here, I have never seen anyone pick fruit from trees in public places here.


The world famous King David hotel.   Top right. This nice wooden counter just had one Arab chap manning the desk, as everyone is observing Yom Kippur.  As well as the beautiful decor here, there is a Sukkot (tent/shed type structure.  Bottom right. Some of the staff from the kitchen are taking a break chatting on the tables as no-one will be eating until about 6.30pm.

John got chatting to a elderly Canadian couple there, who have lived in Jerusalem for 30 years now.  This chap was talking about a nearby building called ‘Yimcer’   then I realised he meant the YMCA, which is opposite the King David 🙂    He told me off as I was drinking some water from a bottle, I didn’t realise the fast included water from then!   oops.   For me as a foreigner I think its unwise to fast from water, as the extreme heat can make you feel very unwell if you do.   But I did use this day to do some praying and abstain from food from darkness Wednesday till Thursday.  I had a whole chicken in a slow cooker for when we came back home to my flat.   I am a recent convert to slow cookers, just the thing when you want to come home and have dinner more or less ready. 🙂

Leviticus 23 : 27 says more about this event.

The outside of the YMCA.   Although the ‘Y’ is a Christian organisation and originally a Youth Hostel.  Its now a proper hotel and owned by Muslim, but still known as the Jerusalem YMCA.  Sadly I didn’t see anyone do any comedy dancing either.  Not that it would be a appropriate with most people fasting that day. 🙂

Walking along the walls with Dutch Christian couple who mentioned on earlier post ‘never be silent’.

The really interesting thing about John’s Armenian Jewish and Maltese background is the Maltese language is a mixture of mostly Arabic and some Hebrew and Italian, so this meant he could converse with the Arab taxi driver who took us home later. 🙂

The Jews have a generous amount of feasts and holidays in their calenders, next one is Sukkot, a kind of religious campsite outside your house, more soon….

In Sepia: Holyland pictures collection part 2

Part 1234 5 6 7

more pictures as promised…

These are a little smaller as done with my old camera and some contain multiple shots stitched together.

These houses seen from the walls of the old city with mauve colours and curved walls show you can mix and match different styles, ie: the familiar white stones used on all Jerusalem buildings and a bit of art deco. 🙂

Cafe in Hillel Street, with Italian museum overlooking.

Mosque in old city only a few metres away from the dome of the rock entrance.

Apartments and mosaic on wall.

Part 1234 5 6 7