Day 2 : TEL AVIV - CESAREA - HAIFA - ACRE
3.30 am and we realise that we are landing...we will finally set foot in Israel and Palestine and that makes our stomachs tingle and we can't help it.
One of the things that makes us tingle are the security checks that have been explained to us several times and that we will have to go through in a few minutes.
Whether you like it or not, no matter how calm we are, it's not something we find very pleasant. And even less so with the things we have been told.
And as it usually happens in these cases, there always has to be "something" that breaks the rule and this time I think it will be us.
We walk through the corridors of Ben Gurion airport with peace of mind, perhaps knowing what awaits us or perhaps because of the time, but the truth is that we are taking it very philosophically.
Once we get to passport control we see the first group of Ethiopians (we had already been told that we would come across more than one) arriving at the same time, but they are in a different queue.
When it's our turn, we both go through at the same time and we just show our passports, they ask us several questions, like the ones they make you fill in on the planes to hand in at the checkpoint, which we haven't filled in.
They ask us why we are travelling to Israel and Palestine, if we know anyone, where we will be staying, the route...
Questions that we were expecting and that do not seem "unfortunate" to us at all.
And so, after several minutes, we both left with our new stamps in our passports.
Now we are really in Israel!!!!!
We are finally in Israel! Ben Gurion Airport. Israel. Trip to Israel and Palestine
We pick up our bags and in less than 15 minutes we have everything done. First of all, we go to one of the exchange agencies that we find and where we see that the exchange rate is 4.88 shekels per euro. It doesn't seem too bad, although it's not as good as it could be, so we change only 100 euros.
And first on the cheek... they give us only 462 shekels for the commission they take. Which although they don't indicate it anywhere...it exists!!!!
Nowadays and after many trips on your back, if you don't want to pay commissions when withdrawing money from ATMs abroad and always have the current exchange rate, we recommend you to use the Revolut card and the N26 card. They are the ones we use, they are free and will save you a lot of money.
You can find more information in this article on the best cards for commission-free travel.
With this in mind, we look at the clock and see that it is not yet 5 am. It's just over an hour before dawn and the idea is to pick up the rental car in Israel around that time so we can get going when it's daylight.
So we go to the only coffee shop in the area and as soon as we get close to the counter our faces are ready for a photo.
12 shekels for coffee and 16 shekels for mini ensaimadas... And we say that Barcelona airport is expensive? This is not far behind! ????
And now that the first blow has been dealt, we sit down with our coffees, giving caffeine to our bodies, waiting for the hour to pass so we can pick up the car and set off for the first day in the Promised Land, heading for Caesarea and Haifa, which will be the first visits of this trip.
We are having coffee and suddenly notifications start to ring on our mobile phones and we can't believe what we are seeing: we have free wifi!!!! This is well worth what we paid for breakfast.
Remember that in addition to the wifi or the card you can buy at the airport or any mobile phone shop, you also have the option of buying a Holafly SIM card while in Spain, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, saving you all the time and making the whole process of getting internet much more comfortable, quicker and easier.
In this case, with the Holafly SIM card you will have several Gb to surf the internet (depending on the option you choose), it will be sent free of charge to your home, you will keep your WhatsApp number and you will have support service in Spanish. You can buy it through this link with a 5% discount for being our reader using the coupon VIAJEROSCALLEJEROS.
More information in the post Holafly, the best prepaid SIM card for travelling.
And so, amused, finishing planning today's route, those minutes pass when we start to see a bit of clarity and we go to the office to rent a car in Israel, which is on the first floor, up some escalators.
There we sign all the papers, they explain perfectly where our car is and with the keys and the GPS (something essential in Israel, at least for us) we are on our way.
Here we can already say that we begin to notice the difference with other countries and other experiences in the search for the rental car, see for example our odyssey in the collection of the car on the trip to the West Coast of the USA, where we went around more times than a hula-hoop...
Here everything is very well signposted and it is quite difficult to get lost or get lost.
As soon as we find our car, we have rented a small car, where after several manoeuvres we manage to put the two suitcases, we take out the GPS and we set our first stop of the trip to Israel and Palestine: Caesarea. And here begins the first debate... we can't find any city with that name! Ayyyy mother of mine... it's getting ugly! ????
In the end we decided to mark the point on the map, where we more or less guessed that the ruins are located and we do the usual thing in these cases: start the car.
Well, no... now the car won't start! Why does this happen to us? Since we passed through passport control so quickly, couldn't this be the same?
We get out of the car and go back to the car rental office.
As soon as we want to enter the airport again, a security officer asks us why we want to go back in. We show him our passports and not very willingly he lets us back into the car hire office.
The girl who has attended to us, when she sees us arrive, looks at us with a smile and when we tell her that the car won't start, that it is broken, she reminds us that she has explained to us before that we have to enter a code before inserting the key and that we have written it down in the car's papers.
This process has to be done every time we want to start the car.
With the nerves of the trip, we had heard about the code, but we had directly "disconnected" and we took for granted that the code was to leave the car park, not to start the car!
And so, with this explanation, we went back to the car park.
At this point it starts to rain and it is almost dawn. We see that the sky doesn't promise much improvement and that lowers our morale a bit.
Or maybe it's because we haven't slept for more than 24 hours?
And so we are on our way to our first destination in Israel. We are going to Caesarea.
We have been driving for a little less than 15 minutes, but already we realise that the roads are very good and the drivers are not at all aggressive as we had been told and read in some travel guides.
Yes, today is Saturday, the Sabbath and the country is at a standstill, but we notice that the driving is not dangerous at all.
The drive to Caesarea takes about an hour, all on the motorway, with no toll roads.
It keeps on drizzling all the way and we are quite attentive to the road and, above all, to the speeds that the GPS is telling us.
As we get closer to the ruins we feel much more tired than when we picked up the car and we take stock of the situation.
The best thing to do is to enter the ruins, visit them and have breakfast inside in one of the bar-restaurants that we know they have.
It has stopped raining, so we park right in front of the entrance and after paying the 38 shekels for the two tickets, we set off on our first visit.
The first thing we see at the entrance to Caesarea. Today we will visit Caesarea and Haifa.
We don't take many more steps, when we see just in front of us a restaurant, the Port Café which is opening and we can't stop our legs going straight there...
We sit down at a table with a fabulous view of the sea, which is quite rough due to the weather.
We order a couple of typical breakfasts and a couple of well priced coffees for 54 shekels.
It is clear and already quite evident that Israel is not exactly a cheap country.
It is true that we are in a touristy place, but still the prices are higher than we expected.
Part of our breakfast on the day we will visit Caesarea and Haifa.
We stay here for almost an hour, trying to recover from the trip and while we chat with one of the waiters who gives us some tips about the country, while we explain some things about Barcelona.
When we feel a bit more recovered, we set off with the idea of visiting the National Park, which preserves Roman ruins, Byzantine ruins and ruins from the Crusades.
Caesarea National Park
As we make our way through the ruins we feel another slump and decide that the best thing to do, when we finish our visit, is to lie down in the car for a while to rest so that we can continue the day feeling a bit fitter.
I need a rest!!!! Caesarea National Park
The truth is that this visit is proving to be more of an ordeal than fun and when it starts to rain, we decide that the visit is better to call it a day.
At any other time we would have enjoyed it like crazy, but at this moment, the body is stronger than us and we need to rest for a while, after almost 30 hours without sleep.
With this image we say goodbye to the Caesarea National Park.
As soon as we leave, we get into the car with a much more intense rain, so we could not have continued the visit, we lay down the seats, we put the alarm clock and we directly fall asleep...
It is 9.15 in the morning when we lie down... and 10.30 when the alarm clock rings and we look at each other with a surprised face.
We are in a car, sleeping... in the car park of the Caesarea National Park, but what has happened? Wasn't today the day we were supposed to visit Caesarea and Haifa?
It takes us a while to get our minds up to date, but the first thing we notice is that this hour and a bit of sleep has been wonderful for us and we feel perfectly ready to continue the day and continue with the visit to Caesarea and Haifa.
And with this feeling we get out of the car for a few minutes to stretch our legs and put a new destination in the GPS again.
This time it's Haifa's turn!
Haifa is the third largest city in Israel and is located on the slopes of Mount Carmel.
The city has been ruled by Persians, Hebrews, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans... and finally by Israelis.
One of the most popular tourist attractions in the city is the famous Bahai Gardens, a World Heritage Site.
It takes about half an hour to get to the top of the city, where the entrance to the Baha'i Gardens is located, from where the guided tours take place.
We plan to take the 11.45am tour, which is in English. As soon as we get to the upper part of the city we go in search of parking and we find it just on the same street as the entrance.
We see quite a few tourists around, so we take it for granted that we are in the right place and we finish checking it when we look out and see them...
View of the Bahai Gardens from the top of Haifa. Visit Caesarea and Haifa
We were left with our mouths open. We had seen pictures and read about the gardens, but until you see it you can't really get an idea of what it is like.
At this moment we remember the Lotus Temple in Delhi and we can't help but notice the differences between the two, even though they are of the same religion.
It is just under 15 minutes before the visit begins and we are on our way to the entrance, when we see that it is closed and there is a sign on the door itself.
We can't believe it. It says that the gardens are closed for security reasons. It has rained and it is dangerous.
We had read about it in the guidebook, but it hadn't even crossed our minds that it could happen to us!
We asked a couple of times and seeing that the person in charge of guarding the gate wouldn't budge, we decided that the best thing to do was to go to the Wadi Nisnas neighbourhood, where the Arab market is and where we have a couple of places where they recommend eating falafel.
We think it's the best thing to do, walk around the market, eat and go back up to the entrance of the Bahai Gardens, to see if we have better luck in a few hours and they have opened them.
Driving around the city is easy enough, until we get to Wadi Nisnas and driving becomes a kind of law of the jungle. Or maybe there is no law at all?
In the end we managed to park in a little spot right next to the Arab market.
We found parking right next to the Arab Market!!! Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
At the beginning it was quite difficult to find our way with the map we were carrying, so we took the GPS with us in case we needed to use it in "walking" mode...
As soon as we entered the Arab market area, the colours, the smells, the atmosphere... everything made us change our mind and take us to another "dimension".
Colours in the Arab Market in Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
It hasn't rained since we arrived in the city, but the streets are still wet and the sky is still quite greyish. But that doesn't keep people indoors, on the contrary, the streets are full of people, who we sense are not tourists.
Where are we? Arab market in Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
Leaving the Arab Market area in Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
Once we have walked through the streets of the market several times, we go in search of a beach bar that we have written down in the guidebook and that has been recommended to us, the Azkenin where we intend to try one of the best falafel according to what is said in the social networks...
Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
Strolling through Wadi Nisnas. Haifa
Almost without noticing we come across a kind of beach bar, where we see a long queue and before we know it we see that it is the Michelle, also recommended in the guidebook and which is just opposite the Azkenin in Haifa.
We get in the queue for the first one and after 5 minutes, about 10 people have already queued up and we, still looking silly, prefer to go to our first choice and cross the street to queue again, this time without anyone getting in, until it's our turn and we get 2 falafel, a coke and a water for 45 shekels.
The best falafel in the world!!!! Azkenin. Haifa
Seeing that they only have one small table and it's occupied, we tell the guy to prepare everything to take it all to go and we'll see where we eat it...
Preparing the best falafel in the world!!!! Azkenin
And with our food ready and seeing that it is time for the next guided visit to the gardens, we decide to go and get the car and go back to the Bahai Gardens, to see if this time we are lucky.
The drive out of the Wadi Nisnas neighbourhood in Haifa is a bit of a movie and we have to take it easy if we don't want to die trying.
We reach the upper part of the city without incident and park in more or less the same place as before.
As we walked past the gate, we thought we saw that the sign was gone, so we put a big smile on our faces, imagining ourselves already visiting the gardens.
But when we got to the gate, we saw the sign, but this time it was so well placed that it made it clear to us that the visits were over for today.
So we have no choice but to go back to the car and enjoy the best falafel in the world!
The best falafel in the world!!!! Azkenin. Haifa
Mmm...yummy!!!!! Azkenin. Haifa
Today we can say that we have made our car a home. This morning we slept in, now we've eaten...all we need is dinner!!!!
And after lunch, with these views we say goodbye to the city:
We will be back Haifa....
The next entry in the GPS, after visiting Caesarea and Haifa, is Acre, one of the oldest cities in the world, located on the Israeli coast.
At first we can't get the GPS to detect the name we are putting in, until we realise that we have to put in Akko for it to detect it.
And so we are on our way again, although this will be the last one today...
It takes just over 45 minutes to arrive and the GPS leaves us directly in the car park at the entrance to the old city.
Looking at the map of the hotel we know that we are only a few metres away, so we don't even bother trying to find the entrance to the walls for the car and we put our bags down, wanting to rest for a while and go out to see the city.
But it starts to rain as soon as we get out of the car and in the end we almost have to race to get to the hotel.
Today we are staying at the Akkotel-Boutique hotel, one of the most normal accommodations, in terms of price, that we have found.
We check in and are given a choice of two rooms. They are very similar, but the first one we see has a bit more light and that's what makes us decide.
The facilities are quite old, but the truth is that it has a special charm. From one of the windows we can see the Jezzar Pasha Mosque and we hope to hear that call to prayer that we have experienced so many times and that we like so much.
The room is quite clean and we are in the centre of the city. What more can we ask for?
Right now nothing more... Only that it would stop raining!
But it seems that the weather has sided with our body, to give us a truce and allow us to lie in bed for a while, where we fall dead at once.
We only wake up when we stop listening to the rain on the windows and when we look at the clock it is almost 7 pm.
So it's time to go downstairs to find somewhere to fill our stomachs.
Before leaving we spend some time with the owner of the hotel who recommends us some places to have dinner.
Now that it's not raining we take the opportunity to walk around the city, which is completely deserted at this time of day.
After looking at several places to have dinner, we finally decide on one very close to the Akkotel-Boutique hotel and order kebab, fries, a coke and a water for 73 shekels.
Our first dinner in Israel: falafel, kebab... Acre
With our stomachs full and already looking forward to a good night's rest after such a full day of sightseeing in Caesarea and Haifa, we return to the hotel, where we spend some time with the owner, who shows us around the rest of the facilities and gives us some dried fruit, which we eat while we connect to the internet for a while at the reception.
Our first day in Israel is almost over and we can already say that we are loving this country. !!!!
