Another tour today and again to the north but this time to the Lebanon border. A late start at 8.30, lucky cos I was a bit seedy this morning. Karen and I drank a bottle of port last night. First stop was Mt Precipice. It had great views of Nazareth and the Yizrael valley.
Second stop was an olive press. Well this old lady gave us a talk about Eco friendly building that they have and eco this and that. Eco was nearly every second word. The bit about the actual olive pressing was interesting but there was a bit too much eco and her eco family who all seem to be sponging off some government somewhere. As we were leaving I noticed a sign saying the Eco building was funded by USAID. As usual the greenies are bludging off some government and getting subsidized to bludge off the system.
Haifa is all about the Bahi religion. I don't know much about them if you wanna know google it. Their HQ here is amazing. These massive manicured gardens. As you drive up the german street there is this amazing view of the gardens going all the way up the hill to the temple. You will not get to see it cos Fangio driving didn't stop. We got to go to the temple but that was a waste cos we only got as far as the first room then there was a net to stop you going further. I whispered to the lady "is that it" and she shooshed me, even though there was movers and wiper snippers going like crazy out side. I thought I could go down the steps to the bottom and get a photo but that possible either cos it was all roped off. We then went to the top and I got some photos from there but they are not as good as the ones from the bottom.
Acre, or Akko, is an old port and looked really interesting. I got stuck with Barry again. He is old and slow. We had to have lunch and he couldn't decide what he wanted. I thought "its not that hard? Shwarma, for 10 sh, and keep going. In the end we had it sitting down for 50sh. Then I want to go and explore and he is shuffeling along behind me and sounds like he is going to have a hart attack. Then He started again "I don't like these third world countries" We are NOT in a third world country. FFS why do these loosers who have no idea how to travel always latch onto me. We found a great mosque that they were doing up, it is going to look spectacular in a few months, full of mosaics and marble. We were in the citadel and I spotted the driver and we sat with him. Barry started on him about "Can you suggest anything to do in Haifa for a couple of days cos I will be here next week?" While they were talking I took off and went to explore for the last 1/2 hoiur that was left.
Then we went to the Lebanon border. You cant cross cos the border is permanently closed but there is a grotto there everyone wanted to see. It is just a series of caves in the limestone cliffs and nothing special.
The driver is like a riding school horse. Ya gotta kick him in the guts to get him going but as soon as you head for home there is no stopping him. I think we made it back in record time. It was a pretty good day and despite what I wrote here I did enjoy it.
On the way back we stopped at Yadenit, on the Jordan river. It is the exact site where Jesus was baptized, right near to the highway and next to the gift shop. It is free to get in but ,if you want to get baptized, you pay a fee and hire a white robe to wear. Well for some reason the women seemed to think they had to be naked underneath these robes, You can guess what happened when they got wet, they were completely see through. It was like a giant wet t shirt competition.
Tomorrow I am going back to Jerusalem and Jaffa gate G/H for a few days and I am trying to organize some 4 wheel driving near the dead sea.