Emily had said she wanted to make dinner for this evening.
I got up early and went to the grocery store close to the apartment and bought a few burekas for breakfast and a challah for dinner. I asked what time the store closed today, since it was shabbat and the girl said, “3:00 p.m.”
I got Emily and Rachel up around 9ish and said they should go to the grocery store now, since I found out it was going to close at 3:00 p.m. and we were going to Caesarea and I didn’t know if we would make it back on time. They didn’t want to do that because they thought the Super Sol grocery store would stay open until 4:00 p.m. O.k.
Getting to the archeological site in Caesarea (the old city) was an adventure. I’d gotten help from Leemore the day I was at her house on how to take the train there. We needed to take a train from Ha Hof Carmel to Binyamina then a local train to Caesarea. We took the 10:39 train to Binyamina which only took about 20 minutes. When we arrived in Binyamina we asked where to get the train for Caesarea and were told to get to the other side of the tracks. There was a train there, we asked if it was going to Caesarea, someone said yes and we hopped on. We accomplished this part, but when we arrived at the train station in Caesarea we discovered the old city was 10K away so we needed to take a taxi.
I guess the next thing I need to do is write some tourist directions for those who don’t have a car whilst traveling in Israel. It’s not impossible, but a bit tricky and for sure time consuming.
We got to the old city a bit after 11:00 paid 36 shekels for me and 22 shekels each for Emily and Rachel (student fee) got our map and started walking. It’s much bigger than I’d remembered.
I was here in 1998 and only really remember the amphitheater.
There was lots of see. This site has also been well preserved. I do understand though that the last storm destroyed or harmed some of the ruins.
I just love the mosaics and in addition to the mosaics there are marble floors as well.
Here’s a short description about Caesarea I found on the internet.
| Caesarea was built as part of Herod the Great's ambitious plan to "Hellenise" the Holy Land in the 1st century BCE. He chose the site of a small Phoenician port called Stratton's Tower and laid out a classical Greek city, complete with amphitheatre and stadium. Herod also constructed an artificial harbor by making use of concrete piling under water - the first ever such use of concrete. During Roman rule Caesarea was the capital of Palestine. It was here where Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was converted by Peter; Paul was imprisoned before being taken to Rome; and where the leaders of the Bar Kochba revolt were tried and executed, including Akiva. Caesarea is well-known as an archaeological site preserving the original theater built by Herod, replica of the Pontius Pilot inscription, Byzantine Archive Buildings, Cardo Maximus as well as bath-houses, ware houses, an amphitheatre and the harbor. |
After walking through the ruins and having a glorious view because the weather was so fabulous we decided to go eat something.
There are many restaurants in the harbor area as well as many shops and the Gallery museum that my friend Riva recommended. I spotted a Draydel shop and wanted to go in since I collect Draydels.
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| Draydel maker |
The artist was there and he let me take his photo. His shop isn’t very big but he has a small ceramics wheel in the store and often works right there. He wasn’t working today, maybe because it was Friday.
Anyway, I bought two of his draydels one for me and one for Emily. Then we went to eat sushi. We ate some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. Who would have thought that in Israel.
After sushi I wanted to go back to the Draydel store to take a photo from the outside and Rachel wanted to buy a draydel for herself.
It was good we went back because I asked the woman in the hsop where we could get a caab. She explained that the old city was far from things and taxi’s don’t sit waiting and there is no bus. She was kind enough to call us a taxi and also told us that in Israel you can call *2400 and wherever you are in Israel they will find you the closest taxi to you. How’s that for service. This was the first place she called but they wanted too much money so she called someone else. It all worked out well.
We got to the train station and didn’t need to wait too long for either train and arrived back at Hof Ha Carmel @ 3:00 p.m. Still under the belief that the Super Sol grocery store would be open until 4:00 p.m, we got in a taxi and asked to go to Merkaz (central) Carmel.
Oops, closed. Their sign said they closed at 1:00 p.m. Go to plan B out for dinner. Since Super Sol was closed we walked back down the hill of Derech Hayam to the apartment.
I had made an appointment for a massage and reflexology for 4:30. The girls hung out while I had a very relaxing time with Leemore.
We didn’t really know what we wanted to eat for dinner but knew that the restaurants on Hanassi Street would be open. We walked up there and found a pizza place. We talked about just having crepes, but the crepes were only sweet and I wanted something savory first. The pizza place was really good.
There are so many little restaurants with good food and decent prices. We need more of this in Santa Barbara.
Before we went to dinner we’d spoken to Sophie, a friend from our Dallas days, who is in Israel on a different program than Emily. Sophie and her friend Emma met us at the pizza place. It turned out they were staying at a hotel on Hanassi Street not far from where the restaurant was.
We visited and the girls exchanged stories about their different programs. Everyone was in the mood for crepes. So we walked across the street and had sweet crepes with nutella.
Yummy. We said goodbye to Sophie and her friend and walked down the hill to our cozy apartment.
Nighty night.
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