Saturday--January 15-Bahai Gardens and Goodbye
Another lazy morning, after all it is shabbat. I finally got the girls up around 10:30 because we wanted to go to the Bahai Gardens and the only English tour is at 12:00 p.m.
We managed to get out of the apartment a bit after 11:00 and I decided it was a better idea to get a taxi because we weren’t exactly sure how far it was and if we had enough time to walk there. The taxi ride was only 5 minutes and were go to the garden in plenty of time.
The tour of the Bahai Gardens starts at the top with a magnifient view of the Haifa bay and you walk down a million steps. It is only possible to walk half way down on the tour.
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| halfway point-dome under construction |
This tour is not for the frail. As a matter of fact, one man we saw while waiting in line had us very nervous as he didn’t seem to be able to walk so well and half way through the tour he fell.
These gardens, located in the heart of Haifa, comprise a staircase of nineteen terraces extending all the way up the northern slope of Mount Carmel. The golden-domed Shrine of the Báb, the resting place of the Prophet-Herald of the Bahá’í Faith, stands on the central terrace, looking across the bay towards ‘Akko.
While different parts of the gardens offer a variety of experiences, they speak in a common language of graveled paths, hedges and flower beds groomed and nurtured by dedicated gardeners. The gardens frame panoramic views of the city, the Galilee Hills and the Mediterranean Sea.
Unfortunately the dome is under construction and won’t be finished until 2015.
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| the library |
The tour was only 45 minutes and we decided we wanted to go to Wadi Nisnas a “co-existance” neighborhood with restaurants that are open on shabbat.
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| Wadi Nisnas |
It’s pretty amazing to live in a place where things actually close and shut down for a day. I’m not sure there is any other place in the world like it. I’m sure if you live here you make plans but as a tourist you need to know what is open. We walked about 15 minutes down hill to Wadi Nisnas and found lots of things open.
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| Wadi Nisnas |
There were restaurants, vegetable and fruit stands all around us. We picked a restaurant where we thought the hummos and salad looked good and sat down. This was a better pick than the one the other day. We had hummos, baba ganoosh and tabouli.
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| Don't you just love her!--one of my favorite photos so far |
I like sitting and watching the people go about their business.
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| back streets of Wadi Nisnas |
There really wasn’t much else to do. We walked over to the Haifa port thinking maybe we could see something there but no. There were a few cruise ships in port but there wasn’t anything to see. It’s a very industrial area and extremely quiet on Saturday. We walked back over to the German Colony and were able to get a bus back to the apartment.
In Haifa, the buses stop around 4:00 p.m. on Friday and unlike other places in Israel, resume in the early morning on Saturday. Taxi’s are always available but there is a surcharge for shabbat.
The girls had to pack as they needed to get back to their program. The week starts on Sunday here so they had to get a bus back to where they lived. The earliest bus Emily could take was 8:30 p.m. back to Karmi’el and Rachel could get one at 8:15 to Jerusalem so I thought we could have dinner and then send them on their away.
Just when we were ready to leave the apartment with all their bags the skies opened up and poured down rain. I went downstairs to ask the owner if he could call a taxi to take us up to Hanassi Street. No problem. By the time we got outside it had stopped raining but we’d already ordered the taxi.
We had a great dinner at Giraffe which has Asian (thai) food. I had a wonderful lentil soup, Rachel had a sweet corn soup and Emily had Pad Thai noodles. As a last meal I thought it would be nice to have dessert. We had something delicious but I can’t tell you what it was except it had lots of chocolate and a vanilla sauce.
I had to say goodbye to my little girl although there was a chance I would see her tomorrow since we had the tickets for the basketball game. We didn’t know so we were saying goodbye now. We won't see each other for 5 1/2 months. We’d had a nice visit but now it was time to move on for both of us.
The rain had stopped, I took a last photo of the girls with their gear,
and put them in a taxi that took them to the Lev Ha Mifratz (central bus station) and I walked back to the apartment.
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