Saturday morning, we suffered through a strange and inedible breakfast at the Theodor hotel in a very run-down area of Haifa called Hadar. The shabbat elevator stops at every floor on the way down. The Theodor was not a great choice for a hotel, and we managed to switch over to the Crown Plaza up on the Carmel. And go to the Tachana, bus station to wait for an Arab Sherut to take us to the old Crusader city of Akko. It takes an hour for the slow-moving driver to get us there, and we realize that I left the guidebook on the counter at the hotel. So we sit in the tremendous heavy heat near the visitor center with no one in it who can speak English, and try to figure out what to do. Richard turned on the precious cellular data to roam, and reads to me from a website about Akko's history. After about 30 minutes, I hear English coming from a young American guy. He says he's with a group of anthropology and archeology students from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio; their guide is Dan, an American who made aliyah in 1970. I ask if he minds whether we camp on to his tour, he said no problem. Problem solved! We get a tour in English, despite no guidebook. The guide also let us to an amazing Arab hummus place in the old city of Akko.
We also managed to connect with Doron and Liron Bilsky and their kids, Mor and . Doron had just spent the day flying back from a business trip in India; but they wanted to get together, so they drove back down to Haifa from Nahariya. We treated them to dinner at Barbarossa not far from our the Crown Plaza Hotel where we were staying.
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| Doron and Liron Bilsky, with kids Mor and Uri, and Richard and me |
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| Port of Akko |
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| Crusader vaults |
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| Recently discovered Crusader staircase |
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| Tomb engraving |
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| Arab souk in Akko |
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