An early breakfast (6:30 am) and we were loaded onto our bus for a day of historical reckonings. First stop was Caesarea where the Romans appointed Herod King of Judea and allowed him to run the show from 37 to 4 BCE. During that time he built Caesarea into a thriving port city for his Roman rulers – constructing a theatre, a hippodrome and an incredible palace.
Next stop was a Druze village in the hills north of Caesarea. The Druze religion is an off-shoot of Islam that is quite secretive. According to a young fellow who gave us a short lecture on it, they believe in reincarnation and a very strict adherence to a set of rules seemingly designed to keep the bloodline pure. They fed us a lovely meal in a house atop a long and winding road. The view of the valley below was lovely.
Northward again to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Akko (aka Acre). Akko is an ancient walled city that was occupied over the centuries by many different people – Greeks, Roman, Byzantine, Crusaders, the Mamluk and the Ottoman Empire, to name a few. An entire Crusader city was discovered underground beneath a prison courtyard by the Israelis.
Now we are ensconced in Nof Ginosar – a resort-like set of low-rise buildings with lovely gardens and nicely appointed rooms beside the Sea of Galilee. According to the brochure it is the first authentic Israeli Kibbutz hotel.