Haifa, Day One

I am sitting on the balcony of my room overlooking the Port of Haifa--a gorgeous bay at one end of the Mediterranean. From this vantage point I can see the mountains whose other side I can't see is Lebanon. I can hear the call to prayer. The day has been beautiful, warm, and sunny though the breeze picking up and the sun setting has made it a little chilly in the air.

Today we began our journey with a stop at the Bahai Temple. Both the Bab and the prophet who followed him are revered in this city. The gardens of the temple are exquisite and we spent about an hour walking through the gardens and visiting the shrine.

From there we went on to the Druze village near the top of Carmel where we heard from Druze man who was also an English teacher some of the history of Druze culture and religion. We also had what was likely the best meal (among many good ones) of this trip--at the home of a family. The women prepared all of the food from locally grown produce and locally developed menus. We sat around tables on their patio and watched the pita/flat bread dough shaped and put on the wood fired grill.

The hospitality of the family, and the woman who actually runs a catering business and is known to our Palestinian tour guide, Husam, was extraordinary.