22Sep11 We made port today in Haifa, Israel. One of the reasons we choose to cruise is that the ship does the visa/immigration paperwork for us. This not only prevents us from having to get visas prior to the trip, but also saves the immigration and custom queues when entering and exiting the 
country. Israel is one of the few countries in the world that require a face-to-face immigration process prior to disembarking. This set the tone for the day and we encountered heavy security everywhere we went. We couldn’t walk out of the port but had to take a secure shuttle. Once off the shuttle, we had to walk up a flight of stairs and clear security again to pass the 15’ security wall. We were inspected and 
scanned when entering an outdoor garden. During our 4 hour walk thru the city, we saw lots of heavy bars on windows and barbed wire. This, in combination with deteriorated buildings (broken windows, crumbling exteriors), made us feel like we were in a war zone.
The port is not a major tourist stop but more of a gateway to Jerusalem. For the religious, Haifa has Mt. Caramel, Elijah’s cave, the sea of Galilee. The Bahai’s shrine is the most striking sight in the city – a golden dome and green swath of gardens on Mt. Caramel cutting top to bottom thru the landscape of condominiums. The rocket-shaped office building just near port caught our eye as well.
As we pulled into the port we noted an incredible number of what appeared to be satellite dishes on the numerous apartments in town. They turned out to be a mix of satellites and what appear to be hot water heaters.
0 Responses to “Haifa”