Israel | Travel Magazine

Crusaders’ Fortress, (Knight Hall), Old City of Acre, Israel

July 8, 2018 By Travel Guide Tagged With: (Knight Hall), Crusaders’ Fortress, Israel, Old City of Acre

A magnificent complex of halls, built by the Hospitallers Knights, was a part of the medieval Hospitallers’ citadel, which includes six semi-joined halls, one recently excavated large hall, a dungeon, a dining room and remains of an ancient Gothic church.

Local Arabs consider this place haunted. There is a legend about young monk Sebastian who joined the Crusade to serve God by converting Muslims to the true belief, only to find out that the entire quest was about killing thousands of innocents, torture and pilfering. Unable to reckon with his conscience and tormented by screams of victims tortured to reveal hidden treasures Sebastian cursed his order and plunged the dagger into his heart but God did let him die and for many years Sebastian had to wander the Holy Land witnessing massacres committed by his brethren till he found some peace as a hermit in one of numerous caves of today’s Rosh HaNikra. For the attempt of suicide God rejected his soul to his day Sebastian’s ghost wanders the empty halls of Crusaders’ Fortress, reviving again and again horrors of massacres he witnessed, and Sebastian’s wails can sill be heard on the full moon nights in sinister shadows of the medieval fortress.

Hecht Museum, University of Haifa, Israel

April 28, 2018 By Travel Guide Tagged With: Hecht Museum, Israel, University of Haifa

Museum Technology Market on the Rise

I love Haifa but there is nothing to do there longer than one day

February 8, 2018 By Travel Guide Tagged With: Bahai Gardens, Haifa, Haifa in One Day, haifa travel guide, Israel

There is nothing to do in Haifa longer than one day. For all their immaculate gardening the famous Bahai Gardens are outright boring. So much for major Haifa attraction.

Next goes Stella Maris with its Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and a hole in the ground called the Cave of Elijah where supposedly resided the biblical prophet Elijah.

Next on the list of attraction goes the Haifa Museum of Art with its collection of “abstract art”, an euphemism often used as an excuse for lack of skills or talent. Skip it.

Surprisingly the best museum in Haifa is tiny Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art on Merkaz HaCarmel (Carmel Center). Its collection of about 7,000 items of Japanese art including woodblock prints, netsuke and samurai swords is magnificent.

If you are into Judaics, visit the Mané-Katz Museum, also located on Merkaz HaCarmel at Yafe Nof street.

Yafe Nof translates from Hebrew as Panorama street offering the great vista of Haifa Bay. Take a stroll along the Louis Promenade to the upper terrace of Bahai Gardens.

The Ram of Atlit, the only known surviving ancient naval ram dated between 530 BC and 270 BC, is on display in the National Maritime Museum.

Still I love Haifa.

Photo from IMTM 2018

Beit Shearim National Park, Israel

January 13, 2018 By Travel Guide Tagged With: Beit Shearim National Park, Israel

In July 2015, UNESCO inscribed the caves of Bet She’arim as a World Heritage Site. Flanked by green Mount Carmel on one side and the mountains of Lower Galilee on the other is a soft landscape of rounded, whitish hills. Here and there, Mount Tabor oaks grace the slopes, remnants of a once-great forest. On one of these hills, Sheikh Abreik Hill, was the ancient city of Bet She’arim. But most interesting here is not the hill – it’s what’s inside it: magnificent catacombs hewn by the ancient inhabitants with skill and talent that inspires us to this day.

The Bet She’arim hills, with Mount Carmel in the background The number of burial caves here is vast: many have probably not yet even been discovered. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority has prepared some of these impressive caves for visitors, installing electricity, planting and caring for trees and lawns and building an information center at the beginning of the visitor trail. Picnic tables have been installed around the parking lot. Landscaping in the national park combines planted species of trees with wild ones. At the height of winter the beautiful pink blossoms of the Judas trees appear along with abundant and colorful wildflowers. They all make the visit a unique experience.

Hotel Dan Panorama, Jerusalem

December 17, 2017 By Travel Guide Tagged With: Hotel Dan Panorama, Israel, jerusalem

Hotel parking was full when we arrived yet the helpful parking assistant found a place for our car. The hotel is within walking distance to the Old City of Jerusalem and Mamilla shopping area. The room is pretty large and clean with heavy old-fashioned design. The dinner included into the room package was entirely tasteless and unremarkable. Surprisingly the breakfast was excellent.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

December 15, 2017 By Travel Guide Tagged With: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Holy Land, Israel, jerusalem

“The immovable ladder (also known as a status quo ladder) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has remained in the same location since the year 1757. The ladder has become the very symbol of “immovable” due to an understanding that no cleric of the six ecumenical Christian orders may move, rearrange, or alter any property without the consent of the other five orders. There are many immovable ladders and sacred cows in our world and President Trump has just moved one of them, Jerusalem status.”, Source: Opinion

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem