caesaria, tunnels, and rosh hanikra

After a comfortable 5-hour flight from London we landed in Tel Aviv, Israel. Justin and Livvy were wide eyed at the numerous traditionally garbed Orthodox Jews in the airport and asked me if everyone in Israel was Jewish. In fact, of the over 7 million inhabitants, roughly 1.5 million are Muslim or Christian and the balance are all Jewish, “cool” was the simple response. We were met at the airport by a smiling David who’d flown in the night before from home and our guide’s wife Anat. We headed to the Hilton Hotel where my mother, a.k.a. Grandmaman, met us at the entrance. Lots of hugs and kisses later we were whisked up to the 17th floor Executive Lounge where we checked in and of course stopped for a little nosh. The view from the lounge is extraordinary; floor to ceiling windows on three sides overlook the Mediterranean as well as the North and South coasts of the sandy beaches along the shore. We unpacked, showered and headed out for some hummus.

The next morning we were met at 8:15am by Anat’s husband Avi who is our guide for the next 2 weeks. Avi is 53 years old, wears a small green peridot stud earring in his left ear, and served 25 years in the army as an officer before retiring to begin his tourism business. As an officer he was a Lieutenant Colonel and from what I can tell knows everyone in the country of any import as well as most of the foreign media including Bob Simon, David Gregory and Wolf Blitzer, as Avi was the spokesperson for the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) during the last 10 years of his military career. When I remarked on how different running a tour company must be to serving as an officer in the Israel military, Avi was quick to disagree and point out that once you command 200 or 600 people and have made them run 8 miles at 2am, you are very well suited to lead tourists and have excellent management experience. I guess it is all about perspective and just to be safe I joked that I wasn’t planning on carrying my duffle bag and giggled nervously until Avi laughed as well and told me not to worry there would be no need for me to do any physical labor. Phew!
We headed to Caesaria where we enjoyed the ancient remains of King Herod’s dream and then stopped to admire the view of the port of Haifa above the Bahai gardens before carrying on to Akko where we had lunch (more hummus) and explored the Crusader-era escape tunnels. After a visit to a handcrafted copper shop, it was onto the caves at Rosh Hanikra followed by the drive to the Galilee and our spa hotel Mitzpe Hayamim where we’ll be staying for three nights. When we arrived at the hotel Avi took care of the luggage and I was able to relax knowing there’d be no 2am surprise drill.