SUNDAY NOVEMBER 12TH, A DAY TRIP TO AKKO

(I HAVE A LOT OF PHOTOS BUT I'M HAVING A PROBLEM UPLOADING THEM TO THE BLOG....I'LL ADD THEM WHEN I FIGURE OUT WHAT'S WRONG)

I did some reading online about Akko, but pretty much left without having an idea what I wanted to see in Akko other than finding the visitor center.  I walked to the train station. 

It was easy without luggage. 

 I bought my ticket for the 25 minute ride and looked for breakfast at the train station. 

Israel has a lot of bakeries.  I found an Israeli version of cheese danish and bought two.  I boarded the train and an American couple from Boston sat across from me.  The husband had a brace on his wrist.  I didn't ask about the injury but I did ask if they play Pickleball where he lives.  He replied by saying that his wrist injury happened in a fall playing Pickleball.  It turned out that his injury happened for the same reason that I fell and injured my shoulder playing Pickleball.  We both made the mistake of wearing running shoes instead of court (tennis or basketball) shoes.  Running shoes are designed only for going forward.  Bad things can happen in running shoes used improperly.  They were with another couple from New York and Florida in the Winter. 

We enjoyed talking on the train and the invited me to join them sight seeing in Akko.

Of the five of us I spoke, by far, the most Hebrew.  By that I mean we were in real trouble getting directions to the visitor center in Akko.  We did find the visitor center and did a self guided audio tour of the old walled city of Akko which was very impressive. 

Not so impressive was a mosque we paid 10 Sheckels ($2.80) each to enter. 

We removed our shoes and one of the women had to use a headscarf provided by the mosque and stated afterwords:  "I hope there weren't any head lice on the scarf".  I politely contained my laughter.  As walled cities go, I can't Imagine one that could be more impressive than Jerusalem's Old City, so I'm not sure if I recommend visiting Akko or not.  You might as well just go to Jerusalem and see lots more.


We, with the help of a few pedestrians found our way back to the train station and returned to Haifa.  We took a picture together at the station, exchanged email addresses (which I used to provide them with the address for this blog) and said goodbye.

Hunger motivated me to walk a few blocks from the train station to the falafel place I had discovered two days ago. 

It didn't dissapoint and I headed back toward my hotel getting lost, even though I had a map, and trying to ask directions in Hebrew from two guys who turned out to be from India on a cruise and were as lost as I was.  I again asked for directions in Hebrew from two young women.  They spoke no Hebrew, but did speak English and Arabic, so I was on the right track again.

On the way I passed an ice cream stand that beckoned and I took this striking photo of my ice cream cone and the Baha'i Temple and Gardens. 

I'm not sure why I thought this would be an interesting photo.  

I was a bit tired so I found my back to my room and napped and wrote a bit and planned how I would travel to Jerusalem on Monday.