We were warned about Shabbat (from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday) but we didn’t quite appreciate that everything shut down – buses, trains, shops and all work basically so we hiked it off to Akko a bit earlier than we might have to try and find somewhere to stay. Akko (or Acre as it its otherwise known) is another seaside City but a majority of the Old City walls are bordered by sea and as the Old City seems to be predominantly occupied by Arabs, there were still doors open when we arrived. We were expecting a pretty picturesque place and while it is not that, Akko is very functional with many fishing boats still heading out of the port and the tourism seems to come and go without really being accommodated for which makes a nice change. There is really only one place to stay in the Old City (if anyone wants to start a business in Israel they could do a lot worse than decent accommodation/B&B in Akko!) and as a result the place we ended up in left us wondering if we’d be eaten alive by bugs overnight and we were mighty relieved to wake intact the next morning! We’ve learnt that decent cheap accommodation is difficult to come by in Israel.
Akko City walls and harbour (the land in the background is Haifa)
Local chap jumping off the City Walls
Strangely enough, there are more Baha’i Gardens 5km outside Akko but these gardens house the tomb of the founder of the Baha’i faith. We walked to the gardens then spent the afternoon at Nahariya (a bit further up the coast) on the beach. Thankfully the local sheruts were running to Nahariya as it was a bit too far to walk!
Baha’i Gardens outside Akko (the red bank at the back is made up entirely of red Geraniums. I’ve never seen so many in one place like that)
Akko City walls and harbour (the land in the background is Haifa)
Local chap jumping off the City Walls
Strangely enough, there are more Baha’i Gardens 5km outside Akko but these gardens house the tomb of the founder of the Baha’i faith. We walked to the gardens then spent the afternoon at Nahariya (a bit further up the coast) on the beach. Thankfully the local sheruts were running to Nahariya as it was a bit too far to walk!
Baha’i Gardens outside Akko (the red bank at the back is made up entirely of red Geraniums. I’ve never seen so many in one place like that)
Akko was a pretty chilled out place with boys on horses clattering round the streets, cats foraging in rubbish, street sellers selling their wares and, without fail, the call to prayer from the Muezzin five times daily. In Jerusalem, where there seems to be a Mosque every few 100 meters you got a chorus of calls that overlapped, drowned each other out and while it should theoretically sound awful, its actually quite pleasant and calming. However, there was one Muezzin in Akko who Euan reckoned had been taking a few tips from James Blunt – he really did wail on and on and on…
Two days in and around Akko and we were well ready to move on and decided to hire a car for a few days to explore northern Israel.
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