Hello from Haifa
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:31 am
Well, the 78164 family has been in Haifa (10 hours ahead of Bored time) since Sunday evening and I have a few hours for myself, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to say hello. We're based in the Beth Shalom Hotel, an inexpensive (read, small) little place atop Mount Carmel. We don't have a view, but to get one, all I need to do is walk across the street.
That's when I have time, a commodity that has been seriously lacking. This trip is not an ordinary tourist jaunt. Believe it or not (and for those who know me well, it's hard to believe), it's a religious pilgrimage. Not for me, but for Ms. 63, who's Baha'i. It turns out that many of the most venerated sites of the Baha'i religion are in an around Haifa. So the Baha'i organization has made some sort of deal with the Government of Israel, limiting the number of pilgrims who show up at one time. There are about 300 of us and we have 10 days to do our thing. After it's over, Ms. 63 has to wait five years before she may apply again for pilgrimage, and she can expect to wait another five years or so before her number comes up. Even though I'm not Baha'i, I have all of the access privileges of any other pilgrim, so I can go anywhere Ms. 63 goes, as can Sparky (as he now likes to be called).
The Baha'i property in Haifa itself is gorgeous. There are 19 garden terraces spanning Mount Carmel pretty much from top to bottom. I'm still considering hiking down them (I'd catch a bus back up to the top of the hotel). This is the administrative center of the Baha'i faith, so it has many fancy buildings as well as some important shrines.
We also spent a day in the old city of Accre, where the founder of the Baha'i faith was imprisoned for a couple of years. We've been spending most of our time retracing his steps here. It seems that the prison itself is an Israeli museum, but the Baha'is managed to hold on to the actual cell. We've also visited various houses in which he and his family lived in and around Bahji, and learned something about an early schism (those on the wrong side are referred to as "covenant-breakers").
Today is a free day. I decided to spend the day in Haifa, catching up on e-mail at the office (almost all of which I could delete), getting reconnected to the States, and generally relaxing. Ms. 63 and Sparky headed back to Bahji to spend more time at the shrines there. More sites await us tomorrow, and Monday we get our long-awaited visit to the Archives building. (The scheduling of this trip was dictated by the necessity to await Sparky's ninth birthday to be sure he'd be permitted access.)
I'm not much for writing travelogues, but if anyone has any questions (and I get Internet access again), I'll be happy to try to answer them. --Bob
That's when I have time, a commodity that has been seriously lacking. This trip is not an ordinary tourist jaunt. Believe it or not (and for those who know me well, it's hard to believe), it's a religious pilgrimage. Not for me, but for Ms. 63, who's Baha'i. It turns out that many of the most venerated sites of the Baha'i religion are in an around Haifa. So the Baha'i organization has made some sort of deal with the Government of Israel, limiting the number of pilgrims who show up at one time. There are about 300 of us and we have 10 days to do our thing. After it's over, Ms. 63 has to wait five years before she may apply again for pilgrimage, and she can expect to wait another five years or so before her number comes up. Even though I'm not Baha'i, I have all of the access privileges of any other pilgrim, so I can go anywhere Ms. 63 goes, as can Sparky (as he now likes to be called).
The Baha'i property in Haifa itself is gorgeous. There are 19 garden terraces spanning Mount Carmel pretty much from top to bottom. I'm still considering hiking down them (I'd catch a bus back up to the top of the hotel). This is the administrative center of the Baha'i faith, so it has many fancy buildings as well as some important shrines.
We also spent a day in the old city of Accre, where the founder of the Baha'i faith was imprisoned for a couple of years. We've been spending most of our time retracing his steps here. It seems that the prison itself is an Israeli museum, but the Baha'is managed to hold on to the actual cell. We've also visited various houses in which he and his family lived in and around Bahji, and learned something about an early schism (those on the wrong side are referred to as "covenant-breakers").
Today is a free day. I decided to spend the day in Haifa, catching up on e-mail at the office (almost all of which I could delete), getting reconnected to the States, and generally relaxing. Ms. 63 and Sparky headed back to Bahji to spend more time at the shrines there. More sites await us tomorrow, and Monday we get our long-awaited visit to the Archives building. (The scheduling of this trip was dictated by the necessity to await Sparky's ninth birthday to be sure he'd be permitted access.)
I'm not much for writing travelogues, but if anyone has any questions (and I get Internet access again), I'll be happy to try to answer them. --Bob
--Bob
