I guess the only time we were truly disappointed during our sightseeing was our trip to Acre or Akko as it is called in Hebrew. And the fault did not lie with the city nor its ruins–rather its closing hours. Friday afternoons everything closes down for Shabbat. We left too late, got stuck in traffic, and arrived to late to see the main sites in Acre–mainly the underground crusader city. My boys did get to walk in the 13th century crusaders tunnel. And we did walk around the beach and saw the wall that the crusaders built.
We even did a little bargaining in the old city. The boys saw some flimsy plastic swords at one of the stands. Brent, who is really a bargainer at heart, took the chance to do some haggling. He asked how much the swords were and was given a price. Brent counter-offered and the store owner looked offended. (I actually do think this is part of the ritual of haggling.) He asked Brent where he came from. “America,” replied Brent. To which the man gave an expression which expressed it all. I think it is funny because many people have the impression that Americans are rich. And we are anything but–in the sense of “money-rich”. We had a limited budget to travel with and sightsee. Anyhow, they finally agreed to a price and the boys got their swords.
Old Acre is the Palestinian section. And the contrast between it and the Jewish areas is stark. The living conditions were much more primitive: read broken down and dirty. It reminded me of the homes I’ve seen on the Wind River Indian reservation. I don’t understand the contrast. It is complex and we weren’t really able to visit any other palestinian areas as it was too dangerous. So we only saw one side of the picture.
We did enjoy some delicious fresh pomegranite juice made right in front of our eyes. We bought a beautiful brass plate that says Shalom in Hebrew.
I won’t go into detail about the city, but will refer you to the Wikipedia entry about Acre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel
Our drive home was really nice. We drove through Haifa and enjoyed the city’s feel. Outside of Haifa, we stopped and pulled over off the freeway and walked down to the beach and let the boys throw rocks into the sea.
It’s a place I would like to visit again.
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