Israel

May 6th - 24th 2023

Miles: 290 (460km)

Miles total: 21'390 (34'440km) 

We spend 18 days in Israel. The transition from the Arab and Muslim countries, where we were allowed to spend several months, to Israel, a Europe-like country, is enormous. People are often more withdrawn and one waits in vain for a warm “Welcome to Israel”. But it's no different at home :-).

We mainly move around in the north, because we don't have any motivation to drive much anymore and we don't have to see everything.

Israel, a country in the middle of the Arab world, where conflicts all around are the order of the day. We read up on history and try to understand the extremely complex events in this region.

We discover a wide variety of places. Like the town of Tsfat, which is extremely influenced by orthodox Judaism, where most of the men walk around in their shaggy shirts, the Jewish skull-cap "Kippa" and the long side-hair-locks.

Then we discover Nazareth, the place of annunciation, one of the mandatory stops for every Christian pilgrim. Nazareth, on the other hand, is completely different and is mainly inhabited by Arabs. Here we also see that the alleys are often dirtier and a bit run down. Supposedly because the ultra-right government ignores this "Arab" city and invests much less money than in other places like Jewish dominated Jerusalem.

In addition to the cities, we are of course also drawn to nature. Spending a few days at the scenic Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have walked on water. Furthermore, we are drawn to the sea, to the border with Lebanon, where we marvele at the fantastic grottos of Rosh haNikra. To our surprise, there are also a few people kiting on the beach, so we unpack our stuff and rush across the rough sea for two days.

Further south we visit the ancient port city of Akko. A gem of an ancient Crusader city. But a story behind it, which once again shows us how cruel men were to their fellow men at the time of the Crusades.

Towards the end of our Israel visit we drive our last miles to Haifa. Here we visit the agent for the shipment, pay 1650$ (1250$ freight, 400$ port fees), follow a port employee to the port and hand over our house and the key to it with a heavy heart. Everything goes very quickly and we still have a few hours to visit Haifa before we take the train to Tel Aviv. We spend two nights in a hotel and explore the city. Tel Aviv is very European, but we like it very much with its old town Jaffa, the markets, the many small boutiques, the beach and the modern cafes!

We like Israel a lot, but it also makes you think how unstable and confused the region is! A stark fact is that every Jewish citizen (except for the highly religious) has to do three years of military service. Also women. Does this also inculcate a mindset that makes it more difficult to ever find peace? We also have the feeling that the Arabs and the Jews live and work together, but in their private lives everything is probably separate. Parallel worlds in the same country. We can also see this on a soccer field where children were playing soccer. In one half the Arabs and in the other half the Jews. Presumably a prime example of the separate societies.

On our flight from Israel to Greece we look out the window and check if we don't see the Iveco on a ship ;-).