A day in the north - Akko and Rosh Hanikra

- March 26, 2019

As if Haifa isn’t far enough north, there are a couple of other really interesting locations even further towards the Lebanese border - the old town of Akko, and the grottoes at Rosh Hanikra. We figured it would be a pretty full day, so we set off “early” and arrived at Akko around 9.30am. Only a half hour drive in the end. We did the Google maps offline navigation thing again, but also decided to test out the in-car navigation app called Waze. You can use it in Australia too, but according to Israeli helpers on TripAdvisor it works really well in Israel (it was designed in Israel after all), much better than Google maps. The only drawback for us is that all the menus are in Hebrew and since we couldn’t read any of it we couldn’t select an English option!!! However, we discovered that we could type into the fields in English and it coped fine with that too. Unfortunately we couldn’t get an English voice, but we still had the very clear map to go by. Running the two side by side confirmed that it was as accurate, if not more, than Google maps.

Arriving in Akko we did a little loop, looking for the Visitor and Information Centre, which was also the ticket office for visiting the sights of Old Akko and the grottoes. One loop down, and we decided we should just find a carpark. And so we did, quite easily. But did we need to pay? The ticket machines were all in Hebrew!!! I don’t know why we expected to find English, this is Israel after all.

As always when travelling, asking for help from a likely looking stranger is usually a good bet. And we weren’t disappointed. A group of Israeli but English-speaking visitors to Akko arrived just as I was standing at the ticket machine looking confused. They very helpfully advised that parking was free during the week, so we followed them to the Visitor Centre too and we were off and running.

Akko is a UNESCO World Heritage site, known for its well-preserved old city walls, fortresses, castles, colourful markets, churches, mosques, and synagogues. The city has remnants from the Canaanites, the Hellenistic-Roman period, the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Turks and the British. We spent the morning in the fascinating Crusader Citadel tracing the historical heritage of many nations and religious movements, and the rulers who built, governed, and fought for the city. After we were well and truly saturated with all that history, it was on to the Templar Tunnels - 150 metre long tunnels going from the Templars’ fortress to the port - before eventually finding our way back to where we started.

It was always on the plan to lunch at Hummus Said in the old market, renowned for their hummus which is touted to be the best in Israel. This I’d discovered while researching Akko, and they sure didn’t disappoint. We had to ask directions a couple of times as we wandered through the maze of narrow streets in the old city, but all we needed to say was “Hummus Said??” and we were quickly directed with a few points and even fewer words. Finally we found the old market, asked the question again and voila, there it was right behind us. We queued for less than 10 minutes (and a queue is always a really good sign), and while waiting we noticed that pretty much everyone was eating the same thing, so we figured that would make it easy to order. Once seated the waiter rattled off a couple of things in what was probably heavily-accented English but I understood none of it. Helpless, I said “I’m sorry, I don’t know” and basically he then said he’d bring us hummus. Fine by me!! The food came quickly and there was plenty of it. Amazing, smooth, creamy, delicious hummus, with assorted sides (pickles, chilli, parsley, tomato, onion, and the inevitable soft, chewy pita bread).

We watched the locals and basically there are two ways to eat your hummus - tear your pita bread in half, open it up and fill with hummus and whatever other condiments, or else tear off little pieces of bread, sprinkle parsley over the hummus and dip in. Either way, it was delicious! And a super cheap meal at only 36NIS, about equivalent of $14 AUD for the two of us. Worth every shekel.

After lunch we wandered through the old markets - I just love markets - shared a fresh, hand-pressed pomegranate and orange juice and bought some little Arabic sweets, then continued on down to the harbour with its amazing city walls, fishermen’s port and marina.

And then it was time to hook into the free WiFi (again), exit Akko and head north to see the famous grottoes of Rosh Hanikra. On Israel’s northwestern tip, just south of the border with Lebanon, at a point where the sea meets the chalky white cliffs, it took us an easy 30 minutes to drive there, thanks to Google maps and Waze in harmony again.

We seem to have a bit of a cable car theme going on in the last couple of days, but the cable car at Rosh Hanikra is reputed to be the steepest in the world. It takes you down the side of the cliffs to the sea grottoes and another spectacular view as you go. Once down the bottom, you can wander through the grottoes, and take care not to be right in the firing zone when the swell surges and the water comes pounding through like a blowhole. The sea is a lovely turquoise, and as the wet morning had cleared to a sunny afternoon, it was a lovely way to end our explorations.