Israel. Day 6. Hallie Goes to Prison.

We actually made it out today by around 8:30, which I think was a record for this trip. Our morning activity was a tour of the city of Akko up north, a place we really haven’t visited before.

We drove about an hour and twenty minutes and met our guide for the morning, Etai, right outside the old city of Akko. Etai is Hindel Jesselson’s cousin. He was an excellent tour guide and I’m happy to share his number if anyone needs a guide. 

We began our tour at the Akko Prison, originally built during Ottoman times and repurposed by the British to imprison Jews and Muslims that acted up against the British during the mandate. We saw the cells, which were basically big rooms for about a dozen or so inmates, with beds made out of clothes sewn together, a pot to make potty in (is that why it’s called a potty?) and a window. It didn’t look pleasant. We explained to Hallie that it was where they put people who didn’t listen to their mommy and daddy. That’ll scar her nicely. We also saw the gallows where 9 Jews were executed. Somber. Etai was very good with Hallie and indulged her as she kept stopping his stories, including when she wanted to see if he could make his shoes light up also (he couldn’t).

View from above:

and below:

Next we descended below the prison to see the 12th century crusader fortress that the prison was built on top of. The fortress/caves were pretty impressive and featured art exhibits, a museum about the history of the fortress, and artisans selling homemade crafts. We watched one man doing glass blowing and then bought Hallie a necklace.

From there we started our walk around the old city of Akko. At that point Hallie had gone through all of the snacks we brought for her and started complaining that she was hungry. Unfortunately there is no kosher food in the old city, but we’re told there is a restaurant opening. Anyway, Hallie kept snacking and she wasn’t even really hungry, she just wanted to whine. We walked along the walls of the city of Akko and saw the port and the ocean. Etai did a really good job of taking us through the entire history of Akko through the tour. I wish I was able to recount more of it. The Crusader history was actually very interesting and something I feel like we don’t hear much about. Akko goes back to biblical times and is mentioned in tanach; it was ruled by Muslims until the 12th century; it took the Crusaders five years to capture the city because of its strategic design and walls, and they were only able to do so because they teamed up with the Italians who came in from the sea (the Crusaders didn’t have ships), and gave the Italians 1/3 of the city, which is why there is still a Venetian Square, Pissano Port and Genoa Square in Akko.

We ended the tour around 1:30 and I made sure to stop by the JNF tourist information center. If anyone is interested, we are revamping the Galilee!

Hallie fell asleep pretty quickly once we were in the car and we made it back to Herzliya in about an hour and 15 minutes. We drove through the Carmel Tunnels, which neither of us ever remember taking, but apparently they’ve been open since 2010. There are two sets of tunnels with a stretch of road in the middle that you can exit from. You pay when you enter the first tunnel, they give you a little card that looks like a hotel room key, and then you give it back when you come through the end of the second tunnel (I guess to make sure you paid the full 2-tunnel fare). When we pulled up to the pay station to hand back the card there was a car in front of us that was taking a really long time. At least three or four minutes. People were honking and Tzvi was really freaking out. They had to bring another man over to the booth, the guy inside was calling people, it was taking forever. Finally they went and we pulled up, they scanned our card, and what do you know, “Your card is not active, where is your receipt?” Apparently the woman handing out cards before the tunnel wasn’t activating them properly, so we had to sit for about three or four minutes while they called someone to come and open the gate, because apparently the gate man can’t manually open the gate. Amazing. So Israel.

Once we got back to Herzliya we were hungry so we stopped at an Aroma nearby and got sandwiches. It said it was kosher, but it had meat and dairy on the menu, but not mixed. Who knows. Anyway, I had tuna with pickles and Aroma sauce and Tzvi had eggplant, potato and egg. Both were good. Then we drove back to the hotel and I sat in the car for another 20 minutes while Hallie continued to sleep.  

Meanwhile, Tzvi went into the hotel to talk to the concierge about our evening. We had planned on driving to Tel Aviv and having dinner at Lumina at the top of the Carlton hotel. Tzvi asked the concierge to call and confirm our reservation, and when he did, he was told that they were closed for a private event and only open for hotel guests. Originally we had planned on spending two nights at the Ritz and then one night at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv, but ultimately scrapped that plan when we decided it wouldn’t be easier not to switch hotels just to spend one night in Tel Aviv. Well, it seems that when we cancelled our Carlton hotel reservation, they also cancelled our dinner reservation.  Maybe it was for the best because we were pretty tired. We decided to stay in Herzliya and have dinner at a restaurant in the marina instead.

Hallie was still sleeping in the car so Tzvi went for one last steam at the spa. Eventually she woke up and I took her to the lobby for a cream cheese sandwich, which she ate and enjoyed. We then switched and I did a quick 20 minutes at the gym while Tzvi got Hallie ready for dinner. 

At 630 we walked next door to the marina for dinner at Bistro 56. We immediately ordered Hallie chicken with green beans, which she ate very nicely, probably better than any other meal so far. She loved her chicken so much that she started dancing.

For starters I had sweet and spicy wings and Tzvi had a dish with roasted eggplant, meat and Israeli salad. Both were good. For our mains I had a fillet steak with sweet potato mash that wasn’t too sweet and green beans. Very good. Tzvi had bbq chicken thighs with a hash of sweet potatoes, white potatoes and onions. He enjoyed. For dessert we all shared a fudge cake with warm fudge on top and vanilla ice cream. Hallie ate it all up.  

After dinner Hallie wanted to ride the kiddie rides in the mall. It was pretty cute and she rode three different rides, but afterwards we found out that we paid about $1.38 for each minute long ride.  Oh well. It was cute.

We walked back to our room, put Hallie to bed and then took a bath and watched more of A Star is Born. The movie is good but I feel like it’s about to turn super depressing.

Tomorrow we leave and go back to Jerusalem. We’re sad to be leaving the hotel. I would say that we didn’t expect to like Herzliya so much. Even though we really didn’t do much, the atmosphere and vibe of just being at the marina and at this amazing hotel is so different from being in the middle of Jerusalem.