A view of Haifa from Mt. Carmel.After breakfast, we made reservations for a tour of the Bahai Gardens. You have to do this in advance, but if you want to tour more immediately you can go on a "wait list" and generally you will be added to an existing tour. With the tour set in the afternoon, we headed by cab for the mall, the Carmel Center. It was a little confusing, because Carmel Center is not specifically a mall, but a commercial district high above the port area on Mt. Carmel. Later we found out the largest mall in Israel was a mile or so down the road. We walked around the crowded neighborhood, but couldn't find a mall in the traditional sense. Lily was getting a little edgy. So we finally decided to head back, by use of the Carmelit, Haifa's very uniqe subway. The Carmelit is basically an underground funicular railway, cable driven, with one train going up and the other going down. But it takes you couple of miles, stopping had a half dozen stations (all underground). We were both impressed.
After a break, we took the bus to the starting point of the tour, which was in English. Basically it's a mild pitch for the Bahai faith as you walk through some very impressive gardens. You can only walk down hill as only pilgrims are allowed to walk up the marble stairs. At one point I tricked Lily into backtracking toward where I was standing and she got a disapproving look from the guide. The gardens were pretty impressive, but later Lily and I agreed the Bahais were pretty fortunate to have staked claim to such prime real estate.
The Carmelit
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