Jerusalem Blog 4 - Too much to write

So let's instead put pictures up and write something next to it. That's the best I can do.

On Monday we left to Western Galilee, for a visit to Beit Lohamei Hagetaot - "The House of Ghetto Fighters." This is a Kibbutz that was founded by survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto quite soon after the war. However, the also founded a memorial for this uprising, which by now more has turned into a general Holocaust Memorial Museum. A fitting day to visit this, as it was Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day. At 10 AM there were sirens in the country and everybody stopped doing what they were doing. We stood on the roof of the building to witness this.

The Children Memorial. 

At night, there was the closing ceremony of Yom Hashoah in Beit Lohamei Hagetaot. It was a 2-hour ceromony with the lighting of six candles (for the six million Jewish victims), flowers, speeches (in Ivriet, tyvärr) and beautiful music. A very nationalistic day as well - there were at least 10 Israeli flags on the stage and at the end during Hatikvah many more were added...  

We slept in Nes Ammim, a former 'kibbutz' founded by European Christians (among them quite some Dutch - they cultivated roses for some ten years!) that nowadays more functioned as a center for dialogue and 'neutral territory' for different groups for training. Apart from that, they provided a guesthouse/hotel service. I got a double room on my own. Insane. After a small tour, we left to the city of Acre/Akko, a multicultural and -religious city with a very interesting history.

For about 200 years, the crusaders ruled there, for example! (12th/13th century). 

But they also have cats.

And a bazaar.

And the biggest mosque in Israel, if not counting Jerusalem. 

Then we left to the Mediterranean Sea. And yes, we did go swimming. 

Then we had great food.

Around 7 PM we left back to Jerusalem. The sky looked like this.  Yes, I sometimes forget this is a study trip...