The road to Tzfat

Morning comes early and I guess I probably didn't need that last Campari. But my clothes are dry and I pack up and checkout of the Abraham Hostel in order to do some catch up on the Old City before I depart. It is a lovely morning even though the forecast is rain. I didn't really feel like I we had enough time to wander during our city tour - which seems like a year ago. I enter at the Jaffa Gate which leads into the Christian Quarter after a bit of a walk I try to find the Room of the last supper which was thought to be a Passover sader dinner. 

It is actually on the other side of the Armenian quarter just outside the Zion gate. The room is pretty plain and located next to a fairly modern looking medieval style church. 

Convinced I have seen all I wanted to see  I head back to the market for some lunch. The market is full of produce etched but there seems to be a real lack of hot food stands. After a bit of a search I find a butcher that is grilling homemade sausages and making them into a pita sandwich. Yum!

My plan is to head to the bus terminal for a 215pm 3 hour ride to Nazareth. But I guess I have read the schedule wrong - I hate military time - and the real time is 415pm. I am pretty tired after the past several days so sitting to watch the world go by and catch up on the blog sounds ok. (Someone better be reading this!)

Trip is uneventful but the change from desert to green farm fields is dramatic. The soil is really dark and there is irrigation from the Jordan. The bus drops me in the newer part of the city but luckily the inn is easy to find. The Fauzi Azar Inn is a big old Arab mansion that is now a hostel. My room is an arched stone cave with simple Arab furnishings and a private bath. 

Dinner was promised to be special but I only found it mediocre. A nice broth soup, a giant tub of tabouleh (which is almost exclusively parsley) and ground beef stuffed in a phyllo tube with a bit of cheese sauce. 

Dessert and coffee were good - ice cream with this fuzzy stuff, syrup and walnuts. Service was pretty lax. 

The old town seems very quiet and except for a malfunctioning rooster, it is a good rest.  

In the morning after a simple breakfast there is a tour of the old city starting with the actual inn and its history of a private home. As Nazareth is an Arab city it is not surprising that it looks as it does. 

Then we head out into the city to see the mostly market sights. Sadly the best parts of the souk around the hotel is mostly closed as tourists are really only stopping to see the basilica and not venturing much further.

Our tour takes us to a coffee roaster (add cardamom) an Arab cemetery, a spice mill and a sweet shop before stopping by the basilica which the site that Mary received word from Gabriel that she would have a child. The church itself is a harsh Italian design but it is surrounded by works of art from many countries depicting the Madonna with Child - as they see them. 

Our tour ends at a lttle falafel shop near the inn. So I take this opportunity to have a falafel pita for lunch and then head to the sweet shop for these little turnovers - two stuffed with cheese and two with walnuts. And that is lunch. 

I get my car today -a bit of a long ordeal - and I am on my way north past the Sea of Galilee to Tzfat (or Safed). The roads are good and easily navigatable with the assistance of Google map directions (must download the maps first if you have no wifi or data) 

I make a quick and uneventful stop at the Tabor Winery. The folks are pretty rude and my discussions later confirm that this is a big grocery store winery and they really don't care about tastings. 

The travel time is pretty short from point to point so I arrive at the guest house about 4pm. Tzfat sits on top of a mountain and is the mystical home of Kabbal. The old city was settle by Spanish Jews so there is some moorish style architecture but mostly it is an artists colony. 

After about 15 roundabouts I finally make the guest house. Just two rooms this is almost a home stay. The space is lovely with a big king bed and vaulted stone ceilings. I will be here over the Shabbat so it is actually a really good fit as the whole of the town with be shut. 

After I get settled I go out for a wonder and surprise find myself in another wine tasting bar. As you may have guessed the Golan Heights is wine country and the wines are much better than a bottle of Mogen David blackberry. 

The space is lovely with the setting sun and the wines are nice and I have a very nice chat with the bartender about all things wine, politics, war etc. I have had a lot of Palestinian views presented, his was a good Israeli point of view. I am the only customer and wind up buying a slightly expensive bottle for home (the days are close enough to start thinking of that)

There is not much of a culinary scene free so it seems unless you want falafel or pizza there is only one restaurant in town and it is a steak house. I order mushrooms stuffed with chicken livers and a steak that comes with a salad and fries. The mushrooms are deep fried, enormous and of course rich and that could have been my meal. The steak was pounded out flat and tasty enough. With few exceptions service has been pretty bad as once the good hits the table you are done. 

I grab some ice cream in the way home and it is nice to be in a comfy big bed.