We ended the transatlantic cruise in Haifa, Israel, where we also set off (on the same
ship) for a consecutive roundtrip cruise for six nights. What should have been an easy
transition for us continuing cruisers was a total snafu. But after a few hours we finally
got out. We managed to find a taxi to take us a bit North to Akko/Israeli (Acre/English
or Akka/Arabic), wait for us there, and then bring us back to Haifa. Akka is considered
one of the world's longest continuously occupied cities and was a major place in the
Crusader wars and WW I. Today, the city apparently has the three major religions coexisting
fairly calmly. When we got back to the ship and continued on the next roundtrip cruise,
we realized that something had changed. Most of the guests on the ship were now Israeli
and all of them were speaking Hebrew. Also, most of the signs on the ship were no longer
in just English, but also included their Hebrew counterparts, including the dinner menus.
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