Our main interest was to find the glass manufacturer and see if we could afford any of the pieces on sale - fortunately they had a "seconds" section with beautiful work and we bought some of a special reminder of our stay in Israel
For example, Gamila producessoaps and candles and lovely perfumes from olives - and employs many Arab women as a result.
There are 3 museums - ironically a vintage car museum featuring the only Israeli sports car, a lithograph museum and one dedicated to machine tool production. There is an amazing museum highlighting the contribution of German Jews to the world - including many Nobel Peace Prize winners, and men and women who made contributions in science, the arts, politics, literature and so on.We start by featuring some of the more than 40 original art pieces that are found throughout the estate. This one is a tower that is not just for kids.
Not sure how to describe this piece - but you can spend a long time looking at it.
No doubt meaningful, I cannot recall the name.
This one is very clever.
See, I really was there.
The lithographer Hermann Struck was a local Haifa boy and his house still stands. He was a master calligrpher and here are just two pieces.
Muna loved the car museum and especialy loved the use of colour on these cars - she is death on white and silver, the two most common colours.
The 1964 Sabra was not such a big hit overseas!
A walk around a few more pieces of artwork
and then off to find a French restaurant in a little village, quite literally in the middle of nowhere - but lots of other patrons also found it.
After so many years Edna finally saw the great beauty and experienced the deep spiritual impact of the Bahá’í holy places.
It was a great opportunity for the five of us to visit various scenic spots around Israel. Apart from Nazareth and the Druze village, we spent a lovely day visiting Zippori and bet She’arim - two very significant historical sites. Muna and Allan had previously visited these places with friends. Here is some background on them. 
Ancient Zippori - also known by its Greek name Sepphoris - is mentioned in Josephus Flavius' description of the reign of Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus and became the most important city in the Galilee. In 37 B.C.E., Herod conquered Zippori but after his death in 4 C.E., the citizens began to mutiny and eventually the soldiers under Roman governor Varus captured Zippori and destroyed the city. 
Soon after it was rebuilt and Herod Antipas did such a fine job of restoring and beautifying the city that Josephus dubbed it the "glory of the entire Galilee." When the renowned Rabbi Judah Hanasi moved to Zippori from Beit She'arim, he brought with him the Sanhedrin (assembly of 71 ordained scholars, which served both as legislature and a supreme court).
the Greek god of wine, and also what is known as the “Mona Lisa of the Galilee”. 
The Roman-period city with its carefully laid-out series of parallel and perpendicular streets – you can still see the grooves in the stone streets where the wagons and chariots rode up and down. 
The Nile Mosaic building, a large fifth-century structure with an ornate mosaic floor depicts the festival held when the level of the Nile River reached its highest point, thereby showing the importance of this city to many civilizations.
From the fifth century on, Zippori was inhabited by both Christians and Jews. The Crusaders built a church in memory of Saint Anne at Zippori, as they believed that Mary's parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, had lived here. Parts of the Crusader church are still standing.
After a sumptuous lunch at the Herb Farm Restaurant, which specialises in country cooking and fine food, we went to Beit She'arim. Built on a low hill in the western part of the lower Galilee, Beit She'arim flourished from the second through the fourth centuries C.E. The residents dug an ornate necropolis deep into the ground. 
Courtyards, corridors, and staircases lead to the catacombs with their burial chambers and stone sarcophagi. The chambers and sarcophagi are decorated with bas-reliefs, epitaphs, and frescoes. The mouths of some of the caves were closed with hewn stone doors, shaped to resemble wooden doors. 
The bas-reliefs and drawings are representative of Roman-period Jewish folk art. The artwork in all the caves contains Jewish elements, such as the seven-branched candelabrum, the Holy Ark, a ram's horn (shofar), and a palm branch. Secular themes, including boats, animals, human figures, and geometrical designs, also appear. Although most of the epitaphs are in Greek, the lingua franca of Eretz Israel at the time, there are some in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Tadmoerite.
During a previous visit with another group of friends we stopped at this area and had a moving memorial for Muna’s mother who recently passed away. 
We later found out that this was a place used from ancient times to remember those who have passed to the next world.
It is a new town half way between Haifa and Tel Aviv and has been largely settled by French-Jewish immigrants, hence the patisseries and restaurants are quite different to other cities. It's just like being in France with lots of cafes with chairs that face out into the street and plenty of ‘alfresco’ tables in the street itself (fortunately, a pedestrians only!!!). 
With a population of 170,000 it is one of the bigger cities in Israel (Haifa is the third largest city and has a population of 270,000). The big attraction is the 11 km of some of the finest beaches in Israel, and the Ha Rishonim Promenade, the cliff above the beach, offers magnificent views, 
especially if you are a paraglider. Evening concerts are held throughout the summer.
And it is not surprising that Netanya is the sister city of the Gold Coast and a few other cities as well!
is such a sweet lass and some close friends took her to Yehiam fort for a farewell picnic, then continued on to Bahjí as the sun was setting in the sky. She will be sorely missed and we now have reached the stage in our service where we are saying good-bye to dear friends who have served 1 to 2 years. The wonderful thing is that new friends arrive each month and so a kaleidoscope of nationalities continues to brighten up the Bahá’í World Centre. 
We have also been to a few weddings of late – here is a photo of a relative of Muna – Payam Etminani and his bride Karina Purushotma. 
Finally, we leave you with something we found uplifting: 
some 150km south of Dublin. It had been raining for three solid weeks prior to our arrival and the weather forecast was for more to come. We were quite interested to see this phenomenon called rain as we have had none in Haifa since April and we probably won’t see any until November or December. But Dublin turned out a dry cloudy day for our arrival and our bus from the airport took us through the old part of town with its mix of old and new. 
Everywhere, flower boxes hanging from 2nd and 3rd floor windows created a gorgeous cascade of colour. 
Our whole week then turned out to be sunny and warm – 18 to 20C— which is all it takes for the Irish to get into shorts and eat ice cream!
The old joke – it only rains twice a week in Ireland, once for 4 days and the other for 3 days – certainly did not hold true for this week!
a lovely lass who used to serve in Haifa. Allan chatted with a local guy (who was a mine of information!) and again obtained a history of the region— the Irish appear to be as friendly us Aussies. You can see Dawn and Larry Staudt having a cuppa with us - they are good friends of the Hencks who serve in Haifa.
Around 600 participants attended the Summer School; we both gave presentations to the main adult sessions as well as the youth
(the children and junior youth had a lucky escape!!!). The Bahá’ís of Ireland certainly know how to have fun and stay up all hours! Entertainment started at 10p. Sahar and Luke sang beautifully at a morning devotional with children ayouth and adults.
and the day’s sessions started at 9:45am—all in a very relaxed atmosphere.
It was great to see so much talent— afternoons were devoted to the arts and after a siesta, Allan enjoyed a creative writing course, while Muna just read and napped.
As expected, we met many people with whom we had friends in common. A week filled with joy and laughter ensured that we returned to Haifa rested and replenished.
Two youth—Rashel Jahangirian and Mona Manouchehri—will be readily recognizable as they have recently come from Perth to serve. Muna made some Arabic style food as well as her famous scones.
Edward and Noel Broomhall, friends from Tasmania/Australia, came to Haifa for six weeks in May and June and this presented an opportunity to take them to some places we have not been to. One was Tsfat (Safad), a very Jewish town in the north of Israel, fairly elevated (and thus cooler in summer) and famous for its many artist shops 
and galleries in the old souq (market).
You can still see evidence - bullet holes - on this building of the fighting that took place in this town. 
There are two places that make amazing candles. 
This is a rendition of Noah and the ark. Some candles stand meters tall. 
Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the town.
This photo is inside a very old Jewish Synagogue – you can see that the Jews do not throw away Holy books – they are stored in cupboards until they return to dust. 
We visited a potter friend of the Broomhall’s (from UK) and marveled at his skill.
A narrow staircase leads up five flights of stairs to the fortress look-out and a breath-taking view! 
As the weather cools down a bit we look forward to more travelling - being out and about in Israel - discovering new places and revisiting spots that we really like.
