We checked out of our Tel Aviv hotel this morning and picked up our rental car. If you ever want a true test of compatibility with another human being, I highly advise renting a car in a foreign country where not only do neither of you speak the native language, but said language’s letters are not Roman-based.

When we were in Greece several years ago, we rented a car and drove from Athens to the Peloponessus. D was the driver and I was the navigator. As much as we tried to prepare ahead of time in terms of finding a route on the atlas, Google-mapping the journey, and trying to memorize major cities along the way, invariably we ran into problems. Roads that were on the map didn’t really exist, for example, so we had to be a bit creative and intuitive at times.

At one point, exhausted, impatient, and undeniably lost, we both had had enough. We finally saw a green sign on the highway which we hoped would tell us we were on the right track. As we zoomed past the sign, D asked, “what did it say?”. With a flat tone, I could only reply unhelpfully, “it said pi, alpha, theta, sigma, sigma, and I think omega”.

Our Hebrew is no better than our Greek. However, we’ve re-invented the “driving in a foreign country” wheel so many times that I think it might almost be round-ish. We certainly got lost a few times en route to Haifa today, but D is always a calm driver and while I could never be accused of being patient, I did my best with the atlas and sign-spotting.

After checking into our hotel, we set off in the afternoon for the city of Akko, just north of Haifa. Akko is thousands of years old, dating from the time of the Pharoahs. It is also biblical, named in both the Old and New Testaments and was known to King David, King Solomon, Hiram (King of Tyre), and the Gospel writers. The Phoenicians, Alexander the Great, the ancient Romans, and the Crusaders were also in Akko. What remains now is Old Akko, which is medieval, and the modern city.

As we were so late in arriving, many of the archeological sites were closing so we were unable to tour much of the interesting parts. Instead, we wandered and marvelled at the port, the old city’s walls, and the winding streets so typical of medieval cities.