We’ve been in Haifa for the last couple of days, but we have not explored it at all. There are plenty of things of interest here, but our time is limited so we have had to skip them. Instead, we have been using Haifa as a home base to visit other areas close by, as I wrote yesterday. Today, we continued on to Casearea, about a 30 minute drive from Haifa.

Caesarea was a port town which was first established by the Phoenicians in 568 BC. It has a long, complicated history which I will not discuss because frankly, I’m not clear on the details and I’d hate to give the wrong information. What I do know is that in 30 BC, the town was given to Herod by the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus Caesar. Herod built a large city on the site, which included a palace, then named it for the emperor. Under Herod, Caesarea flourished as an important port city that even included a Roman amphitheatre and a temple in addition to housing quarters. Caesarea is mentioned in the New Testament as the city in which Paul was imprisoned for two years before he was allowed to go to Rome to appeal to the Emperor, as was his right as a Roman citizen.

Archaeological excavations are on-going at the site.

We had lunch at an excellent restaurant in Caesarea, called “Helena”. Helena sits right by the water, so that you have a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea from wherever you are seated. Our server informed us that the special of the day was fresh grouper. I thought he had said it was local, but wasn’t sure, so I asked, “did you say the grouper was local?”

Without skipping a beat, he pointed straight out above our heads into the Mediterranean. Yes, I guess that qualifies as ‘local’.

I declined the special for lunch, but we returned in the evening for dinner and enjoyed it then.