Day 6: A Day in the Country

Today, Saturday, we had no scheduled group activities. We had thought about sharing a sherut (a small chartered bus) to return to Bahji, but by the time we got around to signing up all the slots were taken. So we thought maybe we'd hang out in Haifa and visit the gardens on Mount Carmel. We slept late, had a late breakfast, and finally were ready to leave the hotel around noon.

As we went through the lobby we ran into two of our fellow pilgrims, Joey and Janet from Atlanta. To make a long story short, we ended up sharing a cab with them out to Bahji and having just an amazingly wonderful day visiting the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and surrounding gardens.

Without further ado, the photos are here. (Hint: There are comments attached to the photos that you won't see if you view the photos as a slideshow. Click on them one at a time to check out the text.)

Things we learned today:

1. There are rubber stamps at the Visitors' Center at Bahji. You can stamp your prayer book or prayer list or whatever you like, as a souvenir of your visit. Very cool. Thanks to Joey and Janet for the heads-up on that.

2. There are two kinds of guys in uniform at Bahji: Those with guns and those without guns. Turns out the unarmed ones are the Baha'is (no surprise there), and the armed guards are Israelis. We met a very charming Israeli guard named Pierre, who shared with us a Middle Eastern tradition: "If you stay with someone for 40 days, you have to become one of them or go home. I've been with the Baha'is for six years, so I've become like you!" Here we are with him at the Collins Gate, leading to the Shrine of Baha'u'llah.



After we walked all the way around those wonderful gardens, we entered the Shrine and spend a wonderful hour communing with Baha'u'llah. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!