From Cairo to the Connemara: A Sojournal

 Pt1 - 19: SAFED, MEGIDDO AND THE GOLAN... The ancient town of Safed stands atop Mt Canaan in the steep Galilean hills north of Tiberias. Along with Hebron, Jerusalem and Tiberias itself, Safed was one of the four most sacred cities in Judaism and the centre of Jewish mysticism. These days it’s more famous for its artist’s colony than any deep religious pursuits. The city, no more than a village 20 years ago, tumbles down the hillside crowned by the Citadel Park. Fires were lit here in ancient times to signal the start of Jewish festivals and to look at it today you’d think the last one got seriously out of control and the park is still recovering. It is woefully neglected, overgrown and strewn with windblown rubbish. The few scrawny cedars struggling to survive up here look like they’ve been under sustained acid rain attack for a century, sad echoes of the once majestic trees that graced the hilltop. Add the fact that the excellent vistas across the surrounding hills I remembere...