Hi,
When we travel to Haifa, we usually do it by train and pass by the ship and the submarine that are standing in the Yard of the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum.
Jannaeus was happy to hear that you can even walk inside these ships and not only walk around them. So it was pretty clear what we are about to do in Passover.
Lucky us Bank Hapoalim opens many of the sites in Israel for free during the holiday, so we we got in the Israeli National Maritime Museum just above the ships. It took some time to realize it is a different museum than the one hosts the ship courtyard.
We took a tour about pirates and walked around the bottom floor that had some games for the kids. But upon realizing that there aren’t any ships here, we walked down to the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum below.
We were warned there is an entrance fee, and lucky me, it was free for me and the kids. I think it is the first time I got free entrance because I serve in reserve duty, well when only 1% serves it is not a big cost (it is also the Ministery of Defense museum…)
I thought we would also have time to visit the Israel Train Museum that is not far away, but it was a bit too late once we got into the movie about the clandestine Immigration and I started to tell Jannaeus and Mindal about My Saba (grandfather) Arieh which survived the Holocaust and was a Clandestine immigrant on top of the Tikva (Hope) ship which was caught by the British Navy and the people aboard were sent to Cyprus (and not to Atlit)
Take Care
Gad
On our way to the museum, see the boat?
Israeli National Maritime Museum
A canon and the sign of Bank HaPoalim at the entrance to the museum
The first floor of the museum was dedicated to amateur astronomic photos
In the pirate section – a cage to hold the corpses of captured pirates
Atlit Ram – The biggest ship ram found in the water near Atlit
Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum
On the INS Dakar conning tower at the entrance to the museum
About the museum
The Israeli navy unit marks
Gabriel missile launcher
A gun turret with Jannaeus and Mindal inside
INS Gal
INS Mivtach (In Hebrew) , the first Israeli missile boat.
The movie in the museum about the clandestine immigration (Jannaeus and Mindal were fascinated so we did not proceed to to the train museum)
A bit of construction, in Bat Galim railway station. Those are cantilevered and balanced on one column.