Our end-of-Passover outing to the National Maritime Museum in Haifa became a dreary disappointment today when the main door was shut in our faces at barely 1.00 p.m.
We felt cheated as neither website** we used to plan our trip from Karmiel advises that the premises would shut early so people may prepare for the final, non-working day of the festival, which begins tonight. Indeed, they give contradictory information about general opening hours and year-round ticket prices, etc.. Further, we were puzzled to see other visitors milling about outside the entrance. What were they doing there and why weren’t they sent away?
This is especially annoying as the Maritime Museum and the nearby Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum have been among attractions offering free entrance during Passover in a scheme sponsored by Bank Hapoalim as part of its social programme.
Luckily, the let-down came after a pleasant hour at the tranquil Baha'i Temple and its gardens and an enjoyable day last week at the Haifa Educational Zoo. There we had fought for space on the crowded walkways and at the exhibitions with a huge spectrum of people including Moslem Arabs and ultra Orthodox Jews, helping to disprove the empty propaganda about so-called Israeli ‘apartheid’. Everyone may take advantage of the Jewish holidays here, no matter their faith and background.
**http://www.nmm.org.il/Museum/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=10000&FID=1157
http://www.touristisrael.com/clandestine-immigration-and-navy-museum-haifa/5072/
msniw
2 comments:
For a country whose IT expertise is behind much of the internet, it constantly amazes me how organisations' use of the web is 20 years behind the UK, and my US friends tell me the same for them. Not just museums, but businesses, non-profits and healthcare websites are at best out-of-date or lacking basic details such as contact information or admission details such as your article refers, and at worst mere portals telling you to phone a number or even non-existent! We recently looked up the address of a clinic for a specialist appointment on Clalit's website, only to find the location had been vacated by the clinic years previously. On phoning the surgery, they also still had the old address on their intranet. These situations are typical in Israel. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and have nothing to moan about, apart from this! Even the bureaucracy I can accept. But why so little decent use of the web when as a country we are so technologically advanced? I just don't get it.
Thanks for your useful comments, Michael. I'm relieved to know that I'm by no means alone in my view. And yes, you're so right about poor Israeli websites. This is one of the vagaries of Israeli life, isn't it? Another oddity which you may also find frustrating is the lack of 'chip and pin' facilities at so many check-outs and the use of cheques - all very much behind other western economies. On the other hand, as the late Chaim Bermant used to say .....
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