Haifa is the one big Israeli city where you really do ride up a mountain to get home. The north slope of Mount Carmel drops almost straight into the Mediterranean, and the city is stacked on it in layers: port and railway at the bottom, then the German Colony with its tidy Templer houses, then the long terraces of the Bahá'í Gardens, and finally the ridge, where the road along the top gives you the whole bay as far as Acre on a clear afternoon.
The gardens are the reason this stop has a place on a heritage route. Nineteen terraces climb the slope to the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb, which holds the remains of the forerunner of the Bahá'í faith, and the whole thing is kept so immaculately that it looks as if it was painted on rather than planted. You walk it in your boots and your jacket like everyone else, and the gardeners look at you with polite tolerance. Higher up on the headland sits the Stella Maris monastery, a Carmelite house that traces the order back to hermits who settled on this mountain in the twelfth century, and who took their name from it. The prophet Elijah is tied to the mountain in all three of the great faiths, which is why the cave beneath the monastery draws so many visitors.
The riding is city riding with a lot of altitude change. The roads that climb from the port, Hanassi Boulevard along the ridge and the switchbacks of Yefe Nof, are all steep and tightly curved, and in the afternoon they fill with buses, taxis and delivery vans. Early morning is far better, with cooler air and the light coming in low off the sea. Haifa has an underground funicular, the Carmelit, with six stops, and it is a small railway marvel if you are ever tempted to leave the bike for an hour.
Fuel is easy; there are stations throughout the city and in Tirat Karmel to the south. The Carmel itself is a limestone ridge covered with pine, oak and wild herbs, and the national park above the city has some of the best forest riding in the country, with the scent of resin and thyme after rain. The Druze villages of Daliyat al-Karmel and Isfiya sit along the crest and serve grilled meat, pita and strong coffee that will keep you upright for the descent.