The Old Town is designed, understandably, as a maze. There are signs helpfully pointing you to various landmarks; if you follow them, you invariably end up in the bazaar. I am sure this is done on purpose. We finally succeded in finding the old Turkish Bath, now converted into the Municipal Museum (where they make you listen to one of the stupidest shows I've ever heard - and I've heard a few - otherwise they won't let you in), and then the Underground Crusaders' Fortress, which was our main goal. Honestly, if you want to see a Crusaders' fortress, go to Belvoir. The one in Acco is bigger but nowhere as beautiful. You walk through a series of bare underground rooms, and in each one the audio guide tells you the same thing: "This magnificent ... (fill in the blank: hall, refectory, entrance way, etc.)... was used by Crusaders. Then it was completely filled with earth, by such-and-such Sultan in preparation for such-and-such war, and later uncovered by the archaeologists."
According to Frommer, one of the knights' halls contains a patch of plaster in the ceiling, where fifty-something Irgun fighters escaped from the British prison-fortress directly overhead. The audio guide apparently didn't find this information sufficiently important to mention, and I didn't succeed in locating the patch on my own. Disappointed, I was ready to declare the tour a total waste of time, when suddenly we arrived at the next stop... a magnificent latrine!
Impressive, isn't it? Armed with this new insight into the day-to-day lives of Crusaders, we headed back to the ramparts for lunch. On the way, we passed through a Crusaders' tunnel (which was probably also filled with earth at some point, and not completely dug out, because in certain parts even Temma and I had to duck, not to mention Alex and David).
Finally, this is my favorite part of the trip to Acco - lunch with a view.
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