Tel Aviv Day 4

Today was wild...there was booming thunder last night, and it rained today. The sea was all churned up, but in spite of the unfriendly elements, the day couldn't have been better. We started off at the Israeli Independence Hall, where David Ben Gurion proclaimed Israel a state, in 1948. The next day, the War of Independence broke out. We actually sat in the room where the Declaration was signed.

We learned about how the original 60 founding families of Tel Aviv/Israel, who carried out Hertzel's dream (Dizengoff, Shienkin...there are a bunch of streets named for them), used a lottery system to divide a piece of land they bought into parcels,

with the main street Rothschild Boulevard (where a lot of the $ came from). They built a gymnasium - school - fashioned after those in Germany. Education has always been extremely important to Jews.

Then we went to Neve Tedesket, which was the 1st suburb of Jaffa, which is probably the oldest port in the world. The area is undergoing gentrification...it's got a ways to go. Some fun photos:

 

 

 

Yep, just your basic dog running down the street with a plastic bottle in his mouth...don't think I've seen that before.

Then we did the whole Jaffa thing again, in the rain. Cobblestones, stairways, couldn't wait to get on the bus. We did learn more about the history of Jaffa - between the Jerumsalemite tour guide and UCLA history professor, my mind is on overload. After discussion about Bauhaus architecture - many of the architects were Germans who fled Germany before the war, and applied their style to building Tel Aviv (which means "old and new") and Haifa - a flat roof style, functional, home with curved balconies, painted white, we drove around the University and then past Rubin Square, where Itzak Rubin was shot/killed by a right wing conservative. He had just given a talk on peace, and had the lyrics of a peace song that he sang in his pocket, which is now in the Ruubin Museum, covered with blood. There is a grouping of rocks that demonstrate where the shooter was, where Rubin was. Sad day for Israel.

He had just come down the steps, and was waving/talking with the crowd.

We went back to the hotel, to rest up for our night activity...a visit to the private home of a Harvard educated historian and his wife (the daughter of a museum curator) who have probably the largest private collection of Judaica in the world...oh yeah, there was a metal door to the apartment, with major security. He had arranged the silver into groupings, according to where it originated....Viennese, German, Italian, Czech, Spanish, Morroccon....we couldn't believe what we were seeing...in a private home. Torah covers, scroll covers, all hand crafted silver, from the 18th,19th, & 20th centuries. He has a few 17th century pieces.

 

These are oil lamp Hannukiahs.

This is his favorite piece...a Ukranian Torah crown, that has deer and lions holding up and protecting the Tree of Life. It was from an area called Galacia, Robert's grandmother's home. He passed it around to us...how generous.

I thought this piece was beautiful...a peacock menorrah from Czechoslovakia.

Well, me and my tired knees are going to bed...it's been a long day, I can't believe this is only day 1 of our tour. Off to Caesaria tomorrow and a kibbutz!

 

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Tel Aviv, Day 3

 

Well it did rain and thunder last night, so I did get the storm I hoped for. This morning we took took a walk along the beach, with umbrellas. There are quite a few hotels with beachfront cafes.

 

We came to a little park, with beggar cats and pigeons...interestingly enough, we haven't seen any homeless/poor people.

We walked to the TA Hilton...Robert had a memory of some large copper doors, which were sculpted by someone he knew from a kibutz, but we couldn't find them. He peeled off to go to an AA meeting, and I headed back to our hotel.

The Tel Aviv version of Venice Beach's muscle beach. Really rather cool, resistance training. People here are fit, they eat well and exercise.

There were 5-10 ft waves...and the rain/thunder didn't deter the surfers. A life guard was yelling at them in Hebrew, I think telling them to get out of the water. I held my umbrella in one hand, and cell phone in the other to take pics...with a smile on my face! Then I started thinking about the umbrella being like a lightening rod...sort of ruined my fun, and I headed back to the hotel.

We meet up with our tour group tonight, and embark on our travels with them tomorrow. I think I'll call the spa, see if I can get a facial...lots of talk/advertising about Dead Sea mud being good for the skin. I'll let you know!

 

 

 

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Tel Aviv, Day 2

Woke up at 3 am Tel Aviv time...hope to get more hours of sleep tonight.  The sun came up, and the day was beautiful.  After a gourmet breakfast feast, our friend Yuval

picked us up, and we drove south to the town of Rishon Letzion (ree shown lit zee on) to see Robert's mother's grave...her last wish was to be buried in Israel.  It was an old cemetery, she was buried in 1971.

Her Hungarian nick name was Piri, the Hebrew says Devora Young, daughter of Rueben Rosenberg, died December 21, 1971.  Never fun to go to a cemetery...

Our next stop was the old port of Jaffa, old stone walls and buildings,

 and the site of where Jonah got on the ship, that led him to be thrown overboard and swallowed by the whale...hey, it's in the Bible.  

Jaffa's port, the oldest in Israel, is still used by fishermen and boat enthusists.

We walked through winding passageways

some buildings were converted to modern boutiques.

We saw an archealogical dig site, that was the Temple of the Lion...dates to 1465 BC...yep, about 3500 years old.

We walked through the flea market...everything (and more) then you'd ever want.  All kinds of stuff.

Including furniture and rugs...yes, I walked right by the silk rugs.

Mosque, mineret, heard the call to prayer.  In Jaffa, Jews and Arabs live side by side, and get along.

View to the north of Tel Aviv.  It was supposed to rain today...glad it didn't.  Although Israel is also having a drought.

Lunch, nap, dinner with Yuval and his wife Galia, at Cafe Noir, a chic restaurant that specialized in schnitzel and lamb.  I had lamb kebobs, which was truly the best lamb I've ever had...could cut it with my fork.  Served on tahini with roasted tomato and onion.  And accompanied by a red wine blend of shiraz, merlot, and petite verdot...another really good Israeli wine.

Afterward, we walked down Rothschild Street, which is flanked by Bauhaus architecture...beautiful.

Our nightcap was a street musician cellist with a ballet trained modern dancer.  Unique.

It's midnight, I'm falling asleep..sorry if there are errors.  Supposed to be thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow...I could use a good thunderstorm!

Our El Al Flight and First Night in Tel Aviv

We took El Al from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. Robert told me El Al stood for "every landing, always late". We were supposed to arrive to the gate 3 hrs. before our flight, but because there was no traffic, we got there 3 1/2 hrs. early, so we were first in line. There were about 4 police with AR 15 carbines and Beretta hand guns. Robert's comment, "they're here for crowd control, once they open the ticket windows, there will be a riot"...not. He can make cracks about the Israelis because he's one of them. Me, I'm Jewish by conversion, and as my friend Richard, a NYC Jewish blue blood said, "Benner, there is not nor will ever be a single Jewish gene in your body". Probably true since my grandmother and her sister traced our linage back to Charlemagne...enough digression. Because my passport has my maiden name and my ticket didn't, there was a slight hiccup, a little interrogation by the El Al security, everyone else was passing through but us. After deciding I was okay, they let us proceed. My fit bit caused a little concern in the X-ray scanner and subsequent pat down, but it was no problem. We tried to upgrade to Business class, no luck.We boarded the plane and eventually departed, 45 minutes late. We couldn't get our carry on bags under the seats because there was a metal bar...I pulled out my iPad, loaded with 4 movies and 5 books, I was ready. The airplane (777-200, nice plane) looped TV system was horrible, couldn't start a movie at the beginning. Gave up on that, and went to the iPad. They brought my gluten free meal, which was a baked chicken, not dried out, it was good. I was one of about 10 (probably the only shiksa) people on board who didn't speak Hebrew...they finally started talkin' English to me. I REALLY liked the flight.. all 14 non stop hours. The people were interesting...groups of children, going with a chaperone, Hasiddic Jews, regular practicing Jews (with tefillahs and prayer shawls, praying all during the flight), and just people, Hebrew of course. In spite of initially feeling like a stanger in a strange land, I felt comfortable, and very safe. The security was as you would hope it would be, not half assed. You felt that it was the way it should be...not slip ups. We flew at 39,000 feet over the North Pole, then south to the North Sea, Germany, Balkins to Mediterranean, into Israel. There were big thunderheads, it was a bumpy landing. No bells on this flight, in the US, it would be a 3 bell landing. We landed on one wheel, bounced, and then landed on 2...darn good job. Pilot had probably flown Israeli fighter jets, since all Israelis are required to serve in the military. Anyway, as luck would have it, ha ha, there was again a checked baggage problem...the carousel quit working, again with people jumping up on the carousel to remove their bags, JFK all over again. Of course our two checked bags were the last bin to come down, but hey! we got our bags. Stopped to pick up our WiFi hot spot, changed some money, then into the cab for our ride into Tel Aviv. We're very pleased with the Hotel Dan, modern comfortable room. The concierge made a reservation for us at Bocaccio, Italian/Israel restaurant across the street. We showered, put on clean clothes, and off we went.

Beautiful sunset as we left our room

The restaurant was wonderful, the decor was sort of bohemian, with sculptures and pencil portraits of the employess crafted by the chef!

...as we entered, an intoxicating aroma of fresh seafood engulfed our senses. The menu was accompanied by an iPad with the usual wine list, all Israeli wines from the Golan, Judean Hills, etc. (and I forgot to mention that from what I've seen so far, Israel is just like CA...same vegetation, same arid conditions, same wine growing areas),

 

PLUS, it had pictures of the food, such as my eggplant appetizer, a fanned Japanese eggplant with mozzarella and pesto...it was yum!

 

How about chicken rolled with cheese and bacon...I told Robert this is where Israelis come to get their treif on.

iPad photo...cool, huh?

And what dinner is complete without a selfie?

Tomorrow, Robert's childhood friend is picking us up to take us to the cemetery where Robert's mother is buried, and some other site...I figured I've been awake for about 28-30 hours...my way to get on Israeli time...night!

 

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Did you ever see History Of The World, Part 1...Mel Brooks movie?

HOTW, P1 is one of our favorite movies, we laugh as much now as we did when we first saw it.  It's probably rather offensive to some folks...sorry.  There's a funny song and dance skit, where Mel Brooks and crew are leaving Rome, and they parody Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movies...with their own "We're off on the road to Judea...we certainly do get around"!  Robert and I have been singing this little ditty all week as we've prepared for our trip.  Depending on internet service, and how well I can blog on an iPad, updates may appear.  Tomorrow, Tel Aviv!
Till then, bye!