Israel Discovery
Day One – 26 Nov 2009
Tel Aviv
Weather: Sunny and 22.
I slept like a rock. The beds are like the ones in Greece – very firm. I woke at 10 am and left at 11 for my walk. The front desk clerk had an envelope for me with a note that the meeting with our tour guide takes place tonight at 8 pm. She also directed me to the elevator where there’s a button to bring you down to the beach level. The traffic on the two lane road moves fast, so it’s easiest to cross at crosswalks. Unlike so many other cities in this area of the world, the drivers of Tel Aviv do give pedestrians some right to cross the road at a crosswalk. There are a lot of bikes and motorcycles with some bike lanes which, like Berlin, you have to watch yourself crossing. Overall, the traffic here is a lot more like home than any other European city I’ve been in, and nothing compared to the chaos of Cairo.
Once across the road, I started walking along a promenade that was built between the beach and the road. It’s wide, full of benches out of the sun and easy to walk on. It stretches all the way to Jaffa and for kilometers in the other direction. An absolutely gorgeous walking area for tourists and locals.
It took me about 40 minutes to walk to Jaffa. The breeze off the Mediterranean was perfect to cut into the heat. Along the way, I took pictures of Jaffa and the hotels along the strip. The area also has a lot of cats that seem to live among the rocks on parts of the shoreline.
Unfortunately, Jaffa is no Plaka. I half expected an area of shops but found the flea market was more for locals with junk for sale and only one or two touristy shops. I didn’t really plan to buy anything as my feet were already aching. I used the hotel’s map to find my way up to the open air theatre at the top of the hill (the only climbing was a couple of staircases). The view of Tel Aviv from the top is beautiful.
Next to the theatre is a bridge called the Wishing Bridge with the signs of the Zodiac along the ledge. The lore has it that if you touch your sign while looking at the port, any wish you make will come true.
I imagine my $100 million is waiting for me at home right now.
I walked around the edge of Jaffa back to the clock tower and began my long walk back towards the hotel.
I walked along the promenade until the north end of Charles Clore Park then crossed the road and walked towards the Carmel Market. That was more like it.
The market is several narrow pedestrian streets with shops although much of them are fruits and vegetables. I came out near the intersection of Allenby and King George where I found a Burger King. The staff spoke English perfectly (as do so most Israelis). The restaurant wasn’t the cleanest, but I haven’t thrown up the meal yet.
Despite the protests of my feet, I continued towards Dizengoff Centre, a large mall on Dizengoff Street. The mall is actually easy to miss. I only noticed it because a security guard was checking purses and packs of people entering and I remembered a story from around 1996 of a suicide bomber who was turned back by one of the security guards. (The suicide bomber then targeted a group near an ATM).
The mall is huge and is uniquely designed. The shops are on a ramp that circles up in a long oblong at least five stories. The mall has two buildings and just about anything you would need from t-shirts, to travel goods, luggage, pharmacy, McDonalds and other restaurants.
I left the mall and continued back towards the hotel. Dizengoff Street is full of regular shops and a lot of small grocery shops. I picked up a couple items and found my way back to the hotel where a hot bath for my feet was in order. I had some time left on my internet and surfed for awhile then got ready for the welcome drink while watching Nat Geo.
I now know that the raccoon dog is the only member of the dog family that plays dead to escape a predator.
Cool.
My impression of Tel Aviv is very positive. The beach is gorgeous and the promenade is spotless. Areas of Jaffa are in much worse condition. One alley smelled very strongly of urine. I’ve heard people say the Israeli people are a bit “gruff.” I haven’t really noticed this as of yet. Certainly the drivers are proof that the Israelis are a little more courteous than other nationalities. This might be limited to Tel Aviv which is known to be one of the more progressive cities in Israel. Jerusalem is more conservative. Should be interesting to see if there is a difference in attitudes.
I went down for the 8 pm welcome drink to an empty lobby. I wondered where everyone was then two women speaking English showed up. We stood around until a young guy came up to us and said the meeting was on the third floor. Apparently, the notice was in the lobby but said something about it changing from English to Hebrew, so it must have been some sort of electronic notice. I never saw it.
We went up to a small room on the third floor where four others were waiting.
Yup. The tour is all of seven people!!
I love it.
There are four Australians (Melbourne and Sydney), two American (California and Florida) and me. We sat down to orange juice and the Insight rep told us he was not the tour guide; that we would meet the tour guide tomorrow morning. The rep gave us a basic introduction about the tour and the hotel, but couldn’t answer questions about the sites and said the tour guide would tell us anything we wanted to know in the morning. He confirmed that the water was safe to drink.
The rep asked us if the transfers worked out. One couple had to call the tour group to find out where their transfer was and he showed up soon after (and was pretty cute according to them). Another two waited and the transfer showed up soon after and drove very fast.
The rep told us we would visit Miniature Israel tomorrow as well as Jaffa and a market. Tomorrow night we have a Shabbat dinner at the hotel. He told us that the Shabbat breakfast on Saturday would be only uncooked food and asked us not to be disappointed.
We plan to gorge at the dinner.
After the rep finished, we stuck around to finish our orange juice and chat. Three of the Australians are going to Egypt after this tour as part of the Land of the Prophets tour. The other three are going on the Jordan Experience with me and the two Australians are on the same flight to Amman. I mentioned that I was thinking about doing a half day Dead Sea visit from Amman as it’s possible we won’t get to the Dead Sea until after dark.
We broke up after a few minutes and returned to our rooms. We had to make our own wake-up calls, which I kind of like as well as I don’t take as long to get ready in the morning and often find I could have easily slept another half hour to an hour. My wake-up is for 7:30 with meeting the tour guide for 8:30.
Go to Day Two
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