Israel Discovery
Day Two – 27 Nov 2009
Tel Aviv-Jaffa
Weather: Sunny and 22 (shorts and t-shirt)
I got a pleasant wake-up call at 7:30 and made my way down to breakfast. It’s the usual fare for breakfast with eggs, fruits and bread. The absence of bacon was noted.
After breakfast, I went up to the lobby and met up with the six others. Our tour guide showed up just after 8:30. Zvika is an older gentleman with a good sense of humour and a very optimistic. He is also quite religious.
He directed us to our van.
Yup.
Van.
It’s a seven seater minivan, and apparently, it is our transportation for the entire tour. The more legroom with Insight doesn’t apply to the Eastern Med tours so this wasn’t unexpected. I can’t wait to see how the luggage is going to fit in the back.
Zvika acts as driver and tour guide and told us that we would rotate seats. After a round of introductions, we set off for a driving tour around Tel Aviv as Zvika pointed out some of the older homes and buildings. Tel Aviv is only 100 years old, so there are few older buildings like in Jaffa, which is 5000 years old.
After driving around for a half hour, we enter Jaffa and drove by the flea market then parked up near the theatre. We walked to the top where we got the same nice view of Tel Aviv. Then we walked through the narrow streets of Jaffa where Zvika pointed out the gothic style arches which indicate that they are at least 900 years old. This area of Jaffa is home to a lot of artisans and we dropped into one shop where sculptures are made from silver.
After that, he showed us an orange tree suspended above the ground with the roots in some sort of base. I don’t know what it was made of but the tree was alive and had a number of oranges on the branches.
I took some pictures of the trees and the numerous cats in the area and Zvika pointed us to a WC that we could use while he returned to get the van. From there we proceeded to Mini-Israel. Once on the highway, it was difficult for the three of us in the rear to hear Zvika even with the microphone, so I missed some of the commentary. I caught the part about using the methane from the dump to generate electricity and the plans to replace coal with natural gas at another plant.
The trip to Mini-Israel took a little more than a half hour. Being low season, there were few people there which made it easy to walk around.
The models highlights buildings and areas of Israel in 1:200 scale. It had a number of buildings from Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Masada, Jerusalem and other areas. The model of the David Hotel and the walls of Jerusalem were pretty impressive, however, for the amount of time taken to get to and from the location, I don’t think it was worth it. It was interesting but not what I’d consider a highlight.
We returned to Tel Aviv by 2 pm and Zvika took us to his favorite falafel restaurant. He brought us to the counter and ordered a turkey donair for each of us (whether we wanted it or not). The restaurant owner gave us a falafel to try. It was just a ball with something green inside. Tasty, but I’ve yet to find out what it is made of. The donair was very good. The restaurant makes its own pitas and they were thicker and lighter than the gyro pitas I had in Greece.
We were done by 2:30 and on the road for the Carmel Market before it closed up for Shabbat. The market is mostly arts and crafts. I got a hand made fridge magnet then Zvika took us to the fruit and vegetable market that I had walked through yesterday. With only 30 minutes to closing, the place was packed with people getting last minute deals. One woman on the tour was looking for Turkish Delight and I showed her the shop where I had seen it yesterday. After the purchase, we found Zvika waiting for us at the end of the street.
He drove us back to the hotel by 3:30 and gave us our timings for dinner. With an hour before sunset, I took my camera and went down to the beach for a walk. The sand is incredible. I couldn’t walk in it with my sneakers, so I took them off and hoped there was no broken glass. I got to the shore and walked along, watching the sun set and the locals place with Frisbees and soccer balls. I took pictures of the setting sun and walked back to the hotel. I noticed there were shops along the beach that I couldn’t see from the hotel. There’s a nice ice cream shop there.
At 6:30, I went down to the restaurant for the Shabbat dinner. Zvika met us there and gave us some background on the Shabbat and a blessing. Others in the restaurant were singing/chanting prayers before the meal. Zvika shared a glass of wine with the table (everyone drank from the same cup…not something I was going to do despite having gotten my H1N1 shot).
Zvika gave us our timings for tomorrow morning and left to celebrate Shabbat with his own family. The Shabbat meal is something I think is a lot like Sunday Dinner that we used to have when I was young. Shabbat, however, requires that no work is done from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. No food can be cooked as a result. Tonight’s meal was pre-cooked but I have no idea what we’ll be eating tomorrow night. Apparently, they’re not even allowed to boil water.
The buffet dinner was quite nice. I had chicken and mozzaball soup, chicken schnitzel, potatoes and a sample of several desserts. We finished up by 8. I came back to my room to get in some last minute internet business before my 24 hours were up and packed up for tomorrow. Bags need to be out by 7:45 with our departure for Tiberius at 8:30. Traffic should be light.
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