Day Five

I am not particularly observant of the Sabbath. I know this comes as no shocker to most of you. But I very much respect those of you who keep the Sabbath. That said...

Saturday, Shabbat morning of our trip, the group had the opportunity to spend the morning Shul hopping and finding a place for services, or to sleep in (a VERY much needed option for most of us). I used this first opportunity of a large block of un-planned time to visit with my cousin Len who was kind enough to pick me (and Nicole) up after our quiet breakfast and take us to see Tel Aviv, roughly 45 minutes away from Jerusalem. We would not have otherwise had this opportunity on this trip so I was pleased to have the chance and thrilled that Len would be our tourguide.

We left a virtually silent Jerusalem, got on the highway and headed West into the fog and humidity of Tel Aviv.

I must stop to make one note here: Jerusalem is DRY. Or, rather, it WAS dry when we were there. So dry that I couldn't drink enough water to quench the thirst on some days. My skin was SCREAMING and my lips were chapped and it was a constant battle.

Our morning in Tel Aviv solved that issue for me in about 5 seconds flat.

Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are like comparing apples and oranges. Tel Aviv was sleepy when we got there but not because everyone was in Synagogue. They were sleeping in, or walking dogs, or heading to the coffee shops. While Jerusalem prayed, Tel Aviv was waking up from a small hangover (ok, not really but you get the idea). Tel Aviv is a city with tall and modern buildings, palm trees here and there, pretty people walking big dogs with coffee in their hands, some shops starting to open for the day. This is just NOT a scene you would see on a Saturday in Jerusalem. Well, most of Jerusalem.

Len first drove us over to a large unassuming government municipal building and parked the car. We walked up some stairs onto a plaza and then he explained that this was the spot where Rabin was shot. He had been speaking in this plaza (where we stood) then walked down the stairs that we just came up and was shot by someone (an Israeli) who had come from behind the stairs.

There are markers and placards of this event to view. How strange to see the plaza in which we stood, filled, in these photos, with thousands. It was such a quiet and unassuming marker of this major event. There is a small memorial now at the bottom of the stairs (photo below) and it was a solemn but important thing to see while we could.



We then took the car to the waterfront and parked it and walked for a long while down a great paved promenade along the beach...at the Mediterranean...it's blue, and gorgeous, and the fog was lifting and it was blue...really blue. A beach I REALLY would like to go back and enjoy with some time someday. The air was warm, and salty, and so different from the air we had been breathing for the last four days. It was a really nice change of pace, also, to be so relaxed and not to have to run on to the next thing. Below is a shot I took from the promenade. I realize, now that it's uploaded here, that it doesn't NEARLY describe the beauty of this beach and the color of the water. So PLEASE...use a little imagination and trust me.





As we walked along the promenade, we headed towards Yafo (or Jaffa or however you normally spell it). (In Israel it's Yafo I believe.) It looked like this beautiful old oasis jutting out into the water at the end of this modern city. We walked all the way down the promenade, through what looks like a fish market (and smelled like one) and up some tiny staircase/corridor with water running down it. Up and into Yafo we climbed. A lot of the old buildings and stairs here were built with that same Jerusalem stone used throughout Jerusalem. It's very old and uneven and SLICK as can be with water all over it. It was tough to climb these stairs in our rubber bottomed walking shoes. But we managed and got to the top and into this lovely plaza that, when it's not eary Saturday morning, you can tell is such a wonderful place to come and eat at a restaurant, or walk through the streets, or see people performing. And the view is incredible, looking out towards the Mediterranean or back towards Tel Aviv. It was such a cool place and a wonderful and very different experience than all we had seen and done thus far. Yafo, like Tzfat, also has a lot of artists living there and there were beautiful things to see all along our walk up onto the plaza.

We stopped into a small Gelato shop and had some cappucino and talked and caught up a bit. Len is VERY knowledgable about where we were, Israeli history, Israeli culture. He told us a lot and we soaked it all up, asking question after question about the people, the places, the feelings, the news, everything. It was so nice to have an Israeli perspective on the things we see and hear only through the American news media. I can tell you that these two perspectives are not the same. No surprise there.

We enjoyed our coffees (and the smells from the Arab bakery next door) and then walked back to the car. Our morning had to come to an end so that we could make it back to Jerusalem for an afternoon with the group in the Old City. Here are some shots of Tel Aviv/Yafo:


This is a small museum along the promenade. I don't remember what museum, but I liked the way the new building was stuck into the shell of the old.




This is the view of Yafo from the promenade.


Here's Nicole walking up the steps in Yafo from near the bottom where we entered.



Here's me and Len near the top of those stairs.


This is the view out to the Mediterranean. The street up here was lined with restaurants. How cool would it have been to have lunch in one of them? They weren't open yet when we were there.


This is the view back to Tel Aviv from Yafo. The fog was lifting as we left to head back to Jerusalem.


Once we got back, we bid farewell to Len until dinner time, regrouped with the rest of the ladies, and walked back into the Old City for a scavenger hunt of sorts. It was a crystal clear, gorgeous day back in Jerusalem and we spent the afternoon on what's called a Jerusalem Tourgame. We were split into 6 groups of 5 and sent out, competing against each other, to hunt for certain landmarks in the old city and to answer a series of trivia questions which could be answered by seeing things along the way as described in our materials. We were sent to look at ruins, notice certain things about them, and answer very specific questions about what we were seeing. The route we took and the questions we were asked basically took us on an extremely detail oriented and very historical and thorough tour of the whole Jewish quarter. It was PENOMENAL. I CANNOT wait to do it again. It was incredible! The ruins were amazing, the Jewish quarter was beautiful and the history lesson learned was invaluable. I highly recommend it to anyone who may have the chance to participate. We ALL had a great time but my team won! Woohoo! We were quite proud of ourselves. :-) Of course, the margins were slim at best between all the groups. We all did a spectacular job and I think we all really got a lot out of the experience.

Some of the sights:

The Dome of the Rock and the Muslim Quarter

This portion ruin showed us the type of archways, built in Herodian times, that were within great rooms and halls. From this ruin we could tell how they were built, how big the room was, and how they were supported. What you can't see, because it's so bright, is that beyond this is the Temple Mount and then in the distance was the Mount of Olives.


This ruin is of the original wall around the city of Jerusalem from the time of the FIRST temple (I believe...I need to check that). To the left was inside the city and to the right was outside. While looking at this ruin we learned why the wall was built this way (thick like this to discourage those who might try to dig or pound their way through), how tall it likely was (roughly 10 feet higher than this), and some of the methods of protection used in the construction of the wall (it's thickness for one, and some evidence of outer walls in front of the wall as decoys).


The winning team! Beth, Cheryl, Shani (the game leader), me, Diane and Mim. The certificate says "This certificate is awarded to (blank - insert name here) for his/her participation on the winning team in Ross Culiner's Exploration Game in the month of January in the year 2007. We are supposed to hang it on the Eastern wall of our homes as a reminder of where Jerusalem is.
:-)



This was a great way to end our experience within the Old City. We would not be back, on this trip at least. It was a nice way to say goodbye. For now. Isn't it beautiful?

As the sun set on the Old City, we walked back to the hotel for Havdallah with Rabbi Kelman. Nicole and I ran out of there right afterwards to meet Len once again. He took us home for dinner which was a WONDERFUL experience.
I had met Len's family on a limited number of occasions in the US when he was home to visit. It was a real treat to see them again in their home. Ilana, Len's beautiful wife, made Nicole and me feel very welcome. She is a wonderful woman. Len and Ilana met on a Kibbutz as teenagers, practically, and have been together ever since. Her family is originally from Morocco and she is dark complected and so are their 4 kids. Liad and Maor are in their 20s now. When I last saw them, they were gangly teenaged boys and they spoke practically no English. Now, they are grown men, VERY active in the military and truly gorgeous. Liad speaks great English and Maor is getting better with his as well. Liad will be married this spring and his fiancee is beautiful. These big boys have two younger siblings. Shir and Dor, 13 and 10. Just as beautiful as their older brothers. Nicole took all the great photos of everyone and I will post them here as soon as I can. My apologies to our family members reading this and wanting to see them.

We had a rollicking, very fun (very delicious!) dinner together. Just as a family dinner should be. We talked and laughed and planned future visits. I learned things about my family that I never knew before. It was truly hard to leave at the end of the night knowing how long it would be until we saw each other again.

Hopefully not another 10 years or so.

We returned to the hotel exhausted from the day, thrilled for the experiences, and warmed by our family time with Len and Ilana. A true highpoint for both Nicole and me. I cant wait to go back.

Next: Day 6, our last day: Susan's House, Zeev Bielski from JAFI and dinner at Schleifer.