Israel April 2015

Tel Aviv 5 April 2015
We had a 100 minute flight from Athens to Tel Aviv. Somehow it took 7 hours!
At the airport, we had allowed extra time for El Al security procedures which turned out to be very quick. The aircraft which was to take us arrived into Athens a bit late, but took over an hour to turn around. We were wondering why this was taking so long, until we saw all the crew, cabin and cockpit, strolling on to the aircraft with all their duty free shopping! It seems that getting the flight back on schedule was a lower priority than the crew shopping.
I heard an irate Israeli passenger ask the girl at the desk about our departure time, which was 1145. He said “Is that today or tomorrow?” Brilliant, I thought.
The flight was fine, and Tel Aviv airport has been completely rebuilt in the 20 years since we were there. Customs procedures took a while, but we soon arrived at the hotel, and met up with John & Bronia and Amy, and Linda & Mark. After dinner, Geni & Peter arrived, so the whole group was together for the Israel adventure.

Heading South 6 April

On the bus and on our way at 0800, with our guide Aidel, a friend of Sylvia’s, who we had met a few weeks ago in Melbourne, when she was there for a wedding. The bus was great, just the right size for us and all our luggage, heading south towards what is called the Salad Trail, which is a Moshav, a commercial farming venture, which grows vegetables in what is, in reality, a desert. Our guide, named Peter, turned out to be the uncle of our vet in Brighton! Really!

He was excellent, keeping us entertained with stories of the history of the place. The use of drip irrigation and other techniques, including recycling water for the plants, and then recycling the recycled water again, produces prolific vegetable “gardens”, which we walked around and through, sampling the produce as we went. They don’t sell any of their produce, but instead take groups such as ours for tours, and charge a fee. They take 45,000 people a year through the Moshave, which is about 7 km from Gaza, and about the same from the Egyptian border.

Peter told us not to worry if we heard explosions, that, in fact they would be coming from Egypt, which is in the process of clearing a kilometre wide strip along the border, eliminating terrorists and tunnels as they go, which, of course, the Israelis are very happy about.
The rainfall in the area is around 80 ml per year, which well and truly qualifies it as a desert.
Peter told us they have a local beer called ISIS! He asked us what we thought its motto was; Peter (our Peter) said, “Knock the head off this one” which broke us up. He was actually pretty close, it is ” The beer to blow your head off”.

Part of the history of the area involved the original kibbutz, a little closer to the Egyptian border, where, in 1948, 39 people with minimal weaponry, faced off against a 1000 strong Egyptian army. Eventually, running low on ammunition, they used the most reliable system of communication, carrier pigeons, to send for help from Tel Aviv. The supplies did arrive, but were dropped too close to the Egyptian lines. The Egyptian general, who happened to be Nasser, made the mistake of trying to encircle the Jews, and finally failed in his attack.
In the process, 8 of the Jews were killed, and to commemorate that, carrier pigeons are kept at the Moshav, and the tourists release them, and they fly around for a while then re enter their cage at their leisure. We all were given a pigeon, and released them on cue.

Next on our agenda was a visit to Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev Desert. Makhtesh is a Hebrew word, which is used world wide to describe this phenomenon, which appears to be a crater, 40km long and 9km wide, but was formed by millions of years of erosion, rather than a volcano or meteor. Prior to checking out the information centre, Amy and Elly climbed over the safety fence to the edge of the cliff and Odid some Toyota jumps for the cameras – most out of character for Elly, who freaks out near cliff edges.

We then filed into the restaurant and managed, without any difficulty at all to order about 3 times as much food as we could eat.

They have an excellent information centre, the first section of which is dedicated to the memory of Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who loved the area and flew over it often as an airforce pilot. They had a movie of his training and actual flight on the shuttle Columbia, which broke up on re-entry. Later, his son, who followed his father into the airforce, was killed in an air crash.
The next section was a video dedicated to the wildlife in the Makhtesh, which is fairly prolific, but much of it nocturnal.
Driving from the Makhtesh to the hotel on the Dead Sea, the children were starting to get a bit out of control, spotting non existing animals, and generally arguing about how to connect iPod music to the bus speakers.

7 April  Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea
On the bus for a 30 minute drive to Ein Gedi, for a hike up to a waterfall, an unlikely scenario, given that the hike, which took a little over an hour, followed a narrow valley, with the only trace of water being a small stream at the base of the valley, the rest being stark, dry and almost treeless. You can elect to walk to the waterfall along the stream, but Aidel suggested the track above the steam. Bronia was tempted not to try the climb, but finally decided to give it a go. She was greeted with applause as she reached the falls – well deserved.

We expected large crowds at the waterfall, but not so. Only a few others were there. We all had a dip in the falls pool, which was great after the walk in the heat, and we dried off on the walk back to the bus.

Speaking of crowds, we had picked our time well, because, on the way back there were hundreds of people climbing up towards the falls, it must have been jam packed later in the day. This is holiday season in Israel, with us being here for the Passover week – this means lots and lots of crowds at every site, no bread, no beer, and no various other things.
Back at the hotel, all the troops were determined to float in the Dead Sea. I wasn’t so sure, because last time I did that, it was agony. My crappy skin! I didn’t have any infections, but was still a bit dubious, so I gently waded in, and sure enough, I got the message; my skin and the Dead Sea are mutually incompatible.
All the others had a great swim, and I stayed ashore admiring the view across the sea to the hills of Jordan on the other side. Afterwards we smuggled some gin, vodka, and various other goodies onto the beach for a group Happy Hour.

Masada 8 April 2015

Today was the day to visit Masada, which was only 20 mins north from our hotel.
For those of you who don’t know about Masada, I will give a brief history, beginning during the rule of King Herod, between 37BC to 4 BC. Herod ruled Judea on behalf of the Romans, and was quite paranoid regarding his own security. He knew of Masada, which is a flat topped mountain adjacent to the Dead Sea.
He created an impenetrable fortress there, consisting of palaces, well stocked store rooms, and an elaborate water system, which he used until his death in 4BC, whereupon Masada was used by the Romans as a garrison station until 6AD and then became deserted.
History records the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66AD. The Romans wiped out most of the centres of revolution, including the destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. During this time a group of about 1000 Jews made their way to the top of Masada and set about modifying the palaces, etc, to provide for their modest lifestyle.
They lived there for about 7 years, until, finally, the Romans came in force to destroy them. There was no practical way for the Romans to gain entry to Masada, so, while they thought about it, they built 7 camps around the base of the mountain, as well as an encircling wall, to prevent any escape path.
Finally, the Romans decided that the best way to tackle the problem was to build an enormous ramp up the western side of the mountain. That ramp is still there today. When the ramp was finally completed, and the Romans entered Masada, they found complete silence, along with the bodies of the Jews, who had decided to commit suicide, rather than live as slaves to the Romans. They had drawn lots as to how the suicides would be completed, with ten men killing their own families, and then the ten killing each other, until the last one killed himself.
As it turns out, 2 women and 5 children were found hiding, and it was through their stories that the sequence was pieced together, by the first historian, Josephus Flavius.
There are 3 ways to get to the Masada, one, less popular is via the ramp, which now has a pathway incorporated, but the main ways are to climb the “Snake Trail”, which winds up the eastern side, or via the cable car.
Some of us elected to walk up the Snake Trail, and others took the cable car. Because of the blazing sun, I wimped out and took the cable car. Elly, Linda, Mark, Geni, Peter and Bella walked the Snake Trail, with Mark, who is a masochistic bike rider who climbs 3 mountains in a single day on his bike, was the clear leader, as he cruised to the top with barely a sweat.

Aidel gave us a great, really informative tour of the ruins at the top. It really does concentrate the mind as you walk through ruins, much of which are designated as the original walls as they were found, along with some wall paintings in the bath house section, as to what actually occurred here nearly 2000 years ago.

After our tour, we boarded our trusty bus, and Sergei, our driver took us to Jerusalem.

We said goodbye to Sergei, and also to Aidel, and met our new guide, Mitti.

Our hotel was in a great position, right in the centre of Jerusalem. One of its best features was Happy Hour, of which we took good advantage, on an outside deck area. The Happy Hour was especially good, because the wine was free!
Amy left us, sadly, as she had to be back home for work, but we soldiered on.
The hotel staff marked a recommended restaurant on a map for us, saying that it was a 15 min walk, so Mark was designated map reader and navigator. He did an excellent job, and after much uncertainty interpreting the map, took us to the spot where the restaurant was marked. The problem was, there was no restaurant!
We asked at an adjacent hotel where the restaurant was, and the lady said, yes, turn right and it is on the other side of the road. We obeyed, and after a while, when the map indicated we were way past the restaurant, we were about to give up, but our fearless navigator, who had only recently almost run up Masada and back, volunteered to run back and see if the instructions should have been left, instead of right.
Sure enough, that was the case, and he found the place. That 15 min walk took an hour!
Never mind, the restaurant was great, and we will probably visit it again when we return to Jerusalem later on our voyage.
Elly received a few greetings, starting with son Daniel, who said it was her birthday in Australia, even if it wasn’t yet in Israel.

Elly’s Birthday 9 April 2015

Elly’s birthday started with a small breakfast birthday cake organised by Limor, and created by the hotel chef, followed by the boarding of the bus, and what has now become a regular event; a pre “flight” briefing from Linda before the bus starts rolling. This consists of a Welcome Aboard, followed by reprimands for any previous behaviour lapses, and what is expected of us on the day.

Harmony Hotel Jerusalem.

This generally gets the day started with some degree of levity.
We drove north out of Jerusalem, with Mark informing us that he had special music to match the occasion, whereupon we were treated to a booming rendition of “Jerusalem”, sung by Harry Secombe – fantastic!
We were scheduled to return for 5 nights later on in our travels.
We drove to Nazareth, and, after a stroll through the market, found the Church of the Annunciation, which is on the site of the original church, where, supposedly the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to bear a son who would become the Messiah. The church was very imposing, and was completed in relatively recent times.

From there we travelled north to the Sea of Galilee, or the Kineret, as the Israelis call it, travelling up the western side, past the city of Tiberias, to the Church of the Beatitude, which is near the spot where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount.

As you can see, we were doing the Christian version of the tour at this stage.

In the evening we were driven by Tzuri, our new driver, to a recommended restaurant, where we, once again, ate too much food, and drank too much wine. But we all had a fabulous time, and, on the way home the whole bus became somewhat out of control, with Mark’s music playing loudly, Limor And Sylvia dancing with abandon up the front, and the rest of us singing along, with a bit of dancing as well.

Limor & Sylvia doing their dance routine on the bus

Not too couth, and more than a little untidy, we arrived back at our accommodation, which was a kibbutz, which provides quite decent self contained apartments. On our arrival back from the restaurant, Elly was still in birthday mode, so she insisted that we all stay up and help her celebrate. This we did, and became more out of control, with the standard of stories and jokes taking a nose dive. Poor Mitti, who had joined us with her husband for dinner, must have wondered what she had got herself into.

Sylvia thinking about bargaining.

Eventually we staggered off to bed to prepare for the next day’s adventure.

North to Capernaum  10 April
This morning, after a particularly acidic pre flight briefing from Linda about our behaviour the previous night, we once again headed north to Capernaum, which is the town where Jesus did most of his teaching, after the people of Nazareth, who had known him as he grew up, felt that he had no right preaching new ideas to them, and, basically threw him out of town.
Here, there is a quite new church, which sits elevated above some excavations, which researchers are fairly sure was the house of St Peter. This is the only place where there is mention of Jesus and Peter on the walls in that section of the excavations.

Adjacent to these excavations there are the ruins of a synagogue, from around the 4th century, quite well preserved in parts.

Our next stop was in the area of the kibbutz Genosar, where they have on display a quite incredible fishing boat, from the time of Jesus. This boat was discovered by two fishermen brothers, when a drought had lowered the level of the Kineret. There was a massive excavation and preservation effort, using expertise from all over the world, in a race against time as the water level was beginning to rise again.

They managed to do it, and the boat is now on display for all to see.

Mother & Daughter walking on water.

We headed for the Hamat Gader hot water springs, where there is an enormous area of hot springs, some under cover, and some in the open. The place was packed, as this was the last day of Passover, and everyone was still on holidays. Every event or place of interest seems to be jam packed during this week of the year. The weather was a bit dodgy, with some showers and some sun, and some of us elected not to bathe ( me included ) and some did. While they were swanning around in the baths, it started to rain, which presented a problem for those of us minding everyone’s clothes, and also made the temperature drop from 23 deg down to 18 deg, so we all packed up and left.

In the small, old village of Rosh Pinar, we managed to find a hamburger restaurant, so we put in our mass take away order and scuttled back to our little group of houses on the kibbutz for another rowdy evening.

Rosh Pinar 11 April 2015
We awoke to steady, drenching rain, so Mitti had to reassess our plans, which delayed our departure an hour. We initially were to do a small hike at a nature reserve area called the Banias. This is the area where the Hermon Stream, which receives its water from Mount Hermon and the northern Golan heights.
The Hermon Stream eventually joins with 2 other streams to become the Jordan River.

This place has a Greek history which stems from the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. It is a very lush area and was used as a religious place by the Greeks. There are remains here of a temple built to Worship the god Pan, and was named Paneas. Later Arabic pronunciation changed it to Banias.

In the first century BC, the Romans annexed Paneas to the Kingdom of Herod, who built a temple, which still has some remains, dedicated to his patron, Augustus.
We decided we would start our hike along the Hermon Stream, to the waterfall, since the rain had eased a bit. The stream was flowing fast, and the surroundings were very beautiful, with Elly stopping every 100 metres or thereabouts to take photos. In amongst the beautiful nature there were ancient flour mills, a Roman bridge, and other evidence of distant eras.

One section of the track we were on was suffering from the steady rain and tourist traffic, and was a path of mud. It stuck to our shoes, and wouldn’t let go. We became taller as we walked, and had to try to scrape some of it off on rocks and tree roots.
Finally we arrived at the waterfall, to be greeted by slow clapping from our fellow mudnicks, who had been standing around for some time, cold and wet and muddy, waiting for the photographer to arrive.

We made our way out to where our bus was waiting, and Sylvia had taken one for the team, by taking command of a hose in a trough, to clean our shoes ( sort of ) as we stood there like horses being shod.

Next on the agenda was a lunch spot in Metula, which is the Northern most town in Israel, right next to the border with Lebanon. They rearranged chairs and tables for us, and we enjoyed our lunch, although, the ever present Passover ( last day, hooray ) meant I had to order 3 different meals before they had the item available.
The restaurant had a verandah running along the outside of the room where we were dining, and just as we were about to finish, there was a loud bang, as that section of the verandah collapsed. The whole verandah roof had fallen about a metre on the side which was attached to the building, and a few beams detached themselves, one of which smashed through the glass windows into our room. Glass showered everywhere.
I think that if we hadn’t moved the chairs and tables when we came in, a couple of us would have been sitting where that timber came throught the window. Lucky.

Once we had worked out what had happened, and knew that it wasn’t a rocket from Lebanon, we quietly made our way out, into the still pouring rain.

Next we visited a winery, Meister Wines, which is run by a young couple who are studying and learning the skills of winemaking. They are on a property which is owned by a man who had grown tired of the winemaking business, as he had never tried to sell his wine or market it in any way. His family had owned the land ( which is most unusual in Israel ), and they found caves which date back to around 100-300BC, which they used for the storage of the wine barrels.

This is the area where we gathered for the wine tasting. The couple who run it now are doing it really for the love of it and the lifestyle, but are making a go of it.
Mark suggested we purchase 6 of one, a Merlot and 6 of another, a Cab Sav, and John suggested that maybe we should perhaps also buy some for the next day as well! Very funny. Although later on that night, with several empty wine bottles on the table, it didn’t seem so outrageous.

Golan Heights  12 April
We woke to a fine morning, and, after breakfast, just as we were heading for the bus, the rain came again!
Mitti advised us that the Kineret ( Sea of Galilee ) had risen 3cm since the previous day, and that it snowed on Mt Hermon, around 10cm and still snowing. This amount of rain at this time of year, is almost unheard of, and everyone is really happy. Ha!
We drove up to the Golan Heights, which are volcanic in origin, in the northern part of Israel, and is like a plateau without the usual limestone which is in the rest of Israel. We jumped out of the bus, in pouring rain, and did a tour of an olive factory, which resulted in some purchases by the women, especially Geni, who bought so much she had to ship it home! By the time we finished there, the sun had come out.
Driving along towards a lookout point over the Hula Valley to the west, ( we could finally see now the rain had stopped and the cloud lifted), we could see signs on the fences warning to beware of mines. The road we were on was formerly the Syrian border, and was heavily mined (prior to the 6 day war in 1967). The Israels had cleared most of the mines, but could not guarantee that they found them all, to which several exploding cows attested, so they have fenced in a lot of the area.

We arrived at a kibbutz , Merom Golan, where Mitti had arranged for a couple of guys, Ilan and Erez, who run their own business, driving tourists around the Golan area in the vicinity of the Syrian border. These guys had, of course done their military time, particularly Ilan, who had been an officer in the Special Services, and knew the area well. They gave us a quick briefing on what we were going to see, and we then all piled into their 2 Jeeps. The weather had decided to turn nasty, freezing cold and raining, and the heating and sealing in the jeeps was less than optimum. We had Linda and Mark in the rear of our Jeep, and their ventilation was airier than ours. Elly was continuously winding down her window to take photos, much to Linda’s disgust. The weather was worse, with the rain becoming snow.
We drove around on muddy, 4WD only tracks, parallel to the Syrian border, and saw more mine warning signs, old tank “pitas”, one Syrian and one Israeli, which are circular flat sections of land with raised outer edges, to which tanks are driven to, so that a circular defence line is formed, with all tank guns pointing outwards.
There were also a couple of derelict tanks which were left there as a deterrent after the Yom Kippur war in 1973 We then drove right into the demilitarised zone adjacent to the Syrian border, right up to an Israeli bunker. It was snowing and raining as we tumbled out of the Jeeps and filed down into the bunker, using only a couple of torches and iPhones to find our way in.
It was freezing cold and bare concrete, as we all crowded In and listened to Ilan explaining the complicated situation with the Syrians over the years, emphasising that they were too busy at the moment fighting each other in the civil war to be of much concern to Israel, and that the booms we had heard as we entered were explosions from within Syria. Israel’s main concern in the region at the moment is to keep a good eye on the border to ensure it remains calm. Erez mentioned that when people ask him where is the safest place to be in Israel, he answers “Switzerland” !

Erez arrived in to the bunker with a pot of tea and some biscuits. A surreal situation, with us in an underground Israeli concrete bunker on the Syrian border, having tea and biscuits!
Israel has lots of these bunkers, and they are all exactly the same. This is because they have a lot of soldiers in the reserve system, and an officer doesn’t need to visit each bunker to familiarise himself with the layout. He can direct his troops with instructions which will apply to any bunker.

Ilan also gave us an outline of the population situation in the Golan Heights. There is a large percentage of Druze living there, around 130,000. They are an ancient offshoot of Islam, but those on the Israeli side of the border are loyal to Israel, and serve in the armed forces, and can become Israeli citizens. Their opposite number on the Syrian side are loyal to Syria, but won’t take up Israeli citizenship because of the uncertainty about the ultimate outcome of border issues, and are more afraid of the Syrian government than the Israeli one. None of the Druze are interested in any conflict, and wish just to live in peace. They believe in reincarnation and say that their numbers remain constant over the years, which supports that belief. They had no cemeteries, as they cremated their departed, however, as some of their number fell during military conflicts and were given military funerals, they finally did establish cemeteries.

When we emerged back into the foul weather, Linda went to the group in the other Jeep, who didn’t have Elly opening the window all the time, and offered her first born grandchild to anyone who would swap Jeeps with her. No one took her up on the offer, so she suffered not so silently all the way back.

After being out all day, without a break, a glass of wine sounded like a good idea, and Mitti had booked another wine tasting session for us, this time at one of the largest wineries in the area, which is a co-operative, taking grapes from kibbutzim all over The Golan area. It was a far cry from the small boutique winery we visited the previous day. It was a bit disappointing, as they obviously we’re only going to give us a taste of about three of their wines. Geni nagged them to give us a couple of different samples to check out, but with limited success.
Dinner at a steak restaurant was fairly average, but at least we could have a beer and some bread at last.
Back home, I snuck inside to do the blog, whilst several of the others said they would have a quiet night and have only one glass of wine – yeah right!

Tzafat 13 April 2015
This morning off to Tzfat, which is one of the 4 holiest cities in Israel, along with Hebron, Tiberias, and Jeruslem.it is a relatively recent city developed in the late 15th century. It is high up and has lots of cute, narrow lanes, between the limestone buildings.

It was initially established in the 12th century as a fortification by the Crusaders.

It has become a spiritual, mythical city, and is the home to many artists and craftspeople. Mitti gave us a briefing on the history of the city, and some background on the Kabbalah, one of the main bastions for Torah study, and incorporating the mystical depth of Judaism.
We wandered the narrow streets, had a look at a synagogue, and visited a glassware shop, where they did a glassblowing demonstration for us. There was also a candle shop which had an incredible array of candles, some religious, and some famous storybook characters on display permanently, quite amazing breadth and detail.
We made a visit to an artist, who produces visual patterns, which represent the sounds made by the shofar, which is the traditional ram’s horn, which is used during new year celebrations. He was a very spiritual person, born in the U.S. and explained the mystical concept of transition from ” what can you do for me?” To “what can I do for you?” as a goal in life.

A cute, character filled town with a heavy religious tone, and beautiful views, when the weather deemed it permissible for us to view.
Onward to the Hula valley, which is a resting point for thousands of migrating birds.

This area was a swampland, which, immediately after the creation of Israel in 1948, to reduce the incidence of malaria, and to make land available for residential purposes, the government decided to drain the area, and also to set aside some 800 acres for a nature reserve.
This had long term detrimental effects, as it turned out, and much of the flora and fauna disappeared, and the migratory birds stopped arriving. Major works were commenced in 1971 to restore the wetlands, and in 1978 they were reopened to the public.
We walked through the reserve, along elevated walkways. We saw some bird life, but obviously missed any mass migration which should be happening around this time. Nevertheless it was a very pleasant little sojourn.

Mitti had very kindly invited us to her house for a Poyke Pot dinner, which included an open bonfire to keep us warm, and two of these pots which held meat and vegetables which had been slow cooking over hot coals for hours by Mitta’s husband Micha. Salads and other nibbles were provided, and we brought our own wine.

After dinner, Micha brought out his guitar and, with the help of a friend, Hilel, who had helped with the dinner, entertained us with some gentle Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan around the fire. It was a beautiful evening, and so generous of Mitti to share it with us.

Rosh Hanikra 14 April
We have a micro economy on the bus, where everyone has some cash, and, as we have dinners, or en route expenses, someone will pay by credit card, and the rest will pay that person with cash. This continues until someone runs out of cash, and if there is no ATM, that person will pay by card, and the others will give him or her cash, so they will be cashed up again.
This way the cash lasts forever and the whole trip is free! I think….
Rosh Hanikra was on our agenda this morning; a beautiful area on the Mediterranean Sea, just around the corner from Lebanon, in fact we could see the marker buoys aligned to indicate the line between Israeli and Lebanese waters. We rode down on a cable car to the sea below, where the ocean has eaten into the cliff face to produce caves and grottos. We walked along inside the main grotto which curved around, giving places to stop and view the waves crashing through the entrance and swirling through the caverns. Coming out the exit, the view was beautiful, with the weather finally doing the right thing, and we basked in the sun for a while.

There were remnants of a railway, which had been initially built into the limestone, running from Turkey through to Mecca. It was never finished, but was used by the British to transport troops and equipment along the Cairo Istanbul line.
Then on to the city of Akko, sometimes referred to as Acre. This place has an enormously complex history, which I won’t drone on about too much. The city we saw on arrival is an Arab walled old town, the walls being in various degrees of deterioration. This was buried during the Ottoman Empire, although the first settling in the are was around 3000 BC.

The city has been controlled throughout history by the Greeks, the Romans, through to administration by the Byzantine Empire around 395 AD. In 638AD following the defeat of the Byzantine army, the city was ruled by Islamic forces.
In 1104AD the Crusaders, after 4 years of siege, took control of Akko, making it their prime port of Palestine.
The city which is visible today, was found to be built over a fortress, built by the Crusaders. This area was built around a central square and included a hospital and various large halls, joined by streets with shops etc. This entire area has been excavated, and is in amazing condition, complete with vaulted ceilings, perfectly preserved. Certainly the most pristine “ruins” I have seen anywhere.

It has been open only a year or so, but you can wander around for an hour or so, where people walked 1000 years ago. There are information bulletins as you walk, and they also provide wireless headphones which give commentary as you go.
The Crusaders were apparently a bit paranoid about their security, and so built a tunnel running from the centre of the fortress to the waterfront, as an escape path, should they need it. This has also been fully preserved, and we walked through it.

We visited a Tunisian Synagogue, which has been the pet project of one particular man, who was giving his lengthy story to Mitti, whilst his daughter gave us the story behind the place.

He had come to Israel from Tunisia, and had spent the last 50 years supervising the construction of the synagogue. It is ornately designed, and almost completely covered with tiles. – walls, floors, and ceilings. The tiles are all natural colours, not dyed, which means they will always keep their colour. Each metal fitting is in carefully polished gold or silver, and there are seven cupboards, all internally decorated, and each containing a scroll of the Torah, one for each day of the week.

Akko 15 April
After a one night stop just outside Akko, we headed south towards Haifa, well, not exactly Haifa, but to the Baha’i Gardens, which overlook Haifa.

The Baha’is philosophy dates back to an Iranian, Bab, who preached liberal themes such as equal opportunity for women, and other things which are addressed these days, but were definitely not in those days. It is a faith which allows people to be Christian Baha’i, or Muslim Baha’i, or Jewish Baha’i.

The gardens are beautifully maintained, and run down the hill to the Shrine, in which Bab’s primary follower is buried. Bab himself was executed in Iran. The shrine and the gardens, were placed on the World Heritage List in 2008.

On our way back towards Jerusalem, we called in to Caesarea. This was a port city created by Herod in 22BC to impress his Roman masters, and to keep favour with them. He created a massive system of breakwaters to make a safe harbour for all the merchant ships in transit, along with a lighthouse, a track for chariot races, and, of course, his own private palace. Caesarea also boasted, store rooms, baths, a theatre and temples to Rome and Augustus.

It is fascinating walking through the area along the beach, and seeing the carefully preserved remains of this amazing city. The theatre, restored, holds several hundred people, and is used , with its modern stage, to this day by artists who have become famous in Israel.

On to Jerusalem, but stopping on the way to run an ATM dry, and to buy a few supplies for the evening, as it was Holocaust Rememberance Day, and the whole of Israel shuts down in the evening. This is the hotel which has Happy Hour with the free wine and food, so we made good use of that, then started on our own supplies.
We just heard that night that mortars had been fired on the kibbutz where we did our jeep ride – scary!

Jerusalem 16 April

Mitti took us this morning to the City of David, this is outside the walls of Old Jerusalem, but, in fact, was where the original city was located. Because of the two streams running in the valley below, the original city was down that slope towards the water.
Today was Hom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and at 11:00 am a siren sounded for one minute, and the whole of Israel stopped. We were on an open section above the excavations, looking across to the Mount of Olives, with the walls of the old city above us as the siren sounded. It was an emotional moment for Elly, where she could reflect on family history past and present.

Across to the Mount of Olives is the old Jewish cemetery on the lower slopes.
We looked at some of the extensive excavations which are still ongoing. This is called the City of David, because David attacked and defeated the city in 1010 BC, making it the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel.
Jerusalem was defendable on most sides, but the issue was water. All of us walked along a tunnel, which had been carved out of the rock, this tunnel was used by the inhabitants to walk through to the area outside the walls where they could collect water from the Gihon spring. This was a defence weakness, as the spring lay outside of the city walls.

Later, as a way of eliminating this problem, the spring was blocked and diverted to the Siloam Pool, which was actually inside the city walls, thus enabling the inhabitants to sustain themselves during any possible siege.
The brave ones among us commenced a walk through this diversion tunnel, which had water flowing through it to a depth of 70 cm. (crotch height), the tunnel is 500 metres long and is generally a little over one body width. I went barefoot, as I had no shoes which wouldn’t be wrecked, and some had sandals or Crocs. This was an amazing experience, walking through this dark tunnel ( we had to use torches or headlights) flowing with water, for half a kilometre. Apparently this tunnel had been started at each end and met in the middle; how that was achieved in those days beggars the imagination. You can actually see in a few places where they had made a mistake, and sharply changed direction. You can also see the point at which the tunnels meet, because of the slight step in the ceiling height, and a slightly different width suddenly.

After the tunnel experience we made our way to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), which is a Herodian wall, considered to be closest to the site of the second Temple, and thus is the most sacred place for religious Jews, outside of the Temple Mount itself.

Following on we wandered through the Arab market back to the hotel. Nearly all restaurants were closed that night because of Holocaust Memorial Day so we stayed in the hotel and watched the events and speeches on tv in the guest lounge room.

Yad Vashem 17 April
Today we went to Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Israel, and is a very impressive establishment. Elly, being on the board of the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, had been having email communication with Yad Vashem before we left home, and had arranged for us to have a personal tour of the facility, however, when we arrived we found that our guide had called in sick, and they hadn’t replaced her.

With much to – ing and fro – ing and negotiating by Elly, it was decided that we could join a small group of four, which had just started. The four people were gracious enough to have us dumped on them, and so our guide, Bernice, took care of us. She was an excellent guide, and obviously very knowledgeable, as you would expect in such a prestigious establishment.

We toured through the main section, which began with the story of Hitler’s rise to power, right through to the terrible aftermath. We then visited the children’s section, which is very dark and ethereal, with the names of the child victims sounding one after another in the darkness. This section is so overpowering that it remains pernamently engraved in our memory from over 20 years ago when we were last there.

Elly then wandered through the Jewish markets, while I stayed home.

How many varieties of halva are possible?

Happy hour at the Harmony Hotel was not to be missed. Food and wine was free flowing for 2 hours. Then out for another fantastic dinner.

Jerusalem 18 April

Today was Christian day, as we drove to the Mount of Olives, and had a great view right across to Jerusalem and the Temple on the Mount. We started down the hill, which supposedly is the path Jesus took as he walked into Jerusalem to stir up a bit of trouble, being upset at all the corruption he had seen.

We passed the Church of Gethsemane, where he was later arrested. We then continued on through Lion’s Gate into the city on what became the Via Dolorosa, which is the path Jesus took carrying the cross for his crucifixion, passing the twelve stations, which marked some event, such as Him falling, or meeting someone of significance, such as his mother, Mary.

This continued until we reached the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is supposedly the site of the crucifixion and burial. This church was absolutely packed with devotees prostrating themselves, in tears, as, obviously, this was a religious experience of a lifetime for them.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

It became almost impossible to move, so we withdrew.
That night after dinner we walked from the hotel to the Tower of David, which is nowhere near the City of David, but is, in fact, near the Jaffa Gate, to see a light show.

We entered into the Tower grounds, which are not really complete, but in relatively good shape, to find the whole environment lit with soft lighting, giving a really nice vibe. We walked around to our seats which faced on of the large stone walls. When the show began, it was a very clever depiction of the full history of Jerusalem, done with music, and video projection extending the full height and width of the wall, producing amazing effects by matching the characters, some human, and others cartoon, with the nooks and crannies in the wall itself, such as the image of people walking down steps, which basically matched the structure of the wall. It was a short show, about 45 minutes, but was very impressive, and a lovely way to finish the evening – alright, it wasn’t quite finished – we managed a few wines afterwards.

East from Jerusalem 19 April

T – Shirt Day
We drove East from Jerusalem, and as the country flattened out, we could see a hill which appeared to be flat at the top.
Herod had been a prolific builder, as we had seen all over the country, and on this occasion he had decided to build something for himself, and dedicate it to himself. What a man! In 40BC, he had to flee Jerusalem, being pursued by the Hasmonean ruler, Mattathias Antigonus. He caught up with Herod “sixty furlongs” from Jerusalem, and Herod barely escaped with his life.

After that he went to Rome, where the Senate crowned him King of Judea, and, in the third decade BC, he returned to the scene of the battle, and began to build Herodium.
This was what we could see as we approached, the remains of Herodium, which had consisted of an enormous combination of palaces and fortress, with administration areas, Royal theatre and an internal tunnel system and four water cisterns and several bath houses.
He also constructed his own funeral complex, and before he died he ordered the building of an artificial mountain around the structure. Herod’s tomb wasn’t discovered, in fact, until 2010, when the determined archaeologist, Ehud Netzer, who had devoted his life to finding the tomb, discovered it, and 5 days later, fell from part of the excavation structure, and died.

Tunnel to the water cisterns in Herodium

During the 66AD revolt of the Jews against the Romans, the rebels entrenched themselves in Herodium, and used it as a base for their operations, until they were defeated in 71AD.
We wondered as we left Herodium, how Herod had managed to build so many complexes during his life – they are everywhere. He did live till about 80, but even so, the time it would take to build all this, Jerusalem palace, Caesarea, Herodium, and many more would fill several lifetimes. We put this to Mitti, who suggested that Herod wouldn’t necessarily have been ” on site” for a lot of the building, but would command that they be built, and have his army of skilled workers do the job.
Leaving Herodium, we continued on to one of the West Bank settlements, Efat, which is where Mitti’s father Ardie Geldman lives. He hopped on to the bus and gave us an overview of the place, as we drove around. It is a pleasant, green, leafy suburban area, and, according to Ardie, everyone lives peaceful lives, even though there is Arab owned land adjacent on each side, which is used for vines and olives.

Ardie invited us in to his house, which is very pleasant, and gave us a long, enthusiastic and impassioned talk about the history of, not only Efat, but the whole of Israel from well before it became Israel. He had maps and charts, documents, and even some advertising posters of pre Israel, such as one advertising Palestine Airways in Hebrew. ” See! We were the Palestinians” he said.
Some of us had asked him questions, to give us some form of response to people in Australia who believe, as do I, that the continual expansion of building in the settlements is a provocation. He believes the word “settlement is a put down, the correct term being ” community”, since that is the word used for the Palestinian towns. I personally don’t feel he gave any answers to those concerns, but maybe others did.
I have to admit it was an impressive lecture supported by solid research, but his approach didn’t appear to offer much hope of a compromise to the ongoing dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians.
We asked Mitti somewhat later about her take of her Dad’s viewpoint, and she said she agreed with all the facts and she believed that his research was genuine and factual, but when we pushed a bit more, she said she wished her father, and likeminded friends would be a little less “self righteous”. All in all it was a very interesting visit, and good to get the views of someone who has lived in this situation for a long time.

Ardie’s back garden

We continued on, and found ourselves back at our boutique hotel, Rothschild 71, in Tel Aviv, which didn’t have a Happy Hour, as such, but often there was a bottle of wine and some nibbles, so of course we made good use of that!.

Tel Aviv 20 April

This morning we had signed up with a guide for a walking Graffiti Tour of Tel Aviv, or, more specifically, the area of Florentin, which is a slightly less than salubrious area inland ( East) of the port of Jaffa. Our guide was part of this underground world of street artists, and obviously knew a lot of them, taking us to the sites she deemed to be of good quality, and ignoring the junk, pointing out the signatures of a couple of “significant” players. One piece which has been preserved because of community support, was a depiction of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, a stylised version of a photograph which appeared in the newspapers at the time.

Street art version of Rabin’s assassination

Afterwards she took us down into her “cave”, a basement of the type you see in American homes where the doors are outside the house and are lifted and laid to the side to expose the stairway. This was an old house of the American Quarter, so I guess that explains it. Her cave had artworks on the walls, and she provided refreshments for us as well.

I personally am a bit ambivalent about graffiti, and the line between art and vandalism, but overall it was a fun morning.
Elly and I have done a similar walk through Melbourne, and although our guide said the Tel Aviv graffiti was up in the top few cities in the world, I believe Melbourne has much more of the high quality art in its streets and laneways.
We followed the graffiti tour with a continuation of the walk towards the old Port of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. This is a very old section of the city, full of cobbled pavements and narrow laneways. This port has been used for 7000 years, predations Muslims, Jews and Christians, and is today a predominantly Arab city.
Elly and I noted from the high ground, looking north along the coast to Tel Aviv how much construction has taken place since we saw it 20 years ago, to the point where there is no gap between the two, in fact, the two cities are now officially the one city of Tel Aviv – Yafo.
At the top of the high ground, we came across a white, doorway shaped sculpture commemorating, on one side, the Statue of Faith, Jacob’s dream, on the other, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the top is the fall of Jerico. We took a team photo.

Winding our way down through the narrow alleyways we found ourselves down at the waterfront, where the port is still used for small boats. Back to the Clocktower, in northern Jaffa, to get our bearings, we walked all the way back to the hotel without getting lost once.

Jaffa Port

Tel Aviv 21 April

I had heard of Bauhaus previously, but had no idea what it meant, so it was good that this morning we were to do a Bauhaus Tour, with local guide Ilil. We started the tour at a beautifully made mosaic fountain, which was, as I recall, a point of interest, nothing to do with the Bauhaus. Another team photo!

The Bauhaus ( Build House) concept was thought up by a German architect, who decided it would be a much fairer system if everyone had the same features available to them in a block of apartments, such as light, space etc. so he came up with a design which had three levels, with all the windows in the same place, and the same size. A very socialist style of architecture. This style of house spread quickly, and one of the places In which it became prevalent was in Tel Aviv.
It was our job as we walked to identify Bauhaus designs, which is not so easy these days, because so much restoration and modification has gone on in recent times, some of the modified homes have been made into very attractive dwellings.
Some of the houses had small figures, which doubled as shutter holders, as well as, sometimes, according to the story, an indication of home or not home if an occupant was having an affair. The figure showed a male face when it was up, and a female face when it was down.

After the tour, Elly and some of the others headed off to the market, while I took some time off to put my feet up and write some blog before Happy Hour kicked in.

This was the evening of Memorial Day, on which the city, in fact, all of Israel stops for two minutes as sirens sound all over the country, in memory of the 23,000 people, both civilian and military who have died due to hostile action. It is really quite fascinating to see the whole country come together as one. After dinner we walked to Rabin Square where thousands of people gathered, listening to speeches and telecasts from families who have lost their loved ones. What a waste of life.

Tel Aviv 22 April

Declaration of Independence. This is a copy of the original

We visited the Independence Hall which is where the Declaration of Independence of Israel was signed in 1948.
In the evening, together with Elly’s Israeli cousin Michael, we went to a restaurant in Jaffa called “Old Man and the Sea”. It was a huge old barn like room with enormous meals including a table full of mezes.

We were picked up by Elly’s cousin, Michael, and driven to Elkana, a town in the West Bank, where his sister in law, Vera and late brother have lived as some of the earliest settlers in the area.

Once again, a drive through the area showed a peaceful, leafy environment. We were invited for a light lunch, and some of Vera’s children, with their children and friends were all there in the back yard, with about 12 kids all playing together and obviously were close. One of Vera’s daughters lives downstairs in the house, and has four children and another on the way. It was a scenario which isn’t one that we usually see, with such a large family of kids all living so close and all the youngsters playing and getting on so well.
On the way back, Michael took us to the old port of Tel Aviv, which has been revamped into an enormous open area with bars and restaurants. The massive decking is laid in a wavelike fashion, making it a really modern, family friendly place, and we just had to stop and have a beer to enjoy the environment.

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