Tonight we are sitting in our hotel room at the  Dan Boutique Hotel overlooking old Jersulam.  It feels light years away from where we came from yesterday.  Tonight at 8pm the siren will usher in Israeli Remembrance Day which is immediately followed by Israeli Indepence Day.  We are looking forward to experiencing the next 24 hours here.

Yesterday, we checked out of our peaceful hillside oasis in the Upper Galilee and headed for a special tour of an army base with an Israeli tank brigade and their equipment.  

  These tanks are state of the art.  Our hosts are young but serious. The Major commanding the base is In his late 20’s 

 .  Our guide Adam is extending  his service after being injured in battle.   

 The soldiers are in base cleaning and repairing the tanks in between deployments.  Our guide, Ari is filled with pride as he shares the base, the equipment and the soldiers with us. 

 
Now for something completely different.  We transition quickly as we drive towards the Sea of Galilee and the spot where Jesus first met Peter.   

 This a fishing village and the archeological site shows what is believed to be  Simon’s house.  The site was purchased and run by the Catholic Church as are many we will visit.  Typical for the area, there is a large historic remain of a large Byzantine Church built much later.  However when the Rabbi Jesus began his preaching it was most likely in a small room in the layer below the “new” building. 

 The new, modern Catholic church here is beautifully built above the ancient ruins with the middle of the floor glassed over so the congregation can both see the alter and the remnants of Peter’s lakeside house. 

 From here we drive up the hill a few miles to where Jesus is believed to have delivered his famous Sermon on the Mount. Once again the site is owned by the Catholic Church.  The grounds are manicured and modern.  But if you look out to the sides at the natural land sloping down to the lake you can more easily imagine Jesus speaking to a large crowd of the faithful who had walked up from the fishing villages along the lakeshore.   

 Back on the manicured gardens, there are small services scattered around the grounds in different languages.  In the largest chapel, visitors from the U.S. were singing beautiful hymns.  It was very peaceful.  People were visiting from all over the world.  As Ari said, a Jewish Rabbi gave a sermon over 2000 years ago and was so powerful that people from all over the world are still coming here every day to mark the event and better understand Jesus’ message of love, peace and faith.

  
Our finall Christian stop for the day was a spot on the Jordan River where many Christians come from all over the world to baptized in the Holy Land in the same river where Jesus was baptized at the beginning of his ministry.   

  Jim put his feet in the waters as other pilgrims were joyfully being baptized nearby.  At about the same time, we were treated to a beautiful duck swimming by and several giant catfish swimming near the surface of the baptismal stairs leading into the river. 

    On our way to Jerusalem we made our final stop at a very large Roman archaeological site: Bet Shen.  At its peak in the second century, over 20,000 people lived there and enjoined its flowing waters, fountains, public baths and an outdoor theater that seated 7,000.  

   Of course, after it was built it became a target for takeover by others, and was abandoned after a big earthquake toppled most of its stone buildings and columns. 

   The city’s remains are still beautifu and impressive, but it was hot. Interestingly, the Sea of Galilee is well below sea level in and I really felt tired from the sun and warm  temperature.  

It was about an hour and a half drive from there to Jerusalem through the West Bank as we followed the Jordan Valley south on Israel’s longest road:  route 90, which runs only 300 miles from north to south.  This part of the West Bank is virtually empty.   

 Passing through the check points into the West Bank and out of it into Jerusalem were easy, we only had to slow down briefly to about 5 mph as we drove through each checkpoint.

Driving to our Jerusalem hotel we got our first glance at the walls of the Old City.  Ari dropped us of at the hotel before driving back to his home in Haifa for a needed rest before we join up again on Friday morning.

  
   After settling into our modern hotel room with a view of the Old City, we showered and rested and then walked to the original Jaffa-Jerusalem train station, built in the late 1800’s by the Ottoman-Turk Empire.  The old station was recently converted to a place where you can shop and eat.  After looking at all the restaurants, we chose Station 9, which rewarded us with a delicious “Asian fusion” meal.  

 Today after sleeping in a bit, doing some light shopping and getting Jim a haircut, we went for Segway Tour of the area.   

 It was a great way for us to cover a lot of territory easily.  We even got to ride them a bit in the Old City.  Jim loves Segways and we both enjoy the smiles we get from most children and many adults as we travel along the local bike paths, sidewalks and pedestrian plazas.

We spent our afternoon walking around the Old City. It’s a strange place, a crowded old shopping bazaar mixed with crowded religious sites.  Jim wanted to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  I honestly had no idea what to expect.  It’s the most important Christian pilgrimage in Jerusalem because it’s supposed to be where Jesus was both crucified and buried.  

  Unlike the sites we visited yesterday in Galilee, I found this dimly lit and very crowded church  draining and overwhelming.

We ended our first visit to the Old City by grabbing a meal at an Armenian restaurant. 

   The Arminian story is as tragic as the Jewish story.  In fact it’s in the news this week because the Pope recognized as “attempted genocide” the systematic slaughter of over 1,000,000 Armenians by the Turks 100 years ago during the Turkish-Russian battles of WW1.  Turkey recalled their Vatican Ambassador in protest.

Tonight ends with beginning of the solem Israeli Remebernce Day marking the deaths of 23,320 soldiers and civilians who have died in the wars And terrorism since independence; 116 in the last year.  

 At 8PM, nationwide sirens marked the beginning of this 24 hour, solemn national holiday. There was a moving ceremonyat the Western Wall that we watched on TV.  Unfortunately, there was no English translation but the emotions of the widows, widowers, orphans and parents of recently fallen soldiers was still very moving.  As I finish this blog entry we are watching a beautiful memorial concert on TV that is taking place just outside the walls of the Old City.  If we mute the TV we can also hear it outside our hotel room In the distance.

Shalom!

Yesterday, we ventured out of the new world of Tel Aviv and drove north to northern Galilee.  We’ve done so much in the last two days it will be hard to explain it all.  

  Our first stop was Cesarea, the location of Herod’s Capitol & personal residence, and the location of the first man-made port. Herod was a Jew who betrayed the Macabee King and conquered Israel for the Roman Empire.   

 In return, the Romans made him King of Judea for life.  Herod was quite the engineer/architect & built the impressive artificial port city of Ceasaria, the palace-fortress of Masada, and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem.

Ceasaria was repeatedly conquered over the centuries until it was razed to the ground by the Islamic Mamluk Empire at the end of the last Crusade.    

 The area is stunning and a place where locals go to enjoy the beautiful coastline & antiquities.  In the early 1900’s the land was purchased and redeveloped by the Baron Rothschild.  Locals now enjoy the beach, music and food.   

Herod built quite a nice palace as you can see by the remains of his personal swimming pool. 

   The whole area was supplied with fresh water from the aqueducts from Mt. Carmel.  Jim particularly liked the huge circus ground where the Ben Hur-like chariot races were held with an expansive view of the Mediterranean Sea.   

 Much of the ancient port is now underwater (due to devastating earthquakes in the 2nd & 8th centuries), so it’s a great place to scuba dive.  That’s something we hope to do another time.

 From Cesarea we headed north to Acre.  Acre is a large Israeli Arab city that contains a huge Crusader Fortress and underground  archeological site.   

 Archeologists discovered 30 years ago that most of the Fortress was underground but had been filled with dirt over the ages.  We walked through just a bit of it & were very impressed. 

        The above ground area was the site of the Main British prison during the decade prior to the Israeli Declaration of  independence.  Clearly, they didn’t learn from the relatively recent situation in India and although ordered not to, the local military leader hung 29 Jewish patriots before the rest were freed in a big prison break.  Ari’s Uncle was one of the death row prisoners who escaped at that time (as shown in the movie Exodus).

  From Acre we drove farther north to Haifa, near where Ari lives.  After seeing the stunning view from both the bottom and top of the beautiful Baha’i Shrine & gardens, we stopped for delicious Falafel and Shwarma pita bread sandwiches at Ari’s favorite local fast food restaurant.   

 Interestingly, the Baha’i (and the Druze and others)  are “latter day Saint” offshoots of the Shiite branch of Islam who are still often persecuted outside of Israel for believing in more recent “latter day” Prophets who supplemented the teachings of Mohammad.
From Acre we drove to Israel’s northwest border, where it adjoins Lebanon.  This is where the Palmach originally were trained by the British to help with the fighting in Lebanon during WW2.  The British built a train tunnel through the coastal hills into Lebanon that has since been abandoned but which exposed a beautiful grotto (coastal caves).   

 Because there are no seals or sea lions here it is clean and beautiful and filled with the echoing sounds of the surf flowing in and out of the interconnected caverns.

We walked to the border and took a picture.  It really is hard to believe we were so close to Hezbollah or as Ari likes to call it “Hezbollah-stan”. 

    Finally, we drove along the (safe) New Northern Road vs the sniper-accessible old Northern Road.  We drove past really beautiful rolling, wooded hills, with Lebanon often in sight, until we reached our destination: Pina Barosh, one of the first early pioneer settlements in Israel (preceding the first kibbutzim by more than 30 years).

We checked into our very artistic, rustic yet elegant hotel (made out of a 100 year old stone stable) with beautiful views of the Golan Heights on the other side of the green Hula Valley.   

 Our room has a romantic, covered outdoor hot tub.  We ended our day with a soak and then collapsed in bed.

Today, we woke early for a jeep tour from a local, Ijal, who immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union when he was just 6.  Baron Rothschild also purchased land here and helped many of the early settlers.  We drove through a local Kibbutz where many local immigrants from one of the “lost tribes” in Africa begin their new lives in Israel.

Ijal then drove the jeep through the farming areas of the kibbutz where I picked carrots and oranges and we saw truckloads of just harvested fresh peas. Yum Yum! 

   After that, we drove past the site where Deborah’s tribe of warrior women defeated a Canaanite king in ancient times, then over  the Jordan River and past fields blocked by barb wire and signs marking the minefields left behind by the Syrians after the 6-Day War in 1967.  

  The Syrians have never provided the maps necessary to clear the mines, and the land is too steep and rocky for mechanized mine clearing techniques so much of the land immediately to the east of the Jordan river is unusable.  The mines still go off occasionally when cows knock down the fences, wander in, and trigger a mine explosion.

Ijal delivered us to Ari around noon and we continued our tour on paved roads. We drove by the Naot shoe factory at kibbutz Naot Mordechai where I did my part to help the Israeli economy by buying the very comfortable Naot shoes at a nice discount to the U.S. retail price.

Before the intensity of the Golan we headed down to see one of the sources of the Jordan River:  the Dan Spring.  The gushing water was spectacular and the surrounding park very beautiful.  Of course I had to walk in th pools where the water was cool but refreshing.  

  Then it was up the big hill to really get a sense of the Golan.  Our first stop is in a Kibbutz that showed a movie about the 1973 Yom Kippor War tank battle in the “valley of tears”.   

  The myth was that Israel was surprised by the simultaneous attack by Egypt & Syria, but their there is lots of evidence now that Israeli leaders actually had lots of advanced warning. For complicated geopolitical reasons involving Russia, Egypt and the U.S., Moshe Dyan agreed with the U.S. to wait for the “surprise” attack rather than pre-empt it. 

Unfortunately, it was a mistake and Israel came close to being destroyed, losing 4000 soldiers in just 3 weeks.  The entire population of Israel at the time was only 2.5 million.  So 4,000 casualties is equivalent to all the soldiers the USA lost in the entire Vietnam war, but over only 3 weeks.  Because of the losses, Golda Mier had to resign as Prime Minister & her Labor Party was defeated for the first time in the next election.

In the tank battle on the Golan, Israel had only 40 tanks to Syria’s 800.    

  It was a remarkable victory that only happened because Israel had the high ground. The IDF soldiers were incredibly brave and the tank commander bluffed by sending all his tanks forward, even when the ran out of ammunition, causing the Syrians to pause, thinking Israel had a much larger force.

Standing on the view point at the top of the Golan Heights Valley looking East into Syria and North to Lebanon it is clear to us that Israel can never give up the Golan and still have defensable borders.  It is insane for any American President to ask for it in any negotiations or for any Israeli Government to offer it.   

 While we were up there, we heard explosions way in the distance where Isis and Al Qaeda are fighting Assad and each other.  As Israel’s enemies fight each other there is a brief moment of quiet here,  

Our guide Ari has a strong military background and is a great source of information.  It’s impossible to share it all here, but it is enlightening and thought provoking.  We have a lot of reading to do when we get back home.

On our drive today we saw a fox and freshwater turtles along with beautiful flocks of  storks. 

   This area is filled with flocks of migrating birds.  Most have moved on by his time of year but some storks reman.  

From there we went to Tsfat, home of Kaballa, the Jewish mysticism .  It’s a hilltop old town with lots of Orthodox Jews, beautiful views and lovely art galleries.

We met a very nice couple at dinner tonight.  Israel and Yehudit Coutin. He’s an American born Jew and she was born in Haifa.  They now live In LA but visit the nation of Israel often.   

  
As my sister Rachel says,  this area is both  beautiful and dark.  It’s filled with contradictions.  It feels so peaceful and bountiful, and yet it is surrounded by the “Devils in the distance” who have tried repeatedly to destroy Israel & kill the Jews living here, and will unfortunately try again in the future.  

Tomorrow we get up early for a tour of an IDF tank base before heading to the Sea of Gallilee (which is actually a large lake) and other important Christian sites before heading to Jerusalem.

Shalom!

 Today we begin our adventures with Ari Ram, historian, guide and driver.  That short introduction does not do him justice.  He’s lived in Switzerland and Italy, as well of course as Israel and does rode biking  (looks like it).  He has a calm nature and is a store of knowledge.

We began our day walking around Jaffa.  It was the beginning of the day and quite.   

 I loved the energy there and quite the contrast to the modern parts of Tel Aviv we have been enjoying.  

 Our first street was marked with the symbol for pieces, my astrological sign.

We learned about the good side of Napolean and his proclamation freeing all slaves and giving religious freedom.  Who knew?

We learned that the modern Hebrew language took 25 years to create because of course Biblical Hebrew was unusable in a modern society.

While touring Jaffa the siren marking the Holocaust Memorial went off, the church bell rang everyone stopped and we stood in silence. I closed my eyes and prayed for all those lost and for Israel and the Middle East. 

Then we moved on.

Our next stop was the Avalon Institute Museum on Kibbutzim Hill in Rehovot, a Tel Aviv suburb.  Only a few people here in Israel know about this place and it’s a must see.  This is where the Hagannah (the Jewish militia that preceded the modern Israeli Defense Force a/k/a the “IDF”).  created & hid an underground bullet factory beneath a Kibbutz (a communal farm) within very close proximity to a British military base in the three years just before Israeli Independence.  It’s hard to believe that they were never caught!

  Under the cover of a commercial laundry operation and bakery, buried deep underground, 45 young adults manufactured over 2 million bullets without being discovered.  The creation, production and deception needed for this project  was nothing short of remarkable. 

stairway under the laundry machine leading to the underground factory

From there we headed back to Jaffa for lunch and then walked through the history of Tel Aviv from the little towns built on sand dunes beginning in 1881, then 1883, then 1901.  In 1933, before the Holocaust and the state of Israel was created, over 500,000 Jews in 100 small communities and 50 Kibbutz already lived here. 

We walked around the city and did some architectural study of the original “Bauhaus” style homes and buildings.  They are utilitarian, with one small balcony for each apartment, but the city is making an effort to preserve the best . 

old and new

the stages of the city from small towns to sky scrapers

flags everywhere in preparation for Independence day.

After finding the local laundry – only $15 to wash a big bag, washed and delivered back to our hotel on Friday, we chilled a bit to watch the sunset.  We called an Uber to take us near Jaffa for an evening stroll and a meal with the locals in the flea market.   

 At 9:30 it was time for us to call it a night.  But clearly that’s when things were really getting going.

Friday morning:  April 17th

Today we woke to a beautiful sunrise and began our day with a trip to the Palmach/IDF museum.  Because it was early it wasn’t crowded.  The museum uses a series of sets and video vignettes describing the history through the eyes of the second company individuals.  It’s very unusual and very well done.  It’s also very powerful.  Knowing the history is different intellectually than seeing it “live”.

My emotions:  

Anger – sadness – pride – determination 

Jim said he was completely disappointed in the British.  Abstaining on the Israeli statehood vote in the UN was cowardly and wrong.  Appeasing the Arab leaders who had openly sided with Hitler was ridiculous.  Not lifting the ban on immigration to Israel for the survivors of the Holocaust was utterly disgusting.  

Of course, the world was war weary.  Doesn’t that sound familiar.  And let the “distraction” of  state of Israel go forward without . But,it is truly a miracle that Israel survived their independence war fighting with very few guns against tanks from 5 countries.  

We got to meet one of the veterans of that war.   

 His arm crippled by he volunteers in the photo gallery and tells his story.  Powerful!

The rest of the day was spent going from the independence hall museum, to the crowded craft fair and food market.  Not really Jim’s cup of tea.  Next time I will leave Jim and Ari to play chess and chill while I shop.  It’s just not fun to,shop with 2 uninterested men.

We ended our tour with a drive out to the large new marina north of town.  It was delightful. 

Jim took a break and I went for a wonderful run and outdoor workout along the promenade. The people, scenery and sea air was perfect.  The waterfront area and Old Jaffa are definitely the jewels of Tel Aviv for us.  

Tonight is the Sabbath,   Although many places are closed, many restaurants are open.  We walked for a light local meal.  Sort of a northern-African, Asian-fusion, tapas combo.  Yummy.

Tomorrow, we head up north, through Haifa to Galalie .  We are ready to leave young Tel Aviv and travel back in history.  We are ready to leave the city.

Shabbat Shalom

Totally acclimated to our new time zone, we woke up ready for a great day.  As usual in IsraelI hotels we began our day with an enormous breakfast and then headed out on bicycles to explore the waterfront and river park.  

 The weather was perfect and we had a blast.  We spotted some interesting birds and loved the waterfront area near Tel Aviv’s old port. It isn’t a real port by modern standards but it’s now mostly a wonderful place to enjoy the waterfront. 

  This bird looks like a cross between a King Fisher and a humming bird when it hovers over the water.

Unusual colored pair of geese.

 There are lots of these grey and black crow-like birds. 

And a kind Woodpecker that was hunting for insects in the grass.

  And angel wings that anyone could try on for fun.

This photo is for James.  “Big Baba” is now “Super Baba”!

The park is dotted with  wonderful exercise stations. We stopped for an ice tea and salad across from Gordon Beach where the very serious were working out. We tried our hand at some of the machines and will do more today.

I got a wonderful massage and then we watched another beautiful sunset from the deck.

Last night we met with long-time friends of my parents: Moshe and Anat Olshevsky.  They took us out for a yummy late dinner.  They are both amazing entrepreneurs.  Moshe began his career studying oriental medicine and acupuncture in the U.S. and later helped bring these services to Israel. Now he’s involved in an interesting peer-to-peer lending company startup called Blender.  Anat was a prosecutor and also an entrepreneur In her own right with various travel businesses and other legal and consulting gigs.  

Today we left the beach for awhile to go to the Tel Aviv Art Museum and some gallery hopping.

We really didn’t find any galleries, but we did find a wonderful fresh fruit and juice stand.  Jim is supposed to eat more papaya and they made him a fresh papaya smoothie with just papaya and a few other fruits. 

We made it to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.  The building is beautiful, but there were some very odd video exhibits.   

 We did enjoy the impressionist exhibit.  After all the walking we took an Uber/cab back and got a very interesting history lesson from our driver who fought in the last major military tank battle between Israel and Syria in 1982 (the battle of Jezzine).

After some mid-day meditation we headed out again for some biking and reading on the beach.  This time our direction was south to the busier end of the beach area.  

Securing the perfect spot we sat, had a Leffe beer, watched the kite surfers and read more of our Israel book.  

  I took a walk to the end of the beach and found the Tel Aviv Surf Club.  There was a really cute group of beginners doing their warm up. 

Tonight we got to see our friend from Mercer Island, Ellie Pieprz.  We had a wonderful visit.  It was such an education to learn about all of his work in Israel and the West Bank.

At sundown, the 24-hour Holocaust Rememberance Day begins.  As part of this somber Memorial Day, all restaurants close and tomorrow at 10AM sirens go off all over the country and everyone stops whatever they are doing for two minutes to reflect on the millions of men, women & children who were systematically murdered by the Nazis simply because of their religion or ethnicity.  We expect that it will be a very moving experience.

Shalom!

We have arrived, definitely a little jet lagged, but excited for our new adventure. We left Seattle on April 11th about mid day. Our British Airways flight on our first 777 took us near the North Pole.  Most of the flight was pretty uneventful, but we did get a chance to see the sea ice stretching to the distant horizon across the Hudson Bay, before we attempted to get some sleep. 

  After a few hours sleep we landed at Heathrow at Terminal 5 (the newest of Heathrow’s giant terminals).  It was just after dawn in London but only midnight in Seattle.  We hoped to stay awake until our flight to Tel Aviv at 10:30 that night to adjust to our new time zone.

After asking for some directions to terminal 4 and our day room at the Hilton there, the Heathrow information helpers in their purple jackets  directed us to a waiting line for a bus.  The 15 minute bus ride took us through the usually hidden side of the airport with all the airport equipment and trucks.  It was quite odd.  As we learned later when we went through customs in Terminal 4, it was also a breach of security.  But, no problem, just don’t do it again.  This of course left us a bit concerned regarding the so called “security.” But c’est la vie.  

On our way to the Hilton we went through a long walkway complete with time markers.  

 The day room at the Hilton at terminal 4 was the perfect place to grab a bite of breakfast and shower before resetting our clocks with a day in London. The weather was unusually warm and sunny.  The sun truly is a magic elixir for jet lag.  The train took us to Piccidilly Circus and we wandered around through the nearby public market towards the Lycium Theater to see the Lion King.  We thought a show would be a fun way to stay awake for the afternoon. This was the first mistake of our trip (if you don’t count the security breach, which really wasn’t our fault). 

 The Lycium theater is beautiful, 

  the show enchanting, but the darkness was deadly for staying awake. By intermission we were losing our battle.  And the couple in the seats next to us, who probably had the same idea as us, had completely succumbed to exhaustion and were both fast asleep.  Seeing our future In their sleep, we decided to head back to our day room for a quick nap so we would be able to stay awake long enough to make our flight. 

 Remarkably revived by our 1 hour nap, we headed to our flight for Tel Aviv.  It turns out terminal 5 is much prettier in the front than the back.  We watched the sunset in the big windows and made our way easily through security.  No breaches this time.  After a yummy dinner at the Asian fusion restaurant we went to our gate.  The boarding was a little late but no other issues.  We were still awake!  

When we scanned our phone boarding pass the red light went on and we thought “”oh no, the security breach has caught up with us”.  But, to our surprise we were told that we had been upgraded to first class! The agent said don’t ask any questions just sit down and wait for the take off.  WOW. Yippy.  The idea of a fully reclining chair and some sleep sounded devine.  And it was.  

We both fell asleep shortly after take off.

WIth another 3 hours sleep under our belts we were ready to experience our first day in Tel Aviv. We were met immediately after leaving the plane by a special escort coordinated by the travel agent and were driven to customs in a minivan instead of taking the airport bus so we were one of the first people there & were quickly cleared to get our luggage.

Our luggage was among the last to arrive on the carrousel, but after that we simply left the airport —  there really isn’t any customs check of your luggage or at least there wasn’t for us.  We were taken to a taxi & taken to the appropriately named Hotel Shalom in western Tel Aviv, across the street from the big Hilton hotel, Independence Park and the Mediterranean.  This lovely little boutique hotel will be our home base for the next week.  We have some free time the next few days to explore the city on our own and catch up on sleep before we meet up with our guide. 

 Our hotel is small but it our room has big floor-to-ceiling windows facing east and we look over a sea of  small 3 story apartment buildings that were built to house the over 600,000 WW2 Holocaust survivors that fled to Israel for safety and a new life in the late 40’s.  The apartments lead to the modern high rises further inland.  

After settling into our sunny room we ate our first yummy and bountiful Israeli breakfast and then went for a nice walk along the beach promenade.  

  It’s colder and windier than usual.  No sunbathers, but lots of surfers.

By  noon we had reached our sleep deprivation limit. The birds were having a great time playing in the wind.  I caught one landing briefly on the giant seabird sculpture. Interestingly, we haven’t seen any seagulls.

I really felt my brain shutting off so we headed back to get some shut eye.  We slept until about 5 and as I write this we are enjoying the roof-top, ocean-view deck, yummy afternoon snacks and the sunset. 

    We had planned  to head to the port area for a taste of the night life but, before heading out, we fell asleep again.  We woke at 9PM and rallied for a late night meal at a restaurant named Shila (“Sheila”). The meal was delicious and all the restaurants  just one block east of us were alive and hopping from when we arrived about 10 until we left at midnight.

Today, April 14th the weather is warmer and the winds are calmer.  I’m ready to ditch my down coat!  We are off to explore the Tel Aviv port area & the nearby river park.

Shalom!