Jan 5th

Gorgeous blue sky morning in Jerusalem.
The first thing we did was go to the Old City of David which is right beside the Old City of Jerusalem. Here is a cat.
Actually we may have done an overview of the city first. Here is a shot of the Dome of the Rock.
Another City of David cat.
These are a part of the ruins they are excavating at David.

Both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv had a lot of roosters more or less walking around freely. I'm guessing they're all over the country.
The Jaffa Gate where we entered the Old City.
You can see the bullet holes from the Independence War.
Inside the Old City.
The Game of Life. If I tell you the rules, you're either in the game or you're not.
The Western Wall. It was really weird seeing this in real life considering I've gone 26 years just seeing pictures of it.
They're still doing archeological excavations by the plaza in front of the Western Wall.

John Fluevog Jaffa boots on the stones by the Jaffa Gate.

Jan 4th

We woke up early in the morning and drove northeast to Masada. Masada is a site of ancient fortifications on top of an isolated rock plateau that overlooks the Dead Sea.


The fortress and its palace were built by Roman king, Herod the Great as refuge for himself in case of revolt.





And then we went to the Dead Sea.

Jan 3rd

This morning after breakfast we drove to the grave site of Paula and David Ben-Gurion.

This is David's tomb.
After that we took a short drive to Havarim where we hiked along the dry creek bed. This is an ancient water reservoir. You can see how it was cut at perfect right angles into the rock.


This shows how the water cut away the rock.

Heart.
After the hike (all of our hikes were downhill) we drove to a farm near Moshav Talme Yosef which is really close to Kibbutz Sde Boker. It's a bio farm, meaning that they use very very little pesticides and herbicides. The first greenhouse we entered grew tomatoes. Delicious tomatoes. We got to run around and try them all.
I think this one is a cherry tomato.
This is actually a habanero pepper which I promptly put into my mouth.
I seem to have forgotten what all of the tomatoes were called but I think this one is a watermelon tomato.
The Moshav also breeds homing pigeons. I was actually holding one before it flew away and then I took this picture.

After leaving the farm we drove to Kfar Hanodkim, a Bedouin camp, where we got to ride donkeys.
And then camels.
And then we were treated to "Bedouin hospitality". Bedouins never turn away a thirsty traveler, often inviting them to stay for a few nights before continuing on their weigh. They offer 2 cups of freshly roasted and ground, sweetened coffee. The first is one sip and the second is two sips which is an offer of conversation and welcome.
Bedouin cat.

Jan 2nd

So after breakfast at the Golden Beach Hotel in Tel-Aviv we drove to an elementary school in Bat Yam. Something like 50% of the student body are immigrants from Ethiopia and the school has implemented an after school program to help these kids catch up with their education. We were supposed to each get a kid from the 4th grade class and together we made care packages for soldiers. I didn't actually get a kid so I helped out with translating.
Afterwards we drove to Yitzhak Rabin square to view his memorial. He was assassinated in 1995 by Yigal Amir, a far-right-wing religious Zionist who strenuously opposed Rabin's peace initiative and particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.

This is an engraving of the scene of the murder. Rabin is in the centre and Amir was less than 6 feet from him when he fired the shots.

The man himself.
We then drove to Jaffa for lunch and a tour around the old port.
My Fluevog Jaffa boots standing on Jaffa stones.

It rained. Heavily.
Jaffa cat.
Ancient Egyptian ruins found in Jaffa.
Crazy, floating orange tree and Noam.
I love Napoleon.


Jaffa was an Arab port city that most immigrants to Israel landed in before spreading into the country. Now it's a part of Tel-Aviv. You can see the city in the background as well as the sea break.

Following that we walked down Rothschild Boulevard to Independence Hall. The building is also a museum of history. It was the first mayor of Tel-Aviv, Meir Dizengoff's, home which he donated to Tel-Aviv to be the Museum of Art. The portrait in the centre is Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.
David Ben Gurion.
At the end of the day we drove to the Sde Boker field school in the Negev near the kibbutz of the same name where Ben Gurion for the last years of his life establishing the National Water Carrier to bring water to the barren area.