Keeping It Israel

Thursday morning we all got up early and made our way over to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The spread was incredible with just about anything you could possibly want to eat. Shakshuka is the breakfast food of my dreams. I have to learn how to make it. The chef was making the rounds and struck up a conversation with the girls. It turns out that he is originally from Montreal, but now splits his time between Ein Gedi and Jerusalem and was very playful with Millie and Aviva for our entire stay. Here’s a photo of the room, complete with patio out front.

We took the hotel shuttle to their affiliate spa with access to the Dead Sea. After changing into our swimsuits in the bathroom and a short tractor ride, we were ready to take the plunge.

Here are a few pictures of us in the water, and one of the official lifeguard station.

The girls were irritated by the Dead Sea water, and so we didn’t stay very long. The water was bathtub warm and you really can’t sink (lifeguard did not seem worried). Millie and I floated for a bit, but the bottom is really uneven and covered by cool looking salt/mineral deposits. After a short bus ride back to the hotel, Adena went to work and the girls and I went back to the pool. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant and there was a kosher meat spread with fun desserts. I discovered knishes with spicy ground beef filling. Here’s a shot of us on the walking path back to our room.

After showers, the girls watched Space Chimps in Hebrew and we all went to bed a little early.

On Friday we got up early. After breakfast, Adena settled in to work and I took the girls on the bus to Nahal David, which is located in the Ein Gedi nature reserve. This spring-fed stream has water all year and is believed to be the place where David hid from King Saul in biblical times. Talk about going off the grid! There are waterfalls, pools deep enough for swimming, and great views of the Dead Sea.

The girls were real troopers, but unfortunately we only had about an hour to spend. We would love to go back sometime. But with a car. My only gripe about Ein Gedi is that the activities (mud baths, rock climbing, an Essene archaeological site) are spread out and accessing them without a car is a hassle. A nice lady from Atlanta snapped this picture of the three of us at the second waterfall.

We were able to get the bus back to the hotel on time, despite stopping to frolic once more in the first waterfall on the way out.

We did not have time to see much of the wildlife at Ein Gedi, but there were lots of ibexes (like this one) alongside the trail. We also saw a few hyraxes near the upper waterfall.

The plants at Ein Gedi were also interesting. I’m not sure what kind of tree this is, but Millie and I really liked it’s flowers.

This was a fun side trip. Hopefully we will get to take a few more over the coming months.

On Sunday we pick up our rental car and Millie starts day camp here Jerusalem. I’m not sure which is more daunting: driving here or finding a parking space. More adventures ahead, no doubt.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura are celebrating the wedding of a nephew over the next few days, so we decided to go away for two nights to give them some space. It’s not an easy thing to host four additional humans in your house for five weeks and we are grateful. The bus ride to Ein Gedi was surprisingly easy and it was fun to watch the terrain change out the window.

The hotel is on a kibbutz, but the accommodations are nicer than the hotels we typically stay in. For most of the afternoon Adena worked in the room, diligently getting her hours in for the day.

I took the girls to the pool and we stayed there for over two hours. There were people there from all over: Los Angeles, Paris, Hungary.

The second photo is of them looking east toward the Dead Sea, which is billed as the lowest place on Earth. It really does feel like an oasis here and the place is surrounded by rocky, dry hills like this.

In addition to being hyper salty, the Dead Sea contains minerals that are believed to improve skin (see Ahava cosmetics) and contribute to the strange color of the water.

After dinner I took a short walk and snapped a few photos. The one below shows the moon above the Dead Sea, but doesn’t fully capture the effect due to the haze in the distance and reflection of the hills on the Jordanian side in the water.

On the way back to the room the wind was blowing and the smell of sulphur was strong in the air. We’ll get up really early tomorrow so Adena can join us for an activity here before her work day starts.

Yesterday Adena started back to work, which means I will be entertaining the girls solo for most of the day until Millie starts Ramah day camp. Luckily, Noa’s eldest daughter was available to watch them for a few hours while I got some grading done. On the way to pick up the girls from a babysitting session, I stopped by the Tayelet (Armon HaNatziv). When we drove in from the airport, Uncle Paul stopped and he and I got out of the car to take a quick look (Adena and the girls had driven back with Cousin Noam). He explained that the southern view of the Old City from this vantage point is of the same hill where Abraham was instructed to bind and sacrifice his son. It is a very popular place to visit, evidenced by the the long line of tour buses parked out front at all hours of the day.

I walked along and snapped a lot of photos, hoping that a few of them would be decent. Here is a sample.

There was also some kind of celebration going on in the main building just above the Peace Forest. These kids were playing outside on the grass and there was an armed guard stationed by the doorway.

I didn’t have the nerve to snap the guard’s photo. There was a truck attack here in January 2017 that resulted in fatalities, and a knife attack in May 2016. I couldn’t walk the lower paths and still pick up the girls on time, but maybe I’ll try that on a future visit.

Gazelle Valley is a nature reserve located about one mile northeast of the large mall described in a previous post, and roughly one mile northwest of the rental car agency where we will pick up our wheels on July 1st (more on that later). We needed an activity for the kids yesterday, but weren’t able to get there until later in the afternoon. Here’s us waiting for the bus with sad faces.

By then it was really hot and there was construction near the entrance, so the walk in was very dusty.

As a nature reserve, the entire vibe is extremely hands-off and self-directed. The staff were all huddled in the air conditioned office near the entrance, which emboldened us to soak our feet in this shallow pond, despite the sign in the background prohibiting it.

That’s when we noticed the first one.

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The hunt for more gazelles began, punctuated by rest breaks at the many shady stops throughout the park.

There was a lizard, some birds, and this little gazelle named Tina (according to Aviva).

We were able to hail a taxi back to Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura’s house to have some downtime before dinner and showers. It was a successful outing and definitely worth a few hours in the heat.

Turkish coffee is great. It is simple to make and delivers almost an entire day’s dose of caffeine in a small cup.

The brewing process is the opposite of the typical American drip coffee. You add a few (three) teaspoons of super-fine grounds, then pour in boiling water from the kumkum. After five minutes, the coffee grounds settle to the bottom, and you’re off to the races. Seasoned drinkers tap the cup on the table to coax out a little more ingestible liquid, then there’s nothing left but soggy coffee grounds. By having to drink less coffee to get adequately caffeinated, you can appreciate the ritual a little more… and get more work done.

The last couple of days have been a blur. More grading. A trip to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.

Getting there was not easy, but once inside, everyone had a great time. Luckily there was ample shade strategically located throughout the facility. The fruit bats and kangaroos were probably the biggest hits. I still think referring to a zoo as an “animal garden” (gan chayot) is both delightful and at the same time, a little dark.

There was a successful dissertation defense. Then a trip to the Bloomfield Science Museum.

Again, getting there was challenging, but it wasn’t excessively crowded. The cafeteria had good food and dessert options, in addition to the ubiquitous, caffeine-packed Turkish coffee served in tiny cups. The optical illusion and electricity exhibits grabbed the kids’ attention and energized (pun intended 😉) us all. But the biggest crowd pleaser of all for us was the harp with the invisible strings!

My limited conversations with people here in Jerusalem have revealed several interesting and familiar urban planning issues. Where to put light rail lines in a place where practically everything has historic preservation implications? On the other hand, traffic congestion seems pretty bad for a city of this size. Who wins and who loses when mega-projects with no residential units go up in the heart of the city? American academics like Richard Florida helped to create the economic development plan that led to the Jerusalem Gateway, by the way.

On the way back from the museum, we made an impromptu stop at Machane Yehuda aka The Shuk. It was fun to wander around and take in the sights and sounds.

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Chocolate babka, olives, apricots, and pita were a few of our finds.

Here’s a parting photo from the rose garden near the Israeli Supreme Court.

Have a great weekend and good shabbos.

We finally made it to the Old City! The day began by taking two buses to meet our tour guide at the Mamila Mall. From the moment we met her, she engaged both Millie and Aviva and knew exactly how to keep things moving so a 7 and a 3 year old barely knew that they were walking around in the heat for four hours (well, Aviva was mostly in her stroller). She took us through the Jaffa Gate, walked through the Jewish Quarter, stopped for falafel and pizza (Aviva is not ready to try falafel yet), visited the Kotel (Western/Wailing Wall), and then walked through the City of David — which included a great 3-D movie!

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As part of the City of David tour, we went all the way down to the tunnels. There is a wet tunnel, where there is water flowing and you walk in water that can be waist high….we did not do that one! But we did go through the dry tunnel and it was great. Both girls loved it, even though at first it was a bit scary for them.

In the afternoon, after a short rest, we ventured out again to meet Noa and her daughters and the kids played for two hours at a neighborhood playground.

By the time we got home again, it was a full day and everyone collapsed!

Yesterday was low-key. Spent some time at the playground and took the bus back over to HaTahana.

We strolled along the path and this entryway caught our eyes. Had a nice lunch at this cute mini-mall area.

They were setting up a stage behind this heart.

Adena, Millie, and Noam went to see The Incredibles 2 in the afternoon. Bev and Aviva had more playground time.

Today Bev started grading for his summer course, then we took the bus over to Malha Mall and bought a few things we had been meaning to get. Here’s a streetscape from the bus route.

This mall was huge and packed with people on a Monday afternoon. We started to remember what malls were like before Amazon killed American retail.

The bus ride home was super crowded and long. There were many pushy/rude people. We opted for a cab to dinner at the home of one of Adena’s relatives in a different neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Dinner was great (falafel, hummus, grape leaves, Turkish salad) and the kids played outside in their garden patio.

It was great to break bread with more relatives and on the way home we noted the many construction cranes dotting the skyline. Adena’s cousin Naama is on the picture below.

Tomorrow, we have a half-day walking tour of the Old City, so stay tuned…

As shabbat approaches we will have been here for just about one week. I think we are over the jet lag and slowly learning our way around our immediate neighborhood (and how to navigate the bus system–thank you Google Maps!). Today we ventured out to Ben Yehuda Street (a pedestrian mall with lots of shops and places to eat).

By the way, if anyone needs a MAGA kippah, let us know.

We needed a bathroom and ended up having a snack at the (kosher) McDonald’s but didn’t even have a burger.

Then wandered a bit until it was of course, ice cream time again! This falafel shop literally had a line out the door…

We are expecting a hot day tomorrow (~95 F) so except for having lunch with family friends, Judy and Benjy Segal, we will lay low.

Shabbat shalom!

We got Rav Kav cards at the central bus station today.

This allows us to take the bus and light rail around the city. We’ve made good use of them already.

We walked around the Chords Bridge (note the light rail train in the right side of the image) area searching for the bus stop to get home.

On the bus ride back, we saw a few notable sites, including Mahane Yehuda.

After a short rest, we bussed over to visit Adena’s cousin Noa and her three daughters. Here are a few photos from the First Station outdoor mall just down the street from Noa and Chaim’s place. The girls got a long so well and are already planning the next get-together.

This is a rails-to-trails project in the heart of the city that clearly is well-used and successful.

Oh, and yes that is Bev wearing a V-neck shirt.