Dec 25 and Dec 26 From DC to Rimonim Hotel in Ramet Gan

We left DC the evening of December 25 for a week+ trip to Israel. We chose this time because Beth was likely to be available to take off work some. We also hoped the airplanes wouldn't be crowded but all four flights were essentially full (Dulles to Paris, Paris to Ben Gurion, Ben Gurion to Paris and Paris to Dulles). The supershuttle to and from Dulles worked better than in 2012 (each trip was only 40 minutes or so). This time, I decided to rent a vehicle in Ramat Gan (there was a place only about a mile from the hotel) which would spare me the drive to and from the airport (driving after two long flights is stressful as is trying to find the correct rental car return site in the dark).

Dec 27 Visiting Jaffa - on the way

We went with Beth and took two buses and then had a bit of a walk to the Port and old city area. Along the way, we saw a lot of construction.  According to the posters placed near the construction site, it was going to be a pretty fancy apartment house.

The image shows the construction site where the crane is decorated with a 'Hello Kitty' icon. This perhaps demonstrated who is culturally dominant in Israel.

Dec 27 Jaffa - near the old city

Sheikh Bassam abu Zayid square (actually it is a circle with a garden in it) was on the way to the Old City. The Sheikh was, as this Haaretz article states, a beloved  iman of the main mosque in Jaffa ¬ the Mahmoudiye, who died in about 2008. If this is the case then probably the garden was started long before the circle was named in 2010) . The olive tree looks to be at least 30 years old (although it is possible it was transplanted).

Behind the wall is a garden and cemetery. The cemetery is, I think, divided into Muslim, Christian and Jewish sections. Some of those from each religion died in the 1921 riots (about 50 Jews and 50 Arabs, including both Muslims and Christians died during these riots). I think the cemetery also has some of the graves of victims of the 1929 massacre in Hebron (all of the 75 or 76 victims of this were Jewish but only a few were buried in Jaffa).

Dec 27 Above Jaffa and the Port of Jaffa

There are a lot of good places to view the port of Jaffa and vicinity. The first image shows a place in a park that is about 50 to  100 feet above the port area and has stone paths and walls and gardens.

It was nice and sunny that morning with temperatures in the 60sF but that night there was heavy rain and it got into the 40sF.

The second place is from inside a bus in the vicinity of Jaffa.

At the Port of Jaffa

Other than stroll along, having coffee, etc. there wasn't that much to do at the port of Jaffa.


However, the strolling was very pleasant and allowed for some nice photo opportunities.


The first photo is of a cat that was taking a nap on the port. Israel has a lot of feral cats, not just Jaffa. Most of these feral cats are afraid to let people pet them (not a bad thing entirely because of the threat of rabies). 


In the two photos of Beth you can see varies views of the skyline of Tel Aviv in the background.


The final photo shows Ann and Martin near some of the various things that are used by pleasure boats that dock at the harbor (all the working boats have a separate harbor).

Jaffa - Looking for the Old Synagogue

While we were in Jaffa, we went looking for the old historic Libyan Synagogue. Beth had her smart phone and there was also several tourist kiosks with the synagogue shown. We also asked several people where it was (some of whom gave us incorrect directions, some of whom had never heard of it).

However, we never found it. On the other hand while looking for the synagogue, I took an image of a monument to a whale (in Jaffa). 

In the second image (in the Jaffa park above the port) is the remains of various archeological finds. The small bricks in the upper center are from the late bronze age, about 3200 years ago. The larger stone on the ground were from the Ottoman era about 500 years ago.

Dec 27 back in Ramet Gan on Bialik Street

We returned to Bialik via taxi to be sure to have time to get a few things before the Sabbath. Beth had moved from 30 Bialik to 50 Bialik since 2012 (40% bigger apartment at 10% more rent). We met Beth and Zvika (Beth's bf) for maariv shabbat at a local synagogue (there are many of them). The trees on the street are called box or brush or plane trees (they are probably the second of the three trees Isaiah was referring to in 60:13)

December 28 in and around Bialik Street in Ramat Gan

We had a nice sabbath, including the cholent (stew) served by a Chabad house at 18 Bialik.

After sabbath we went out and around Rambam square. Just off the square is a Pizza Hut with a live tree growing through the roof in the dining area (another tree goes through the roof in the kitchen pantry area - both box trees).

Presumably, this is because the Pizza Hut franchise was unable to get permission to remove the trees. The trees have something of a sanctified status in Ramat Gan (Ramat Gan means "Garden City" or "Garden Heights" -"Gan=garden) because the first settlers of the city were very big on having parks and trees (based on historical images of Bialik street, these trees were probably planted in the late 1940s) during the early days of the first mayor of Ramat Gan, Abraham Krinizi (more about him in a later post). 

Dec 29 - The rental car and the navigation problem

The morning of Dec 29, I picked up the rental car. The AVIS franchise was only about a mile or so from the hotel and it took only about 15 minutes to get there. They provided me with an iPAD and suggested I use the IGO navigation system. The AVIS people also preset the setting for Italian and English voice directions. The IGO navigation took me many miles out of my way, first to near downtown Tel Aviv, then toward the airport. I found my way back to the AVIS station (it took about 2 hours) and they reset the voice directions for British English (they also gave me the security code to use when starting the car - they had forgotten this and without the code I would never have been able to start the car). The IGO directions were better but I couldn't tell that when they meant 'bear right', it didn't mean changing lanes or that the road would go to the right. Anyway, it took another 30 minutes to get to the hotel and park (about 5 minutes were used to get through the hotel parking security system and the meandering route to a parking spot on the bottom level of the basement). Anyway, I found out later that IGO is not a well respected navigation system (what a surprise).

Dec 29 Caesaria

I didn't really need the navigation system to get to Caesaria from Ramat Gan (and anyway, the navigation system didn't recognize Caesaria unless it was spelled Qaysaria). It is only about a 40 or 50 minute drive from Ramat Gan so we went there Sunday pm. It was a nice drive, although it rained quite a bit when we were there. Caesaria was founded in the time of Herod the Great (more about him on the December 31 post). Herod the Great built a palace, civic and entertainment center in Caesaria and built an aqueduct to carry water to that center. These images are from the internet. One image is an amphitheater, the others show the aqueduct and part of a byzantine church that was constructed later in history (Caesaria had a flourishing commercial history, in Byzantine times and during the time of the Crusades. At other times, it was frequently, at least an important port.

Dec 30 - Moved and Shopped

One of the things we did on Dec 30 was move our stuff from the hotel to Beth's place (we stayed there 4 days, then moved back Jan 3). 

We also went for a walk down a park called "Sederot Ha Yaled" (Kids Boulevard is a reasonable translation). That's the right column image. It is a no-vehicle paved path, about 30 to 40 feet wide with trees on both sides that connects Rambam Square with Jabotinsky street (about a third of a mile or so). The pizza hut with the tree growing in it is on the side of this boulevard as is a small south Florida style bar.

Later we ate lunch at a shwarma place at 5 Rambam square (third image).

We met Beth for supper in Bnai Brak (top left image) a place with low cost goods (I got a good belt there for about $3 (same thing would cost about $12 at the Target in Rockville's Montrose Crossing).

Beth and Ann shopped on Rabbi Akiva street while I hung out on the street. A guy came up to me and asked if I was a movie director (I was wearing the black leather coat and brown hat that I had in the image at the port of Jaffa).

Dec 31 - Herod and Botticelli at Israel Museum

Beth was able to take off and go with us to Jerusalem for the day. Our first destination was the Israel Museum (my IGO navigation system was almost useless and even Beth's knowledge of Jerusalem and her WAZE navigation system on her smart phone were not enough to prevent some wrong turns). 


We saw, among other things two exhibits that were going to close in Jan 2014 within weeks of our visit. One was an exhibit of archeological finds in Herodium, the site of Herod's palace and mausoleum (Herod deconstructed the former to make way for the latter). 
 
The first image shows a monumentally large basin that is thought to have been a gift to Herod from Marcus Agrippa (approved by Augustus).

The second image shows the reconstructed mausoleum. Inside is the sarcophagus that is thought to have, at one time, contained the body of Herod. The plurality of scholarship believes that Herod was no longer buried in Herod's grave when it was discovered in 2007. This is because anti Herod/anti Roman elements had ransacked the mausoleum about 70 years after Herod's death (in the early days of the anti Roman war that led to the destruction of the Temple by Titus's legions).

The third image shows a portion of a monumental (about 5' by 5') painting by Botticelli. The painting is called the Annunciation. and shows, among other things, the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she will be visited by the Holy Spirit. The painting was on loan from its permanent home in Florence,  Italy.

Dec 31 Jerusalem Social Schedule

In addition to seeing the Herod exhibit and the Botticelli mural, we had a social agenda also.

The first image (click on image to enlarge)  is Ann and I with Alan and Myrna Sternfeld. The Sternfelds have been friends of Beth since soon after she came to Israel even before emigrating (during one of Beth's longer visits to Isreal in the late 90s). Allan is a musician and gives concerts and teaches music at the University level. This is a link to a youtube of a concert where Alan is at the piano.

The next two images are of the Weiss and Dor families.  The top image is everyone over 55. To the left is Zvika's mom, next to her is Zvika's grandmother (Malka). To the right in the image is Zvika's father. 

The bottom image is Zvika, Beth, Martin, Ann, Malka and Mrs Dor. Mr. Dor (who works for the Israel National Government in the Ministry of the Interior) took the picture. We had supper in Malka's apartment. Malka (85) did 90% of the cooking for this.

We also saw Yonah Kromholz that day but I don't have an image from that.

Jan 1, 2014 Returning the Rental Car

Early in the day, I drove the car back to the rental place to return it. This was two days before I had planned since I was disgusted with the navigation system (also parking isn't easy in Tel Aviv and that is where were going the next two days).

At the AVIS office, the iPAD guy was there. I told him that I thought the IGO was a bad navigation system and he agreed. He said that once WAZE is integrated with Google map, it will work well, even in the most close quarters of Jerusalem.

Of course, that didn't do me much good for our visit.

Jan 1 - Visit to Tel Aviv University and Museum of the Diaspora

Beit Hatfutsot, aka, the House or Museum of the Jewish People, aka the Museum of the Diaspora, is on the campus of the University of Tel Aviv. It is about a mile north of the Ha Yarkon River.

Having returned the rental car we used the bus to get there. It turned out there was a bus that stopped near Rambam square and went to near the gate to Tel Aviv University. The bus driver only charged us each (Ann and I) the senior citizen rate (about $1).

The first image shows the outside of the front of the building. 

The second image shows a reconstruction of the ceiling of a synagogue in Gwozdziec. This city was in Poland at the time the synagogue was first build in the 17th century but today is in the Ukraine. The museum in Tel Aviv has a 1/2 scale version. There is a 1:1 version of this same ceiling that will be in a Museum in Warsaw Poland when that museum opens. 

The museum also has some original objects. Arguably, the most famous and historically important is the "Taylor-Schechter" manuscript.

This manuscript was purchased by two English tourists to Egypt in 1896 and shown to Solomon Schechter, a professor at Cambridge University. The manuscript led to the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, one of the most significant Jewish archeological finds ever.

The Geniza (a geniza is where old documents that may not be destroyed because of intrisic holiness or because they contain the name of God are sequestered) contained thousands of original manuscripts, some signed by Maimonides, some in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, some in Arabic. The manuscripts covered about a millennium of history and provided primary evidence of Jewish religious, community, commercial, social and political developments in Egypt and elsewhere. 

Also on the grounds of the University are numerous sculptures. The final image is one of the more interesting of them. It is the Kesher sculpture by Ron Arad (Kesher is frequently translated as 'communication' but could also mean 'linkage' or 'connection'). 
A

Jan 2 - Visit to Eretz Israel Museum

On January 2, we took the same bus as the day before but got off about a half mile sooner (about at the bottom right of the map). 

We visited the Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) museum. This is a large, well landscaped place that contained a number of subject area museums (they are in orange on the map) as well as a working archeological investigation (the large brown space). The map shows an area that is about 1/2 mile wide and 1/4 mile tall. One of the subject museums showing 27 centuries of coinage and 5 centuries before that of exchangeable items, like weights of precious metal (e.g., silver, or shekels, the term used in the bible). 

An example of the coins are some that were struck in the first year of the revolt of Bar Kochba during the reign of Hadrian. The letters on the coins are in the paleo hebrew script, not the Akkadian block fonts that were generally used at the time (and are found in, for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls) and have been used in Torah scrolls for the past two thousand years. (some of the Hasmonian Kings also used the paleo hebrew script on coins a century or two earlier). Apparently, the one on the right with the grape cluster says that it is 'year 1 of the redemption' , the one on the left with the palm branch says 'Eleazer the Priest'. 

Other subject museums have, for example, 80 centuries of ceramics, 30 centuries of glassware and 40 centuries of copper art.




There are also mosaics, some reassembled from finds elsewhere in Israel, some found on site. The one on the left is from the Byzantine era and has been preserved and cleaned in situ on the museum grounds.

January 3 - back to the hotel

We moved back to the hotel on Jan 3. We also went shopping for sabbath food and for some other items.

All this activity was on and about Bialik street and much of it was near Rambam square.

The map shows this area. The yellow line that goes from middle top left to center right then goes straight down is Bialik. The center area on the right with the bluish dot near a yellow dot is Rambam square.

The red lines on the left are the controlled access highway, route 20.

The pale area on the left is the diamond district.

We went to a synagogue off Rambam square for sabbath maariv..

Jan 4 - Sabbath and afterward

We went to sabbath shaharit at a synagogue where we had gone earlier. One of the people there recognized us from the previous time we went. Apparently, I had said I would like to see his stamp collection because he had brought it figuring we would be there. He had a good collection of commemorative issues, all in plastic binders.

We had a nice lunch, using among other things, a salad I had made, some cooked vegetables Beth had made, a cake Zvika had brought and some prepared food we had bought the day before.

That evening, I had supper with Rimon Rafiah, a transportation consultant with whom I had worked on some international conferences. We had some shwarma whose sign is just to the right of the statue of Bialik on Rambam Square (the restaurant address is 5 Rambam Square). 

Beth and Ann ate somewhere else and went shopping again.

January 5 - Krinizi Museum

After breakfast on Jan 5, Ann and I walked to the Krinizi Museum, which was about a half mile from the hotel on Krinizi Street. 

Abraham Krinizi was head of the Ramat Gan city counsel for about 24 years and  mayor of Ramat Gan for about 19 years. When he died in 1969, he donated his house to serve as a museum and it contains all sorts of memorabilia and pictures from his life. 

Mr. Krinizi did not accept a salary during these 43 years (I don't know where his money came from). He was an advocate of 'green space' which accounts for the name of the city (Ramat Gan means 'Garden City' or "Garden Heights") and for the 'keep your hands off those trees' policy that made for the tree growing through the roof of the pizza hut near Rambam Square. 

In the evening we went to the diamond district in Ramat Gan (about a 1.5 mile walk - we took a bus back) for supper at a restaurant (it was about a block to the right and down from the tall building (called the Moshe Aviv) on the center left (which is about 800' high, the tallest in Israel). Our hotel was off the image on the left.

January 6 the journey home

We got up at about 4 am and got a cab at about 515 am. There was little traffic and we got to Ben Gurion airport quickly. However, there was quite a holdup at the international security station.

The flight to Paris was packed. The flight from there to Dulles was also packed.

The worst experience was waiting in the post interview customs line (the pre interview line was also long). It looked like the image and moved glacially slow. The second worst experience was the 90 second (or so) walk from the airport shuttle lounge to where the shuttle was parked. The temperature was about 15F or so and there was a wind.

When we got to the super shuttle station, it was about 2 hours after we had De-planed. However the ride home was quick and we were the first let off. We got home about 8pm local time. With the 7 hour time change that made it about a 22 hour experience (from beginning the cab ride in Israel to the end of the shuttle in the USA). 

The next morning, we slept in, happily so, as the outside temperature got down to -2F or so at our house.