Anne and Maddy - Our Travel Adventures: Israel & Jordan - Sept. 29

Happy New Year 5777!

Today is the Hebrew new year. Shalom from Tel Aviv!

So Anne traveled from Toronto. Before boarding, her entire carry-on and purse were hand-inspected. Maddy left from Munich. The airline gate was isolated from the other gates, and a carry-on search and pat down took place before boarding. We didn't mind the extra security. Anne arrived in the early afternoon on Friday; Maddy arrived at the hotel around 5 Saturday morning.

Our hotel is two blocks from the beach. Saturday afternoon we walked along the Mediterranean, watched very fit people jogging, playing volleyball on the beach, riding bikes and motorized bikes, skating and playing with the many children everyone seems to have. The bike lanes have their own traffic signals. Kids begin to learn English in third grade but there is very limited signage here in English. Neither of us can read Hebrew, but we have learned how to say thank you. All young people do mandatory military service.

Oren at our hotel front desk recommended a nice restaurant for us last night just a short walk from the hotel. We both had grouper, asparagus and a mound of smashed potatoes. The sun had set as we walked back toward the beach and found a concert venue awaiting our arrival. The mayor of Tel Aviv lead the singing of a patriotic song and gave a little talk; since it was in Hebrew, we don't know what he said. Then a popular group with drums and guitars sang for an hour. We hoped we would hear Hebrew music, and we did with the exception of a Sinatra song sung in Hebrew and Ray Charles' "Wonderful World" in English. We sat next to a very helpful young woman who had experience in the tourist area and did some translating for us. We walked the boardwalk a little longer enjoying the sea breezes.

This morning our breakfast consisted of olives, hummus, a chic pea casserole, cucumber salad, lentil and rice salads, eggs, breads, grapefruit, figs, dates, yogurt, fresh squeezed oj, and a sweetened sesame seeds paste called havla. We had very good coffee. Then we took a free short bus tour to the old port city Jaffa which has about a 25% Arabic population. Today it's 97 degrees so we looked for shade wherever we walked. We saw the oldest mosque in Jaffa and some points of interest with good views of the sea. Tomorrow our tour begins, and we will return to Jaffa to see more of it. Then the free bus tour took us to a diamond market. We looked and left and returned to our hotel. We were chillin' in our room, Anne in her nightgown and me in my underwear. I was standing at our closet when there was a knock at our door. Anne and I looked at each other, trying to quickly decide who would answer the door. Then the door popped open, and one of the assistant managers stood at the door, thinking the room was empty. He and I looked at each other for a longgg second when he backed out and closed the door. We heard him calling for someone to come wash his eyes (ha, ha), then he knocked again. He apologized when Anne opened the door and wished us happy new year with a lovely date loaf. We laughed about it for the next hour.

Tonight we will meet our guide and group for dinner. We plan to write every couple of days to post the day's stories along with some photos. Take care everyone! Anne & Maddy

Anne's first walk along the beach on Friday afternoon

Beautiful promenade along the Mediterranean