April 15, 2007
Tornado in Israel
I know I am way behind on my blogging about our trip, but this couldn't wait. We were driving from Eilat to Jerusalem on Friday April 13, 2007 and we were about an hour outside of Eilat which anyone who has driven that way knows is just about the middle of nowhere. We noticed something strange up ahead and when we got closer we realized it was a small tornado about 200 meters or so off of the road. We took some pictures but it is kinda hard to see exactly what it is. If you look at the below picture you can see on the right hand side the funnel going up from the ground up to the clouds. It was pretty amazing to see but also a bit nervewracking since there weren't too many other cars on the road and if it changed course toward us we wouldn't have had many options as to where to go. Either way it was an awesome sight.
April 08, 2007
Israel - Day 7
Day 7 was shopping day! We woke up at about 9 and had a nice leisurely breakfast before getting the kids out to the car around 11. It only took us about an hour to find parking around Ben Yehuda. Once we found parking we had lots of fun going store to store. The Michal Negrin store was a big dissapointment apparently. Some of the other stores were the same as when I had last been here, but many had changed. Devorah found a piece of artwork that we really liked and will hopefully make it home in one piece. One of the highlights of the day was that I finally got a haircut. It was a bit challenging trying to explain what I wanted to the barber who only spoke Hebrew. Devorah was also able to find some hats and other assorted stuff she was looking for.
Once I and the kids had had enough I took them back to the apartment while Devorah and Steffy continued their odyssey. (They ran into Sarah Landa while illegally crossing the street and Sarah was on her way to get ice cream).
After a busy day we ended with one of my most anticipated meals - schwarma! Wasn't the best one I've had, but was pretty good (even if the charedi guy who sold it to me tried to pass off a bunch of fake shekels as being real).
Yaakov was really cute with his Chometz searching kit from school. He and Steffy hid 10 pretzels and then we went around and managed to find them all (thanks to Stef having written down all of the hiding places!). We went to sleep at a normal hour for once and got plenty of rest before Pesach seder night.
Day 7 Pics are here.
Israel - Day 5 and 6
I know I am way behind but my apologies for having too much fun to have time to write anything!
Day 5 started pretty quiet. Kids slept till about 10:30 being exhausted from the trips of the two days before. We hung around the apartment until about noon and then drove to Chasmonayim to Beth and Louis Barr. The kids were so excited to see their friends again and took off almost immediately to go play. We talked to them for a while and then Devorah and Stef wandered off to go find the makolet. Not finding anything of interest there they had me pick them up as well as Leah and her friend Ita and we drove the 5 minute drive into Modiin to go to SuperSol, which is probably the closest thing Israel has to an American supermarket. Having picked up the necessities (like Q-Tips but of course an Israelli brand) we found one of the best things about the entire country – a branch of Angels bakery. Devorah picked up a huge box of chocolate rugelach for about $5.
Once we were in Modiin we decided to find Eli and Pesha Fischer. After getting lost a bit we finally found their place and it was great to see them again. Last time I had really had a chance to sit down and talk to them was almost 4 years ago and they had been living in Dallas. Stefanie also loved seeing Rabbi Fischer as he had been her rabbi at Maryland for two years until they moved back to Israel this past summer. We stayed there for about an hour chatting and I sold my chometz through him. One very interesting question raised was if we had been growing up in Baltimore now where would our parents have sent us to school and where would we have wanted to go. I think I’ll save that one for another time on here.
We went back to the Barr’s for Shabbat. Friday night in shul Eli Fischers dad sat down next to me and did a double take after 30 seconds after realizing who I was! Many of the families ate together in the social hall of the shul for both meals so that they could already have their houses ready for Pesach. There were probably about 150 people there, maybe more. It was a really nice experience. We saw Eli’s mom as well as one of his married sisters (Bracha) and her husband. We also got to talk to Ari and Sara Beth Solomont who we knew from about 10 years ago when he was regional director of NCSY up in Boston. It was kind of cool to be randomly sitting in a room in the middle of Israel with two people who had graduated from the same HS in Frederick, MD, albeit 20 years apart from each other!
The rest of Shabbat was really nice. Chashmonayim seems to be a very friendly community with a large number of Anglos. There were a ton of kids of all ages. It is over the Green Line (although just barely) and housing is pretty affordable there. We saw one house that is being built which is absolutely huge even by American standards and includes in the basement a full size pool, baby pool, and a Jacuzzi! That’s the type of place I wouldn’t mind living in!
Saturday night we hung out with the Barrs a bit more and then drove back to Jerusalem. It was a really nice first Shabbat of our trip and hopefully the rest will be as much fun!
Day 5 and 6 pics can be found here.
April 01, 2007
Israel - Day 4
Ok - so for the Day 4 entry we have a guest blogger. I turn the laptop over to Devorah and take no responsibility for anything that follows...
we are off to the Old City but first we have to find parking and u dont want to get lost cuz its not exactly surrounded by friendly neighbors. Thought the most important part of the Old City is the Kotel but apparently i was wrong. First we walked down the hill to Ir David (archeological dig) it was Jerusalem's main part before Other Nations took over and covered it and built on top of it. Now they are excavating and finding cool stuff like old toilets and pottery and I wasnt really paying so close attention becuz Leah was crying about how she wanted Apple Jucie not water. so i left in the middle of the speech to get her a bottle of AJ and then she cried that she wanted AJ AND Grape Juice (dont ask = i think she needed more sleep and was bored from the history lesson) suffice to say, we went thru a lot of caverns and tunnels, up and down a lot of stairs and walked up the entire Temple Mount. I told Yaakov it was like Shalosh Regalim. we saw what they think is the actual road and steps the Jews took Years Ago to get to the Temple to bring Karban Pesach..
we actually got to talk to an archeologist (Ishmael) and he showed us the behind the scenes what they were doing and some old coins they found.
At the Kotel (when we finally made it up there) there was a major celebration of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs sponsored by Chabad of course. We saw Sephardic families with a bongo band and a shofar blower (we think the bongo band wasnt wearing any underwear under their white linen outfits but can always hope we are wrong)
There were the girls with pretty pink and purple striped Talis-es. It was pretty awesome. we also saw a Henna party. THAT was cool. and a guy riding a bicycle with his baby in a milk crate strapped to the back. THAT was ----
we davened at the Kotel for mincha. Awesome. then we toured under the kotel walls, we learned all about the history of Jerusalem and the destruction of both Temples. it was all interesting but kinda long-winded. The kids enjoyed learning the ancient Alephbet and writing their names. we walked around the shops. (we even walked thru the Arab Shuk - really quickly) we climbed to the top of the buildings to see the view of the Jewish Quarter and it was amazing.
there is a lot of our history and it is interesting but i have to admit i was on overload at that point so we went to visit our friends the Ashmans then grabbed some Shwarma and headed back to our apartment.
Later, Rachi and I went to the Jacobson's daughter's bat mitzvah and got to see some former Baltimorons: Howie and Dvora Klein, Elliot and Eileen Cahan, the Blass', the Krasna's - she of "berger building" fame.
that's all. its weird being back here. there are tunnels where there used to be none and new highways and the Plaza by the Kotel is half its size because the back half is now an archeological dig. there is no longer the arch on the Chorva Shul and there is a new set of stairs going up to the Jewish Quarter.
We are glad we finally made it to the Kotel and the kids got to taste Shwarma for the first time. and now back to you Rachi.................
Pics for Day 4:
Israel - Day 3
So day 3 started off bright and early with the alarm going off around 6:45. We got the kids up and out of the apartment by 7:45 which was when we were supposed to meet our tour guide, Auri Spigelman. We then managed to get only a little lost so we picked him up at about 8:15 and started heading out of Jerusalem on Derech Chevron. One of the amazing things about Israel now compared to the last time we were here is that there now seem to be tunnels everywhere. I remember when I was here in yeshiva 12 years ago and they were making a big deal about the fact that they were going to be opening the first bridge!
We took the Gush tunnel that bypasses Bethlehem and drove through the Judean hills. Absolutely gorgeous area. It is also incredible how many new vibrant communities have sprung up in the area. We drove down to Beersheva and went to the Air Force museum. It was pretty cool to see how the Israellis have gone from dropping seltzer bottles out of private propeller planes in '48 cause they didnt have any bombs to the current modifications they make to the F15 and newer planes. They have about 140 different planes on display and the kids got to sit in a few of them as well as some helicopters. One of the cool things they had there was one of the cargo planes that had flown into Entebbe which they converted to allow people to go in and watch a video about the Air Force.
We then drove further into the Negev to Ein Avdat. We ate lunch outside and then did about a 20 - 25 minute hike to a waterfall. The kids were a little disappointed because the water was pretty nasty and they werent able to swim. Other than that they both loved the hike and Yaakov led the way most of the way there and back.
After resting a bit from the hike we drove further down South to Mitzpe Ramon where we met up with Alan - our jeeping guide and driver. We were kinda surprised when instead of leading us to the "jeep" in the parking lot (actually a Land Rover) he brought us to a brand new Santa Fe. After a bit of debate we decided to stick with it even though it didn't seem as authentic. Turns out we appreciated the comfort in the end. Alan drove us down into Machtesh Ramon which is the largest non-meteor crater - a pretty amazing site. It is about 500 meters deep and 40km by 10km. We drove through some rather bumpy terrain and saw many examples of different minerals and rock types found naturally within close proximity to each other. Yaakov and Leah had fun collecting various rocks and Devorah and Steffy sat in the "jeep" and got nice tans.
We Santa-Fe'd over to a Bedouin camp where we got to sit in their tent and drink tea (Devorah - "out of nasty cups"). Stefanie was quite impressed with their hooka collection but declined to take a smoke with them being afraid of who else may have smoked it before. The whole tour was about 2 1/2 hours and finished at about 5:15. We then piled back in the car and headed back to Jerusalem which took almost 3 hours. After dropping Auri off we headed back to the apartment where Yisroel Reches had ordered pizza to be waiting for us. We all went to bed as we had a big day planned for Thursday....
Pics from Day 3 can be found here: