Day 17--Goodbye Israel

I can't believe my time here is over for this trip.  I spent a wonderful morning walking into the town square.



 Cousins Jeff and Wendy took me out for an Israeli breakfast and I ended with carrot juice--what I started with here.


Esther had breakfast with us and took me to a small Yemenite museum.  Here parents immigrated here in 1929.    Here is a photo of a typical family.



Esther's uncle started the museum.


This is Esther trying on a traditional wedding hat.






Thanks to Connie and Stephen for inviting to share part of their vacation and Wendy and Jeff for being such wonderful hosts!!

Day 16--Tel Aviv and Jaffa

I started the day with a swim in the Mediterranean.  It's the end of October and the water was perfect.



Jeff and Wendy drove us to Tel Aviv.  We started by walking around the old port of Jaffa.  It was really charming.











We then went to an amazing restaurant--Messa.  We had our best meal in Israel.





Here are some of our dishes.







We then walked off our meal at Sarona market.









This is a tower of waffles drenched in chocolate.


There was a wonderful outdoor play area for kids and walking for everyone.





It's going to be hard to leave tomorrow.  This has been a marvelous trip.

Day 15--Jerusalem and back to Netanya

This morning we went to Yad Vashem.  I'd been there before and didn't think it would affect me as much as it did.  My grandparents and uncle died in the camps and seeing the memorial again was really difficult.




Getting back to the ocean at Netanya was beautiful, but there is still a heaviness to the day.

Stephen and I walked into town and had a meal by the sea.




There was the usual assortment of vey cute cats!




Back at our apartment.  This is the view out of our laundry room!!



It's really a pretty cool place to live!

Day 14--Jerusalem with a Guide

Today we hired a private guide and took an eight hour walking tour of the city.  I'm exhausted, but it was really worth it.  We decided to start with the Dome of the Rock since I hadn't seen it on my last visit.  On the way there, we passed through the Western Wall and it was the day for Bar Mitzvahs.  There were tons and tons of them.





We then went up to the Temple Mount or Haram esh-Sharif.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.  Here are a few photos of Al-Aqsa Mosque.






And then there's the Dome of Rock.  It's breath-taking and the tile work is so beautiful.









From the Temple Mount we got a great view of the Russian Orthodox Church.



Our wonderful guide, Shira, took us to the city of David, outside of the rampart walls to the south.  This city is much older than what's inside of the walled city.  It's four millennia old.  It was the capital under King David.



Here's the ruins of an old house.



And our guide, Shira, giving us a wealth of historical information.  shira.victor@yahoo.com



We went through the Jerusalem Walls National Park.  Here's rubble from the destruction of the Temple and also three gates that were exits from the Temple.





We then went through the Jewish and Muslim quarters to get to the Via Delarosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.







Another wonderful day!!