So, I'm finalizing this post from Midway Airport in Chicago. I'm almost home. It was a good trip and the transportation in the last 24 hours is thankfully unremarkable. The Allenby Bauhaus Apartments was a good place to stay for transportation out of town, and quick trips to the Carmel shuk.
It was surprising to hear from quite a number of Israelis, over the entire trip, that they were surprised that I studied and knew a little Hebrew. And then a few were even more surprised to hear about the outreach that Israel Spirit does to promote Israel in the Kansas City community. They are very glad to know that have friends.
We went to the Kotel earlier in the day, and completed some important tasks.
I wanted to go on the Green route of the light festival, because that route tracks on the outside of the old city wall from the Jaffa Gate to the Damascus Gate. I so wanted to walk in safety in that area, and even at night. And what a treat it was!
Jaffa Road (you could be photographed under the halo and wings)
Green route marking
Violinist with lucite sofa
Hi-def projection on Damascus Gate (note the Star of David in the picture)
Crayola transition between each of the many pictures
Note the Israeli flag in the picture
I have about fifty different photos of these amazing projections. It was great seeing a Star of David and Israeli flag on the Damascus Gate! Oh, what the heck, here's another.
But there was more. The last stop was inside Solomon's Quarries/Zedekiah's Cave, an underground historic site. Too cool.
The light show was strobes which caused optical illusions without 3-D glasses. The static photos don't capture it, but the video did.
Then, we got on the Jerusalem light rail, walked right onto the #405 to Tel Aviv, and caught a non-lions-and-tigers-and-bears bus back to the apartment. Tel Aviv was a great place to get home to from the Light Festival.
The Etzel (Irgun) museum on King George Street is very comprehensive, like the Hagana museum. Both museums required identification (my passport), perhaps because both are used in IDF training, and there were a number of soldiers there learning about IDF history. I learned a lot about their philosophy, their mission, and their operations. They were much more than the clandestine saboteurs that are often the characterization: they did a lot of clandestine refugee smuggling to the Land before WWII.
And we finally got to the beach, which could, of course, be seen from my rooftop apartment. Hof Aviv is just about due west of the apartment. We didn't get there until 1600, so we just took a few dips, caught some rays, and headed back to wash the salt off.
How could I have forgotten this??? On the local bus from the Tel Aviv CBS (central bus station), on the way back from the light show, we got on a bus with....lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Well, one tiger, one panda bear, one Oscar (muppet), one Angry Bird, one penguin and one guy with his costume in a bag. They were all going to work somewhere in the Rothschild Avenue area, and quite late in the evening (around 2300). It was just a riot seeing them go to work in costume like that. That's Tel Aviv!
We went up to Akko to go to the Ghetto Fighters' Museum (בית לוחמי הגיטאות). It was a simple train ride to Akko, and a local 271 bus (NIS 6.60 = $1.75) out to the museum. It has a beautiful view of the Galilee and it's a terrific museum.
View to the east of the green Galilee
Har Gamla, at the edge of the Golan Heights
The museum has specific collections about the Holocaust, hiding Jews, and Jewish resistance. Downstairs, there's a big room with black walls on two sides that contain artifacts. You can turn on lights for the boxes and get more information on them. One of the other sides has a very big projection screen, with this playing on it continuously. I was very taken with this artistic expression: it's most similar to the outside exhibit at Yad vShem that has a stone canyon with city names, called Valley of the Communities. My little video is just a tiny overview, please imagine being overwhelmed by the floating letters. Any town name takes 10 seconds to form, but only 1 second to be dispersed.
We went to the Dead Sea for the day, and carried off a transportation coup (if I do say so myself). There's a direct bus (Egged #421) from Tel Aviv (Savidor station), but you need to have reservations, which I had made. Picking up the tickets was surprisingly easy. We actually had reserved seats (5&6). The bus went through Jerusalem, and went south near Jericho and along the Dead Sea. There was a road washout between Jericho and Ein Gedi, but we didn't need a detour, just had to wait because of one lane of traffic for a few miles. Of course, the bus wound through Ein Gedi and Masada before it got to the hotels and beach at Ein Bokek (עין בוקק). I learned that the opera performances are on the Dead Sea side of Masada, which would make it an accessible performance for me (some day).
We took advantage of the nice public beach which I used last year with Anna F. The weather was cool for the Dead Sea in June (37C), but it was just fine. The return bus #421 left at 1400, so I had only purchase one-way tickets. We were able to take advantage of a much later bus (1830) that would return to Beer Sheva (Egged #384). That goes up the steep side of the mountains and through Arad. I had forgotten that the bus would talk us past Ben Gurion University and my old apartment. So then we picked up the train to Tel Aviv, and got home.
