The trip home

The El Al flight landed in JFK and we proceeded to Passport Control.Oh, goodness, you should have seen the lines.  But we got through, collected the luggage and proceeded to the line to Customs, which moved much faster. Sheila lucked out and got a bye on Customs. On to the shuttle to LaGuardia, for which we had a reservation and is a wonderful service (NYC Airporter).

Cool thing on the departure runway at LaGuardia: our Southwest plane was in line behind a Navy F-18 fighter!  It took off with a thrilling roar.  Why it was taking off from LaGuardia????

Writing from the Milwaukee airport (last leg of the journey):  thanks for reading.

Post-script post

I thought that this was just about the cutest children's play area in the El Al gate for my flight to the US.

LEHI museum, hummus and departure

We checked out of the apartment and stored our bags for the day.  We walked over to the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv.  We looked for the Levinsky shuk, but didn't find anything noteworthy.   It's a neighborhood market.  One of the five IDF museums in Tel Aviv is in that area (we went to three of the others last year).  The museum is housed in the building in which one of LEHI's significant leaders (Avraham (Yair) Stern) was murdered by the British:

LEHI's mission was underground resistance against the British.

We went to a hummus place recommended by an Israeli friend.  It had dandy hummus and wonderful mint tea (unlimited refills).

 and then walked back to the apartment to collect our luggage.  Our trip to the airport and El Al flight were, thankfully, unremarkable.

Last chance to go to the beach

The wind has finally subsided and since it was our last full day, we hoofed it down to the beach, but it was closed to swimming because of a lifeguard strike, so we walked in the the shallow water and found some shells.  Caught a few rays, and headed back to the apartment.

We got tidied up, and walked over to Neve Tsedek for supper at Susanna.

Now, it's time to pack and weigh our suitcases.

Videos from 5/25/16

I wasn't able to post these last week, but now they're up.

I walked, with everyone else, under these lighted hoops.  It was in the approach to Jaffa Gate.

This was on the White Route, just inside Jaffa Gate.  Last year it was a cuckoo clock.  It was titled, "The Prince of Lights".

Interview and Light Festival (2)

Sheila got a face-to-face interview with Moshe Feiglin (former MK, and head of the Zehut party).  His office is over near the diamond center in Tel Aviv.

We decided to go to the Jerusalem Light Festival again.  We walked the green and blue lines.

In Zedekiah's Cave

Damascus Gate

Very cool fire exhibit. They had 36 industrial fans oriented to create a vortex.  It is called "Large Fire Tornado".

These large, pierced pendants cast surprisingly sharp images on the walls.

Really big lampshades

Big prismatic glass tubes with projected images inside

The old map of Jerusalem in the Cardo. I finally found it!

A really big (2+ stories) version of the Kaballah emanations

Shabbat concert and more rain

We walked up to the Israeli opera house for the "Italian Songs" concert.  It was excerpts of Italian composers' (Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi) arias.  It was very nice, and well-attended.  The accompaniment was on an 8 ft piano, and the singers were more or less in costume.

And then it rained briefly but significantly in the late evening.

P.S. We didn't need to look for three stars to know when Shabbat was over because there was a well-organized and very noisy gay rights protest at the entrance to the Carmel shuk, which is easily observed from our porch.  It thankfully moved on after about thirty minutes.

Yom Shishi in Jerusalem

Sheila and I went up to Jerusalem on Friday morning to shop at Mahane Yehuda for Shabbat and to meet with my friend Anna (who doesn't work at the Knesset anymore).

Tiffany's day off

Tiffany got a day off from the AY tour and asked me to take her around.  We went to the Mahane Yehuda shuk, and then took the light rail to Har Herzl.

In this photo, Yad vShem is beyond the woods on the right, and you're generally looking north. I wondered if the building in the distance to the left was Hadassah Hospital because she wanted to see the Chagall windows.  Hmm.  The bus schedule from downtown Jerusalem to Hadassah Hospital was a nightmare: maybe it would be easier from here??

She wanted to take her time and see the outside exhibits at the Yad vShem campus. We walked down to the museum entrance from the light rail and saw everything.  Not much shade there, so I was grateful to not be sunburned.

I checked my handy-dandy Moovit app, and indeed, there is a bus (#27) that runs from that light rail station to Hadassah Hospital.  Wow. Easy and cheap.  No flinching and taking cabs for us!  The drop off spot at the hospital is at the hospital's mall (like the bus stations) so we wandered around and finally found the information desk.  I inquired in Hebrew, and we happened to be right by the desk for viewing the Chagall Windows.  We joined another English-speaking group, and then had lunch in the hospital's mall at an Aroma.  Tiffany had haloomi cheese for the first time.  Then it was an easy path back to downtown by taking the #27, then the light rail.  We did some skirt shopping, and then I returned to Tel Aviv.

Hebrew University and the Jerusalem Light Festival (part 1)

I had promised Prof. ZhiQiang Chen from UMKC that I would meet Prof. Roni Wallach from the Rehovot campus of Hebrew University while I was in Israel, and this was that day.  We took the train to Rehovot and had lunch with Dr. Wallach.

Campus entrance

It's a tree sculpture with butterflies.

We then took the train to Lod and changed for the Jerusalem train.  Took a bus uptown, shopped a little, and went to the Light Festival on opening night. Here are some photos from the White and Red routes:

This was responsive to audio, like clapping

Water

More from the fountain

And one more

Ghostly musicians

Back to Ariel

The morning started out with some actual rain.  Here is a photo of my window.  Again, wow!

We went up to Ariel on the #286 and easily found Dr. Rivka Gilat's office easily (I guess I know my way around the campus now).  This was at 2:00 an  the dinner with the Dean and others wasn't, as it turned out, until 9:00 in Yafo.  Much time to kill with lovely company.  The dinner was at Cafe Yafo.

A busy day

We took a quick trip over to the old city of Yafo.  I procured some reproductions of classic Israeli posters for Israel Spirit, then we headed up on the #25 bus to north Tel Aviv, by Tel Aviv University, to have coffee with Dr. Tsvi Sadan.  Returned back to the apartment, was making supper, and it started to sprinkle. We quickly gathered up the laptops and supper table and came in.  Didn't last long, but really, rain in Israel in May?!

Readers of the blog in 2014 will remember the radar maps.

Just the street sweepers, the police and us at 0445

I had planned to pick up Pastor Rice at the airport because he arrived 12 hours ahead of the AY tour group.  He landed at 0400, but the public transportation doesn't start until 0500.  He was willing to wait for us, and we did the best we could.  We got the first #204 bus of the day at 0525 and the second (?) train to the airport of the day at 0605.  Not much out at that hour but the street sweepers and the  police.  And he was ready for us. We reversed the trip, but there is that one wrinkle: the stairs (no elevator) to the southbound train station exit. He was, of course, a good sport.  Then we waited for the bus to Rothschild Blvd, where we had a wonderful breakfast at Benedict.  We walked to my apartment, deposited the suitcase, drank more water and chatted. We decided to take a walk up to Dizengoff Fountain. We got him to his hotel to check in, then walked back to Rothschild Blvd to meet the tour group at Independence Hall.

Lunch on my roof

Beit ha Ir

In the Carmel market

Falafel addendum

I forgot to add in the last post this observation:  we saw the most charming sight.  Three old ladies in wheelchairs were brought to the falafel place by their caretakers, so they were sitting  in their wheelchairs in a row eating their falafel sandwiches. Good food, affordable, tasty, and totally charming. We didn't want to offend them by taking a photo.

Shopping, shopping and falafel

Today was the day to stock the apartment with real food. We crafted a master shopping list and headed off to the Sufersal grocery store for packaged goods: kosher grape juice, noodles, coffee, etc. We brought three reuseable grocery sacks to carry things home. Then for a myriad of fresh food from the shuk: eggs, butter, the makings for Israeli salad, broccoli and fresh apricots.

Then, a nap. And a plan to walk up to the celebrated Falafel HaKosem (the falafel wizard).  A fun place, but not as good as Falafel haKerem in Beer Sheva.

Back in Tel Aviv

Sheila and I traveled to Israel today (or was it yesterday?).  The trip was a little frustrating, but, honestly, uneventful.  Meaning that we arrived on time with our luggage. The TSA line at JFK was about an hour, but it kept moving. We took local transportation from the airport which was something given the luggage. Then we arrived at the apartment just after sundown, let ourselves into the lobby (code was the same as last year), but the office was dark.  Sheila went up to our apartment on a whim, and found the key on the table. I hadn't had a chance to check my email, but that was exactly their plan. We are rehydrating, letting people know we're well, and just kicking back on a 70° evening in Tel Aviv.

Headed back to Israel

I'm headed back to Israel next week.  I think this will be a trip of meeting with people:  Ariel University, Hebrew University in Rehovot, a columnist for Israel Today magazine, picking up a friend at the airport who's arriving ahead of his group, taking a friend to see the Chagall windows and maybe the Chagall tapestries at the Knesset.  In between those meetings, I hope to go to the Levinsky shuk and Sarona market, to see what they have.  And, there would be that little Light Festival in Jerusalem. Oh, and I have opera tickets.  I will do my best to keep up the blog from my Kindle Fire.