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Published: October 23rd 2009
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Jaffa
overlooking the Med Tuesday, 9/15
Today we started a bit late, but set out for Jaffa and Tel Aviv about 10. Jaffa is an ancient port city on the coast on the southern side of Tel Aviv. It's history goes back 4,000 years to the Egyptians. It is beautiful and old and preserved wonderfully. The artistic section is great for shopping and I bought some beautiful earrings handmade by an Israeli artist in the Yemenite style - filigree patterns. We also walked through the older bazaar that's kind of trashy but they have some cool things as well. Had Katy bargain a top for me as I hate to bargain!!!
I love the dogs in the cities - they are mongrels but remind me of the photos I have seen of the Egyptian hunting dogs and the Afgani hunting dogs - in the hound family, short hair, lean bodies, brown or tan coloring, long noses and very slim - obviously built for running.
We left Jaffa and continued on through Tel Aviv to Caesarea - the ancient Roman and Byzantine city farther to the north. Wow! What can I say? The photos speak for themselves. Recorded history here started in about
325 BC.
Interestingly,there is a large power plant very close to the ruins and the juxtaposition is so very strange. We drove past beautiful modern golf courses to the site of the Roman and Byzantine ruins -- again, the very odd combination of modern/monied and ancient ruins. The ruins are amazing. Right on the shores of the Mediterranean, so beautiful!! The ruins of a palace and city complex, with an amphitheater, “games” arena, and so much more. We walked around all the ruins and it was hard to imagine what the signs were describing and what my eyes were seeing. The weather was very hot and humid although the breeze from the sea was wonderful and so aromatic of salt!
We left Caesarea for home and Naya and spent the evening playing with Naya until bedtime and then downloading photos to Dori's computer and editing them. Another wonderful evening with those dear ones.
Wednesday, 9/16
Early start today, lots of driving. Left about 8 for the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights all the way at the top of the country next to the Jordanian border and the Syrian border. Israel is friends with it's
two most prominent neighbors: Jordan and Egypt with whom they share most of their borders. They are not friends with Lebanon and Syria, their other two neighbors. In the 70's the Syrians, who were in possession of the Golan Heights, rained missiles down on Israeli towns relentlessly: to the tune of 8,000 a year or 3 per day. Finally, the Israeli army went after their strongholds in the Golan and a very bloody tank battle ensued. At the end, the Israeli's were in control of the Golan and have been in control of it ever since. It is a large - very large plateau at about 3,000 ft elevation.
But before we got there, we drove along the border with Jordan which was very strange for Dan and I. We have never experienced driving along a border of barbed wire fencing and watch towers, even though the Jordanians are friends with the Israelis. Another interesting observation is that about 20% of the Israeli population is Arab and you drive past many many towns where you see the minarets and mosques, yet the Arabs and Israelis live peacefully together. It's not the smoothest of relations sometimes as Dori said many
Arab towns do not pay any taxes - they refuse to, so in turn the Israeli government refuses to provide infrastructure like roads, electricity to homes, etc. They will provide services to the town hall or center, but it is up to the city councils or equivalent to do whatever with it.
Next, we got to the River Jordan, which is very pretty, - small by river standards but green and lovely. We all who were raised as Christians know about the River Jordan, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Now it is a very popular site for Christian pilgrims to come and be baptized. There is a town called Yardinit - not really a town but a pilgrimage site and it is a lovely spot at the River just for this purpose. The River is beautiful here and there were busloads of visitors - mainly it seemed to be Americans and Russian Orthodox - either walking through or preparing for a baptism.
The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide. A very large fresh water lake. We observed it from many levels but mainly from above. It was pretty hazy today
with the heat and humidity, so it was not very clear for the photos. Still a great experience.
We drove up into the Golan Heights, which is a high plateau, I don't know how big it is but it is huge and looks down on Israeli settlements. Apparently, the Golan over the course of history has been the site of many wars and has changed hands - as has most of the land in this part of the world - many times. As Dan said yesterday, the fog of history lays very heavy on the land, and you cannot escape it. When we got home to the US, a friend told me about a local restaurant owner who is Syrian and used to own land in the Golan before the war -- apparently still hoping that Israel will return the Golan to Syria. From what we saw, that is not likely to ever happen.
Much of the Golan going up to the plateau is off limits to everyone as the hills are still filled with land mines and very dangerous. It is again such an odd sensation to observe this danger and pass it by in a car.....
This is not something within my experience ever before.
Once you get to the top of the plateau, the vegetation becomes much more lush and it is very pretty. We went to an observation outlook called the Place of Peace to overlook the Sea of Galilee and although it was hazy today, it was still very beautiful.
Next stop was the Golan Heights Winery tour and that was fascinating - they are part of a consortium of several kibbutzes that grow the grapes for their wines. We did the tour and tasting and bought a case of their white that we like as much as the New Zealand Nobilo - it's about the same quality. It will also serve as the wine for the Roshashona dinner on Friday night with Dori's family.
After the winery tour, we drove a very long way down the mountain to Rosh Pina, a delightful little town where we had lunch at an outdoor cafe - the salads they serve here are massive and so good! We shared a cheese and vegetable plate and had individual salads. Wow, a lot of food and so good! The typical Israeli diet is very healthy
- big on dairy - lots of wonderful cheeses, plus eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, red and green, olives and pita. Of course, the ubiquitous hummus as well - you can't beat it!
Our last stop of the day was the town of Nazareth, an Arab city now. There is a famous church called the Church of the Annunciation, supposedly where Mary was told by an angel that she was pregnant with the Messiah. Interestingly, it is on the same block as a local mosque that displayed a large sign denouncing those who do not follow Allah. Not great PR by Western standards!
The coolest thing about Nazareth was the bakery/sweet shop. Huge trays of honeyed pastries and cookies and we loaded up on some delicacies for Katy's neighbors and also for Roshashana dinner.
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