Day 19 - Jaffa & Neve Zedek

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Had my first sleep-in on this trip and woke up at 8am thanks to our comfortable accommodation at the Bostock house. Had some of John’s muesli for breakfast which was great as it’s my usual type of breakfast.

John then drove us to the old port of Jaffa which we had only briefly visited the day before. This time we had a leisurely walk through the whole area which was great. Very interesting walking through the Ottoman era alleys and admiring the views of Tel Aviv.

We then drove to the Neve Zedek area which was the first area of Jewish settlement when Jaffa became too crowded. There are many original houses, some needing a lot of restoration work. It was very interesting walking through and seeing all the families out and about as well. It’s also now a trendy area with cafes and restaurants and includes the Suzanne Dellal Center for contemporary dance.

While continuing our walk, John found an Asian restaurant called Hanoi so we decided to try it and it was excellent. The manager we spoke to said the family had traveled to South East Asia and Australia and the chefs were trained to keep the food authentic and not to change it to the local taste. I had a beef rendang and it was very authentic tasting which was quite a pleasant surprise, first Asian meal in the Middle East.

We continued walking up through a shopping area and then into a more residential apartment area and this whole area has a lot of examples of Bauhaus architecture. Tel Aviv is famous for it’s examples of Bauhaus architecture and there is one building that is classified as a World heritage site.

We then got to our final destination a plaza outside the Charles Bronfman Auditorium where we stopped for coffee and waited for John & Michal’s daughter, Sahar. It was wonderful to see her again and catch up as she has just recently been married but apparently not recognized by the Israeli Government because it has to be a religious ceremony for official recognition. In Israel you cannot just go to a registrary office to be married. For that reason, she and her husband are going to Cyprus this weekend to marry there so that they will be officially recognized as husband and wife. They require this because Sahar is moving to New York with her husband to do further studies.

After chatting for awhile, John and I caught a taxi back to the car and we picked up the others, drove sahat home and then got home for a well earned rest.

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