It's been a fun and busy week. Our good friends from Santa Cruz (Koen, Amity, Sage & Tara) came and stayed with us - the first of three sets of visitors we're having this month. They'd never been to Israel, and had only one week here, so they did a whirlwind tour of the highlights. As our first visitors, they've earned the honor of being featured in our blog (though they probably would've preferred t-shirts instead)!
We've traveled around Israel quite a bit over the last two months. But touring with first-time visitors allowed us to take a new and exciting look at some of Israel's great places. Sometimes, it's seeing the same site from a different vantage point, or in a different light at a different time of the day. Sometimes, it's seeing or doing something new that you just looked over or walked right by the first time. Sometimes, it's doing something that you might not have otherwise done alone, like Koen and me going to an Israeli national soccer game (unfortunately, Israel lost 2-1 to Croatia).
The visit also gave our kids some familiar faces from back home to have fun with, which we hope will help them connect our experience on the road with their life in California. And it gave me (Marc) an opportunity to play my favorite role - tour guide, commentator, and culinary critic.
Our friends were struck by how much there is to see and do in such a small country (including the West Bank, it's about the same size as Maryland), how vivid the contrasts are, and how good the food is. Maybe we had become a little (but only a little) desensitized to the vast array of historical, cultural, religious, natural, recreational and culinary attractions that Israel has to offer. But seeing the country through their eyes really brought home how special this place is and how fortunate we are to be here - both as Jews and as world travelers.
Our friends were particularly blown away by the beauty, dynamism, intensity, and sheer scale of Jerusalem's Old City. You could easily spend a whole week (or more) exploring all of the different nooks and crannies of the four different quarters (Jewish, Christian, Armenian and Muslim), visiting all the museums and sites, and driving, walking and climbing up to all of the panoramic cityscape overlooks. I had already visited the Old City on five different occasions, and I thought that I was beginning to get a handle on the place. But the latest visit with our friends from back home made me realize how many different layers the Old City has - as our well-traveled friend succinctly put it: "This is probably the single most fascinating place I've ever seen. It's so hard to digest it all."
Our friends' visit concluded Sunday evening in "Mini Israel," where most of the country's attractions have been reproduced in miniature, complete with little figures bobbing in prayer at the Western Wall, eating tiny pita breads and felafel balls at the beach in Tel Aviv, and dancing to klezmer music in Tzfat. We strolled among all the sites we'd just visited over the course of the preceding week and gazed at the sites we didn't have time to see. Walking from the Golan Heights to Masada in miniature, our friends were seriously rethinking their earlier statement, made at the beginning of the trip, that this would likely be the only trip of their lives to Israel.
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Here are the best photographs of the week - hope you enjoy them!
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| View of Jerusalem's Old City from the Haas Promenade |
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| View of the Old City from the Tower of David Museum |
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| Dome of the Rock, with Russian Orthodox church in the background |
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| Entering the Old City at the Damascus Gate |
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| At the Western Wall |
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| At the Dome of the Rock |
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| Also at the Dome of the Rock |
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| It's Mecca on the phone! |
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| Hummus in Tel Aviv |
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| Vendor buried behind the olives in Tel Aviv |
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| Checking out the waves in Tel Aviv |
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| Playing at the beach in Tel Aviv |
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| Kicking back in Tel Aviv |
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| Israel loses 2-1 to Croatia at Ramat Gan stadium in Euro 2012 qualifying |
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| A picture of a picture of Akko from above |
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| Pony rides in Akko |
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| Playing in the Akko Marina |
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| Underground in Akko |
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| Underneath the Akko Citadel |
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| Eden on a windy boat ride in Akko |
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| Storm clouds in Akko |
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| Sunset in Akko |
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| Mosaic at Caesarea |
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| Renovated Crusader Citadel at Caesarea |
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| Jeremy at the beach in Herzliya |
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| Sailboat in Herzliya |
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| Sunset in Herzliya |
We've traveled around Israel quite a bit over the last two months. But touring with first-time visitors allowed us to take a new and exciting look at some of Israel's great places. Sometimes, it's seeing the same site from a different vantage point, or in a different light at a different time of the day. Sometimes, it's seeing or doing something new that you just looked over or walked right by the first time. Sometimes, it's doing something that you might not have otherwise done alone, like Koen and me going to an Israeli national soccer game (unfortunately, Israel lost 2-1 to Croatia). 
The visit also gave our kids some familiar faces from back home to have fun with, which we hope will help them connect our experience on the road with their life in California. And it gave me (Marc) an opportunity to play my favorite role - tour guide, commentator, and culinary critic.
Our friends were particularly blown away by the beauty, dynamism, intensity, and sheer scale of Jerusalem's Old City. You could easily spend a whole week (or more) exploring all of the different nooks and crannies of the four different quarters (Jewish, Christian, Armenian and Muslim), visiting all the museums and sites, and driving, walking and climbing up to all of the panoramic cityscape overlooks. I had already visited the Old City on five different occasions, and I thought that I was beginning to get a handle on the place. But the latest visit with our friends from back home made me realize how many different layers the Old City has - as our well-traveled friend succinctly put it: "This is probably the single most fascinating place I've ever seen. It's so hard to digest it all."
As a competely obejective follower of the blog, I must say this is your finest post yet. ;-) Thank you for posting your amazing photos--much better than anything we took. Can't wait to show the kids!
ReplyDeleteI loved this post as well, despite its lack of mention of the Mamluks :)
ReplyDelete