10 days later

So here we are 10 days later almost back were we started .... sitting in an airport waiting to get on a plane, only this time we are heading home Tel Aviv to Philly- Philly to LA. 26 hours from now LA time we will be home.

We has some change of schedule and a few wet days but on the whole it was

a great trip. From a sleeping standpoint I am looking forward to getting home. From a so many exciting things to see standpoint I have run out of time to see things long before I have run out of things to see.

Ash you were a great tour guide.... we had a wonderful time and you left us wanting to come back.

צְפַת‎‎ Tzfat part 1 The Citadel

There are so many words that look so wierd when they are translated from hebrew to english, Tzfat is one of them. But that only adds to the mystical history of the the city. So our first stop in Safed (yes that is another spelling) was The Citadel the drive up here was an experience (not an easy or comforting one) but once we got to the top we were able to get out of the car and walk around.


There are seating areas there were built in the early 1200's.













At the very top is the memorial to The Independence fighters who started their battle to regain control of Tzfat on the evening of May 5, 1948 and their battle was successful and they regained control on May 9th. On a clear day (which Tuesday wasn't) you can see Tiberius so we just listened to the recording and read the plaques.

צְפַת‎‎ Tzfat part 2 The Religious side

As I said earlier Tzfat also called the mystical city is famous for many things military battles, candles, artists and Religion.










So as we were walking amongst all the different artist we found all these different religous sites The Sanz Congrgation which was founded in 1869.




But I think the most amazing site that we found was" The Yosef Caro Synagogue" the synagogu that Rabbi Joseph Caro, scholar and Kabbalist, author of the "Shulchan Aruch" actually practiced and developed Kabbah Judaism.















one of the more amazing things that we saw but they wouldn't let me take a picture of was the Genizah where they have books and other religious items dating back to the 14th century.

Amirim

Amirim ...there are even some Isralies that don't know about Amirim but I can tell you after staying there we will be back.


What a wonderful moshav, only 150 families and they are all vegitarians but that just adds to the quaintness of the experience.

So our arrival at this hidden little moshav came completely by accident . I mean we did have reservations but no one I asked had ever heard about Amirim. Thankfully the GPS did. Amirim has everything you need, a beautiful view, a synagogue, artists galore a sculpture garden two restaurants (we only ate at Stubs and it was good), a few spas (didn't get to try any of them this time) and probably 60 Bed and Breakfasts.

One other thing that they have is a Jet? yes a fighter jet, and no I
don't know why.... there is this little park with this jet on display. We didn't even find this for the first 2 days becsue everytime we drove by it it was either at night or in crazy rain and we didn't see it. I guess we will just have to go back and find out about it.

The first Morning in Jerusalem

I know your thinking what a great place to start .... but actually I am going to write about our arrival and first evening. It's just that everyone is still sleeping and I saw the sunrise.

So we returned the car in Haifa and took a bus to Jerusalem it was an amazing way to see the countryside and experience the people. It was a little strange to see the soldiers on the bus walking up and down with their rifles but Ashleigh explained that if they ever lose their rifle the punishment is very severe. So Barry, Ashleigh and me got comfortable for the 2 hour ride to Jerusalem.

It was a little crazy with all the luggage and the security but we made it through the mall and out to the street and to the hotel. A little unpacking and we were off. Down the stairs and down King George past Agron (we did stop to point out Beit Nativ, and the balcony above Barry's head was Ash's room for 6 months) to Liberty Bell Park. Where Barry was going to meet some of his family for the first time.


Barry's work on his genealogy over the last few years has given him a much larger family than he thought he had. But one of the most reward discoveries has been the Israeli arm of the family. Many years ago before I was even doing this blog Barry found Ari Applbaum in Israel (that story will have to wait for another blog) so when Samantha was in Israel for Nativ 26 she was the first member of the family to meet Ari. Then when Bubbie and I were here visiting Samantha we also were able to meet Ari and Na'ama. We had a suprise when we were in Boston back in 2007 for a wedding Ari had joined the David Project and he was going to be living in Boston for a while so Barry did finally get to meet his cousin. But time flies and Ari and Na'ama added some members to the family which up to last night only Ashleigh had met.




But last night we made up for lost time not only did Barry get to meet Na'ama but we both were able to meet the boys (and I must say cute twins do run in the Applbaum family) and as an added bonus Ari's parents also joined us. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening and a great way to start our stay in Jerusalem.

Love from home

a little over 4 years ago (yes it has been that long) Bubbie and I came to visit Sam when she was on Nativ 26 and yes she did ask for stuff and yes she did have Daniel and Andrew here with her that I was bringing stuff for But I never thought much about it until I was packing for Ashleigh. That was when Sam told me that the Jr Mints (now kosher) and the Slurpy Machine (now missing in action) were the height of my arrival, and I thought she wanted to see me.

So fast forward to the stuff on Ashleigh's list: leggings, paint, fruit leather, boston baked beans, lavender lotion, removable hooks, anything warm and so many other little things.

So this time I paid more attention to the look on her face as I was taking things out of the suitcase.
The requested necessities were greeted with thank you's.
The leggings and t-shirts were greeted with smiles.
The new new fleece jacket and sweatshirt got oohhhs and aaahhhs and thank yous
But it was the other stuff, the paint, the food, the picture books and pillow that really made me realize that when you are away from home it's the stuff from home that really is the best.

what is it about vacations and rain?

We were thinking about it and all of the big vacations we have been on have included rain...

Hawaii it rained (I know your saying it rains all the time there, but we did have

to rearrange things becasue of rain).

Williamsberg (spring break with Sam, Ash and Bubbie) it rained although we did

get some nice umbrellas as souvenirs.

Boston in 2007... it rained we have yellow ponchos as souvenirs of that trip.

Then there was the cruise of 2010 where the schedule was changed because of

hurricane Thomas and it rained in one port.

So why should we be surprised that there are thunderstorms for our

first day in Israel....yeah... we have it all,

wind, rain, thunder and lightening.

So we started the morning driving up to

Rosh Hanikra and the rain was

sporadic sometimes just drizzle sometimes

heavy down pour sometimes nothing at all. When we got t

here the wind was unbelievable and they were closed. It seems that they just don't feel that the aerial tram would be safe in high wind, go figure? s

o we looked over the cliff at the waves crashing.

We realized there would be no Rosh Hanikra this trip and decided to see if it was raining in Akko. Well as I am sure you can guess by the title of this post there was rain in Akko,
not just a little rain but heacvy rain and wind by wind I mean real wind the kind that turns you umbrella inside out. So here we are driving round and round not able to find a parking spot (I know why are we looking to park if the weather is so bad, just chalk it up to "in for a dime in for a dollar"). So round and round and round we went from one round-about to another and then all the way around and back through the same streets again. But we found a place to park and readied our selves and got out.

We read the book we knew Akko was a
walking tour and that most of the time is outside... but hey who thinks of these things we were on an adventure. Well saner minds did prevail so no tour, but we did have brunch (well a meal at 10:00a.m.)at a little stand on El-Jazzar and waited to see if the weather would change....it did we had sunshine for about 10 min and then the rain came again and this time harder. Since we were already soaked we decided that the rain won and we were going back to Amirim.

Where by 12:30 we were back in our cabin having a cup of tea and taking some well needed naps....and so is the tale of our first day in Israel.