Sunday night and Monday Morning

I am on my way down for a cocktail and to meet everyone.  We now meet our guide, Eitan Blumberg who will be with us for the rest of our trip. Tonight we go to the Kitchen Market for dinner which is at the Tel Aviv port. It is unfortunate that the market for the veggies and seafood is closed, but the restaurant is fabulous!! We shared pizzas (thin crusted with fresh seafood and veggies), appetizers of seafood, salads and veggies. A good way to have dinner after all of our traveling.  Speaking of travels, Leslie and Jack's flight out of Houston was late and they had to change all flights and finally did make it to Tel Aviv through Frankfurt, but alas no luggage.

Monday morning we all met for breakfast with a wonderful speaker, Paul Liptz from the Tel Aviv College and the Hebrew Union College.  He is originally from Rhodesia  ( Now Zimbabwe   where he grew up). A most interesting man who gave us an in depth idea of the geo-political overview of where we are.  Extremely passionate in his area of expertise and I do think breakfast went longer than expected, but that is okay.

From the hotel we traveled by deluxe motor coach (thank goodness, not a bus!) to the Old City of Jaffa.  This is the area of Israel where it all started for this region.  The area was occupied by the Ottomans and Abdul the Second, from Turkey erected a clock in the square which is very close to the harbor .  This is important because there are clocks everywhere, because he loved clocks!!

During our walking tour of the city we went to the Flea market (Shuk Hapishsishim) and then to the top of the hill where there is a wonderful view of the city of the Tel Aviv.

This is the beginning of our walk with Jesus, but it had started with Peter, one of Jesus' disciples.  Peter was on his journey north and stopped in Jaffa and spent the night on the roof top of Simon, the 
tanners home . Peter had a vision (or a nightmare) about food and animals.  It is claimed that Peter saw the vision of kosher food for the Jews and the other food for the Gentiles.  Where Christianity  started?  We had to look this one up and it is in Acts 10.

A little know fact about the churches in this area. Most churches face to the East because of the morning sun, but St. Peter's Church faces West. It is the only Catholic church that does a Mass in Hebrew.  

We did our walk around Jaffa, the old and new city with some shopping in a wonderful area of shops on cobblestones up and down stairs around the port.

Leslie, Jack, Mary Ralph and Charlie

Back into Tel Aviv for lunch at Moses hamburger joint.  This place was a hoot, burger, fries, quesadillas  and philly cheese sandwich!!

Mary Ralph wanted a chicken sandwich- now its gets interesting!! order the grilled chicken, ask for a bun with all the trimmings and condiments and make your own!! A little like Easy Rider here!

A stroll down Rothschild Boulevard to the Independence Hall where David Ben Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel on May,14, 1948.

We all wanted to go the the Tel Aviv Art Museum which we did by taxi-a wonderful large venue that houses not only a museum, but the open house and theater.  The most outstanding  piece of art I thought was the Lichistein in the lobby.  I couldn't take a photo by I will try to find one.

Tonight we are going for Italian and then we are off tomorrow morning by deluxe motto coach.  Our goal for walking is minimum 10,000 steps  and between Jack and Mary Ralph we are already above average.