May 30: Tel Aviv day 2

It's been another incredibly beautiful day in Tel Aviv. Amazingly, we were so busy today, we did not make it to the beach. But it is still an omni-present part of our lives. We hear the waves and sounds of paddle-ball through our open door to the balcony. And we spent a lot of time on the promenade.

view from our hotel room, looking south toward Jaffa

We started off with the palatial breakfast again at 6:30. At 8:30 we headed off south down the promenade, toward Jaffa. Ted was going to rent bikes from the automated bike dispensing station on the promenade, but we had trouble with the software (turned out we just needed to press Continue again). 

So Ted and Josh split off and went to the bike rental place on Ben Yehuda, to rent a tandem bike. They biked north, north of the port with it's broad boardwalks, hip beachside outdoor restaurant/lounges, and new ships. They biked north of the city limits, and it sounds like the followed a bike path all the way up to Ramat Aviv. Then they turned around and biked all the way south to Jaffa, and biked around Jaffa looking for me, Cris and Sam.

Meanwhile, the 3 of us walked to Jaffa along the beach promenade. What an amazing place for bikers, moms with strollers, strolling walkers, joggers. Along the way, we saw a man trying to lead a horse into the sea. We don't know why.

horse does not want to enter the water

We joined up with a free public tour that leaves from the clock tower in Jaffa. They just opened a new tourism shop there, in a building they have been reconstructing.  It's in a building with a long storied history. It was built as a little palace for the Arab mayor of Jaffa long ago (late 1800s?) so he could live outside of his cholera-infested city. Later the British took it over as a military building, and when they left, they gave it to the Arabs, who used it as a munitions storehouse.

The Arabs used those munitions to throw rockets into Tel Aviv.  A couple of Israelis dressed like Arabs and parked a truck that looked like it was full of oranges next to it, and set off some explosives that ignited the munitions depot and blew the place up. 70 people died. It's a sad reminder of how much violence has occurred here, with everybody nursing deep grievances.

on the tour in Jaffa

Cris and I enjoyed the tour of Jaffa. I think Sam was a bit bored by it, but he was good company. The views from the Jaffa hilltop are breathtaking -- the shoreline of Tel Aviv curves away to the north. The blue of the sky and azure of the sea are crisp and clean. Tel Aviv's skyline is a testament to the constant construction boom - tall towers are rising, with cranes atop.

Sam and Cris in Jaffa

view from Jaffa looking north at Tel Aviv

We learned that Andromeda was the daughter of a king and queen of Jaffa, and was sacrificed on rocks below the Jaffa hills until Perseus saved her. We learned that an excavation revealed an ancient Egyptian gate to Jaffa, dating back to 1800 BCE.  I bought a tallit  for myself from the Gabrieli shop, something I've been looking forward to since I was tallit-shopping for Sam for his Bar Mitzvah.

The lady who sold it to me is Dorit Gabrieli. She says she has cousins in Queens who are Bernsteins - Ruth and Shirley, maybe a couple more. Are those our relatives? Her cousins are in their late 60s.

We walked back via Neve Tzedek and our favorite juice shop, passing through an area that is full of tradesman stores, like windows and tiles and hardware. We passed a clown supply shop. This city is full of contrasts side by side -- brand new sleek modern buildings next to crumbling ruins, beautiful new condos next to dumpy old grafitti retail shops that haven't been maintained in decades. Half the buildings seem full of hope for the future, the other half look like they could appear in the next Fallout game about a post-apocalyptic city of ruins.

restored building next to unmaintained neighbor

In the afternoon, Ted took me out on the tandem bike and we biked north and then east into HaYarkon park. We overheard a bit of a Madonna concert that is going on today. We ran into a guy who said he is called Miki the Pioneer, as he is the man credited with bringing disc golf to Israel.

The sun has just set beautifully over the Med. Soon we'll head back out into the streets, walking the mile and a half or so along the promenade north to the far end of the port, to Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar at the port. We're too full to have a real dinner, but we might just have room for enormous desserts.