Israel

What seems a million of miles away from our boat in Chirk, we found ourselves in Tel Aviv, a coastal city in Israel. Perhaps an odd choice for a holiday, but it ticks a number of boxes. Despite being winter, the weather was warm, not hot, but t-shirt and cardigan weather, with a thin jacket in the evening, however, at the dead sea and Masada it was a lot warmer. It is next to the sea and even though I am not a beach person there is a promenade which takes you to some lovely cafes along the sea front. The flight was only 4/5 hours and Tel Aviv is only 30 minutes drive from the airport and of course Israel has loads of history and historical places to visit. So tick, tick, tick, tick and tick.

We stayed in the Crown Plaza hotel (beach) on the 15^th floor with a fantastic view of Tel Aviv looking left and the beach and sea looking right. The hotel would definitely be recommended, the breakfasts were an array of bread, fruit, hot food (apart from Saturdays), cheeses and salads which can be eaten very lazily whilst looking out of the window at the beach and sea below. The rooms were modern, but and cosy. One evening we dined at the hotel which had a buffet which consisted of all types of salads, meats, rices, pastas, breads and an array of puddings.

We stayed in Tel Aviv which is a new city (1909) and has a mixture of building, some very modern and others very run down. There is even a deserted area near to the hotel, which is a empty concrete jungle of unused shops and buildings looking very much like the Brunel University campus. It is quite a busy city, lots of hustle and bustle with an array of shops, but I did not see many of the major department stores which we have at home, interesting really as somewhere like Dubai has all of them. The streets seems to be an unorganised mess of shops, offices, flats and restaurants in no particular order. We did find a shopping centre which had an array of shops and café’s . We were able to walk through the streets quite safely and unlike other middle east / northern African countries I have been to we were not hassled to buy stuff. We walked through the town to a street market which sold all sorts of goods from fruit and vegetables to shopping trolleys to carry your shopping home.

We were able to visit a number of places:

• Jaffa a short walk out of Tel Aviv,
• The dead sea which is 400 meters below sea level and contains 33% salt
• Masada which has such an interesting and sad story attached.
• Jerusalem which of course is the holy city for three religious which has a wealth of history
• The Holocaust museum which was extremely moving

For this blog, I have decided that I wont write streams about the history of each place as Wikipedia does such a great job and instead I thought that I would post some photos.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400,however during the day is rises to over 1 million. It was founded in 1909 on the outskirts of Jaffa

View from hotel room:


Market:
Shopping Centre:

View of Tel Aviv from Jaffa:

Jaffa:

Jaffa is a ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa has been incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo.

Street in the newer part of Jaffa (Arab quarter) and flea market:

Street in old Jaffa:

Masada

Masada was built by King Herold in 35 BC as a three tiered winter home, but he never used it. In 73AD after Judaea became a province of the Roman Empire, it was the refuge of the last survivors of the Jewish revolt (1000 people), who chose death rather than slavery when the Roman besiegers broke through their defences. Masada is 1300 feet high.


View of Masada:


Cable car to the top of the Masada:


Footpath to the top of Masada:


View from the top of Masada:


Ruins of Masada:


View of a Roman settlement outside Masda:


View of the ramp which the Roman built from the ground to the top to break the defences which is amazingly still visible today:

The Dead Sea

A picture to show how far the Dead Sea is receding, I think the sign is where it used to be. It is receding as the water which was feeding it has been diverted as domestic water. A plan is in place to build a canal from the Red Sea to Dead Sea which is a joint venture between Isreal and Jordan, but I do not think that it has started as yet. :



The Dead Sea with the Jordan mountains in the background:

Jerusalem

View of Jerusalem:

Streets in Jerusalem:

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which is the holiest place in the Christian Religion) is where Jesus is said to have died and been buried.



Stone of Unction where Jesus was prepared for burial:




The Western / Wailing Wall which is the most sacred sites in Judaism:





The buildings around the Wall:


The Al-Asa Mosque next to the Western Wall:

So as the sun sets on our trip and we are back home, I would recommend a trip to Israel and I have made a mental note to visit again so that I can enjoy again a huge fresh salad lunch over looking the sea whilst drinking ice coffee getting immersed in it's history and culture.