Mission Israel - Pre-mission Shabbat & Yom Rishon

Shabbat in Tel Aviv. Sleep late. Have breakfast in our suite in the Best Western Regency. We bought some cream cheese, some cereal and yogurt the night before at the AM-PM store near the hotel. The hotel suite includes basic cutlery (silverware) and crockery.

Cousin Lynette picked us up for a family dinner in her lovely apartment. Husband Amitai, brother Lesley and his wife Gali were gracious hosts. From barely knowing Lynette and not knowing the rest of the family at all, we nopw have some new close cousins in Tel Aviv. The mission is already a success and it hasn't even started yet! The food was tasty. We enjoyed the meal, the company and the afternoon to such an extent that we only left after 5pm.

We met Harold and Brigitte at our hotel on our return. they had just flown in on Lufthansa, who they said were fantastic, making sure that they made the connection in Frankfurt. Kudos to them.

We went for a walk up to Dizengoff Circle, Dizengoff Centre and then down towards Allenby street and back to our hotel. The weather was great for walking, cool but not cold. We stopped for an ice cream on the way. Yum.

This morning we started with a business meeting on one of the highest floors of the Moshe Aviv tower. We had a spectacular view of Tel Aviv.

After returning to the hotel on the bus, which was a bit of an adventure, we took a long walk to Jaffa, whcih took us forty minutes to get there. After wandering around, we took a detour through some side streets of antique stores and quaint artifact stores.

We then walked back down to the seaside and back to the hotel, walking a total of two and a half hours.

After relaxing for a while and doing e-mail, watching Tv and reading on my kindle, we met Harold and Brigitte in their hotel room. they had returned from their excursion with friends, buying grenadillas and "mon" cake which were both delicious.

We then walked the short distance to the "best" falafel place in Tel Aviv, Gabai Falafel on Borkushov Street. It turned out to be an absolute delight. The food was excellent, the staff were unbelievably friendly and fun. We spoke to fellow patrons sitting outside with us at the sidewalk tables. We will definitely return there.

We came back to the hotel. It is now 10pm. Time for an early night before we meet the rest of the mission group tomorrow afternoon.

Until tomorrow....

Mission Israel - Travel to the Holy Land

We're here, in Tel Aviv, Israel, after a long but enjoyable journey.

We left Houston at 9am on Wednesday morning. Luckily for us, brother Harold was able to give us a ride to the airport. We checked in at Terminal E with absolutely no problem. Continental upgraded all three of us!!! We had a wonderful short flight to New York La Guardia. We were served a delicious lunch on the plane.

We rented a car in New York from National. They are a pleasure to deal with. On arriving at their office, we simply walked to the Emerald row of cars, selected a vehicle of our choice and drove out. The lady at the drive through counter looked at my driving licence, gave me a toll tag and some directions. Quick and easy.

We drove to the Mahway Sheraton, about an hours drive. The Garmin GPS worked well, except for a small hiccup through the tunnels and under the overhead expressway.

The Sheraton in Mahway was ok, but a bit noisy because of the elevators, even though they were three rooms away. The room as clean and confortable.

We spent the evening with our famous cousin, Rabbi Henoch Moshe. He and his family are an absolute delight. It was a thoroughly enjoyable dinner with superb and fun company. Can't wait to do it again. We may have persuaded him to visit us in Houston for a Shabbaton.

The next morning; Thursday, we slept late in our comfortable hotel rooms. We made coffee in the rooms, after which we drove the few miles to Monsey, where we met Rabbi Henoch Moshe for brunch at the Avenue R Cafe. The food was good but very rich. Again we had a very enjoyable morning. We enjoyed ourselves so much we hardly noticed the time, having to rush thereafter to Newark airport to catch our flight to Tel Aviv.

Checking in at Newark was easy. We spent some time in the Presidents' Club lounge which was packed.

Security at the gate was very tight, as could have been expected, but bot a problem at all.

The flight to tel Aviv was terrific. Again we were upgraded to the superb Continental business/first class, equivalent to any carrier in the world. The food was good, the service was quietly efficient and friendly.

The flat beds allowed us an excellent night's sleep. The movie we watched was very good, especially on the large screen.

Getting through customs and immigration in Israel was no problem. We were met at the airport by David, a school friend whom I have not seen since at least 1977. He hasn't changed (much). It was wonderful catching up with him as we drove to our hotel a block away from the Tel Aviv beach. We hope to meet up with him and his family again while we are here.

After doing a bit of unpacking, we went for a long walk to the nearby market. It was bustling, noisy and full of different wares from handicrafts, food, clothing and a variety of other stores. We eventually walked along the beachfront towards Jaffa. We found a seaside "restaurant" where we enjoyed a light lunch. I had a local beer. Pretty good.

We walked back to our hotel for a rest before starting more energetic touring tomorrow.

Until next time....

Federation Mission Rev 0.1

So.... we are getting excited about our forthcoming trip to Israel on the Houston Federation mission. The e-mails are becoming much more numerous, detailing all aspects of the journey.

Yesterday I bough a small extension cord at the dollar store. I added a small power adapter to the male end to adapt it to Israeli (European) power outlets. This way we can plug in three devices such as my laptop, a cell phone charger and one other device. Neat!

Also, my new Kindle arrived so it will not be necessary to "schlepp" a pile of books around the world. Travel light where possible.

Having said this, we will be "schlepping" four huge medical tomes for an old friend in Israel; saving him a great deal. This is a pleasure, after all a friend in need is a friend in deed. I haven't seen this friend since 1977, so I am really looking forward to chatting with him and his family.

My mom arrived in Houston yesterday after an extended stay in Australia. She has a week to prepare for our much anticipated journey.

This is all very exciting, as said earlier.

Robert Louis Stevenson once said that 90% of the fun is in the anticipation and not the journey itself.