A Journal, with Pictures

Our trip to Israel start­ed over a year before dur­ing lunch with Mar­i­lyn Faulkn­er, when she asked where are you guys going next. The answer was “the Holy Land” and she said “I would love to do that” so we start­ed plan­ning. Tony Huff­man orga­nized our trip, our fifth fab­u­lous expe­ri­ence planned by his orga­ni­za­tion. After a delay due to Covid in 2021, we arrived in Tel Aviv on Mon­day, March 14, 2022. Our tour­ing start­ed the next day after meet­ing our guide for the trip Jere­my Avon, who turned out to be a gem. The first day was spent in Tel Aviv explor­ing the rel­a­tive­ly new city on foot, while we got over the jet lag. In the morn­ing we walked through inter­est­ing neigh­bor­hoods, an old­er mar­ket area with unique shops, sam­pled some street food, got a view of the city, and learned about the short his­to­ry of the city and the country.

Tel Aviv was found­ed in 1909 as the Jew­ish sub­urb of the main­ly Arab city of Jaf­fa. It gets its name “Spring Hill” from a nov­el by the orig­i­na­tor of the idea of a Jew­ish State, Theodor Her­zl. The dec­la­ra­tion of inde­pen­dence was signed in a build­ing owned by Her­zl in 1948. In the after­noon Lib­bi Cohen joins us to show us street art, local cui­sine, and archi­tec­ture with an off-the-beat­en-path tour.  We see the work of the street artists who have achieved fame and for­tune, such as the band-aid man, see repur­posed build­ings sup­port­ing a thriv­ing young peo­ple scene and a build­ing boom that is in progress. We also sam­pled pas­tries baked by the city’s best bak­er, which were heavenly.

After a great first day, we look for­ward to expe­ri­enc­ing the rest of Israel.