Day two – getting here and exploring the place.

The last leg of the trip over was from Vienna to Tel Aviv which is only a 3 1/2 hour plane trip. I manage to sleep for two hours so with the time difference is I was feeling fairly fresh when I arrived here at 1am this morning. Part of the deal with the tour company was that I would be greeted upon arrival and then expressed through customs and immigration. That went brilliantly and, including getting into a van to be driven to another part of the airport for customs clearance, the whole ordeal from plane door through to picking up luggage and exiting the airport was 10 minutes. Whilst I had been warned about how rude the Israeli customs officials can be, I wasn't prepared for what took place when I was presented at the counter. I had a prepared answer for what was likely to be the first few questions that I'd be asked and I got that right - (1) Is this your first visit to Israel and (2) Why have you come? That part was easy. Then she asked "Where are you going while you're here?" So I tell her that I'm taking a tour. She says: "I didn't ask you that; I asked you where you were going? How can you come to a country for the first time and not know where you're going? Tell me all the places that you're going to?" Now, I'd promised my daughters that in the face of rudeness by Customs people I would be calm, be kind and let it go. Well that was when I was in Australia. When you're faced with it it's actually easier and more natural to tell her to get stuffed - but I didn't. I finally offered to show her itinerary as a way of answering her question. But under pressure do you think I could find the right paperwork? I was dropping pieces of paper everywhere and I could actually hear going "Tisk, tisk" every time I got the wrong piece of paper out. But eventually I found it and handed it over and got past her. It was only afterwards that I realised that there is no other intervention before you exit the building (there are no baggage checks) and they've now stopped all Customs paperwork. So these Customs agents are the only people controlling who gets through and who doesn't. The guy who was giving me the express service laughed afterwards and asked if I was ok. He says they're always rude and I shouldn't think that they are representative of the Israeli people & given today's fun he certainly seems to be right.

Again, as part of the tour arrangements, a driver was provided to transport me to the hotel. He was running late himself but either way I arrived at the hotel at 2am. It's a great room on the 13th floor and the view from the tiny balcony is still really nice.

I arose this morning looking forward to partaking of (what I had been told by my daughters was) one of the best hotel smorgasbords around. And they weren't kidding. Tomorrow I will try and take a panorama photo of just how huge the smorgasbord is.

But the big event today in Israel is the Holocaust Memorial Day. Although I couldn't understand what they were saying, every television station this morning was running editorial about the Holocaust. I went outside at 10:00am to record the two minute sounding of the sirens but didn't record it properly. But here is a link of what it was like in Jerusalem this morning: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=REzr1axel1c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DREzr1axel1c. Given that a lot of this trip is in memory of my parents who were both so deeply affected by the Holocaust in very different ways but jointly affected by both having their extended families murdered, it was an amazing honour and very emotional for me to be standing outside in the street this morning when the siren sounded.

After the siren finishes life returns to normal pretty quickly. I wanted to convert some dollars into Israeli shekels and the girl at reception at the hotel was so cute that she said she didn't want to convert my money because the hotel offers a terrible exchange-rate. So she sent me off to Carmel markets that are close by. And what a quirky market it is, made up mainly by food vendors interspersed with vendors of cheap watches and jewellery. I hope the photos capture some of the offerings and atmosphere.

Behind the markets there is a series of smaller streets all of which are pedestrian access only. It's a welcome break from the noisy traffic and the constant sounds of car horns being beeped. So I chose a small corner cafe and sat down for a sweet potato salad lunch as penance for the sins of the smorgasbord breakfast!

After lunch it was time to do some more exploring so I walked to the other side of the hotel to the old port city of Jaffa. The photos show:
* the Jaffa Clock Tower, built in 1901 in honor of the 25th year of rule of Turkish sultan Abdul Hamid II,
* Kedumim Square and St Peter's church,
* the Tiroche amphitheatre which seats 1,000 people and has great outlook views back towards Tel Aviv, and
* some of the buildings and views from around the old city.