First day in Israel

How's that for an appropriate greeting from Israel? We thought it was especially appropriate for any of you living south of the Mason-Dixon line in the US. For those of you living in other countries, you'll have to draw your own lines!

We arrived in Tel Aviv after midnight, and because today was Shabbat, there was hardly anything open except for restaurants and coffee shops. (One of the three elevators in the hotel was the designated "Shabbat elevator"...it only went back into operation after sundown today.) Abbie and I took the morning to walk south from our hotel along the Mediterranean beach, and in the afternoon, went north along the beach. We couldn't buy the Shalom plaque, but we could take a picture of it.

Among the sights today: the street below our hotel window with the palm trees.






As we walked to the beach, we passed through an area that reminded us of what we imagined the landscape of Bible lands to be like. The weather was perfect.




The beach itself extends over a long distance and in some areas was quite busy, while in others it was almost deserted.




Our afternoon walk found us near the old port of Tel Aviv, as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean. Tomorrow begins the actual tour, with a visit to Haifa** (Joppa) and other stops in northern Israel. I won't have time for full descriptions, but will try to keep you posted of our general itinerary.

**Sunday night: My error. I confused Haifa with Yofa, the Hebrew name for Joppa. I knew the local name was different, and as Haifa is a port also, I erroneously said we would go to Haifa. We didn't. But we did go to Joppa (offically part of the city Tel Aviv-Yofa). See Sunday entry.