Tel Aviv: Day One

Saturday, June 28: A nickname for Tel Aviv is trhe White City. This is not because of racism, but rather because almost all of the buildings - old and new - are white. Saturday is the Shabbos or Sabbath, so it was hard to find things to do because most stores and museums are closed. Joani did find that there was a free English language walking tour of Bauhaus architecture in Tel Aviv. Leaving our hotel at 10:00am for an 11:00 tour, we immediately encountered something that we are not used to - oppressive humidity. Even in Belize it doesn't feel this draining. We had to walk at a fairly quick pace but as soon as we stopped the sweat just poured from us. We kept drinking water but that just fed fuel to the fire.

When we got to the appointed meeting place we found that there were about 40 other folks joining in. It turned out that the tour wasn't that interesting because the tour giver just - wasn't that interesting! We stayed for about 1/2 hour of the 2 hour tour and learned about what separates Bauhaus architecture from other architecture and that Tel Aviv was founded in 1909, which in this part of the world makes it very young. But that was it.

Since it was Saturday we saw a lot of people either going to the synagogue or coming back or just taking a break. While I felkt somewhat intrusive taking pictures, they were such interesting subjects that I just had to do it. 

One of the things that surprised me when we visited Tel Aviv five years ago, was the fact that Tel Aviv is on the Mediterranean - it is a beach town. I guess that if I studied a map that would have made sense. However, this trip I was ready - I knew that Tel Aviv was a beach town. So with nothing else to do on a hot, muggy Satrurday, and dressed out in our finest beach attire, we decided to go to the beach and meet up with Joani's friend Rowen, her daughter, Sydney and Sydney's fiancé, Matan. It was their impending wedding that was the impetus for our planning this trip. There were thousands of people on the beach and we were looking for a needle in a haystack - oh yeah, on a yellow sheet! Up and down the beach we walked - three or four times - and finally ran into them. Tel Aviv has multiple beautiful beaches and the Mediterranean is nice and warm and salty, so much so that I floated with no problem. I only mention that because in fresh water I sink like a stone - the times they are a changing! It was a lot of fun and sunburns were had by all!