Safely Arrived in Israel
We arrived in Israel on Sunday evening after waiting in the immigration line for about an hour. It was part of the journey. We arrived at our hotel about 1 AM and went straight to bed. Adjusting to different time zones is something I have enjoyed the past few years on our world trips. I’m typing this email at 5:21 AM in Israel, having been awake since about 4 AM. I usually wake up around 5 AM in San Diego, so I consider this a really good adjustment!
On our first day in Israel we traveled from Tel Aviv to a kibbutz hotel in Galilee. We stopped at the Diaspra Museum on the campus of Tel Aviv University, which was a pretty interesting museum. I’m not a big fan of museums, but this one was unique in how it told the story of Jews around the globe and the journey we have taken over the past few centuries. It is amazing to see the different places the Jews have called home and how the creation of the state of Israel has impacted Jews around the globe.
After leaving Tel Aviv we visited Caesarea, a Roman port community on the Mediterranean Sea. Our tour guide, Ron Perry, was talking about the site and said that the major group to excavated the site was Rutgers University. Oh yeh, that’s where I went to college. Go RU! Never thought I would see that in Israel. The picture at the top of this post is the racetrack on the ocean in Caesarea. According to Ron, this was one of the first racetracks in the world where chariots raced against each other. It was pretty spectacular, even though we were walking in a pretty consistent drizzle.
The sea was pretty worked up by the storm and the waves were crashing everywhere. We arrived in Galilee around 6 PM and headed to dinner around 7 PM with the gang. I would have to say that food is not the most impressive thing about Israel. I’m assuming that some of the other place we will visit next year will be a bit more interesting when it comes to food 🙂
Going to check out for now and will post again tonight.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 