Gadi and Shira’s apartment is in a suburb of Tel Aviv. It’s an older neighborhood and very nice. I much prefer it to the gigantic high-rises springing up everywhere.
We headed out for another day of exploring Tel Aviv. Traffic is always heavy in big cities, and Tel Aviv is no different. Carol did yeoman’s work navigating using Wazes. Of course, her Wazes speaks Hebrew so Christine and I never were sure which way we were going.
Our first exploration was to a section in downtown called Sarona. Israeli history is so interesting because of the varied people who came to this area. Sarona tells the story of German Christians settling in the area in the mid-1800s into the early 1900s. There was a movement called the German Templers, not to be confused with the Crusading Knights Templars, who were an offshoot of Lutherans who were pietists and messianic in beliefs. They believed that Jesus would return and that the location of his return would be Jerusalem. The German Templers chose not to settle in Jerusalem, but in Haifa to the north. Other German Templers settlements grew up around the Tel Aviv area. The Templers were an agricultural community and they constructed a very distinctive style of house. They flourished until the early 1930s, but with the rise of the Nazis, things went awry for the Germans in Palestine. Many of the Templer communities were taken over by the British and used as administrative buildings. Eventually, the history of the Termplers was felt to be significant enough to preserve, so many of the original houses were moved to the Sarona area of Tel Aviv and have become an area of historical significance.
There were many old photographs of the houses showing their original appearance and giving the history of what family lived in them.
There was one German who brought the concept of a beer hall with him and also opened up a bowling alley next to the beer hall.
Many of these houses are now restaurants, shops or business offices. But the buildings are preserved and their history lives on.
Right next to the historical area is the Sarona Food Mall. It had an amazing array of food stores, eateries, and all kinds of local food. It was bustling due to the continuing Sukkot holiday with lots to see.
After Sarona, we headed to the ancient port city of Jaffa, the oldest area of Tel Aviv. As with most of this area, nearly every power conquered Jaffa at some point. More recently, until 1948 and the establishment of Israel, Jaffa was an Arab city. There have been tensions ever since Israel and Tel Aviv incorporated Jaffa.
One of the most popular parts of Jaffa is the flea market. There are many, many streets with shops hawking all nature of things. It is bright and colorful, especially all the rug shops. Lots of rugs are spread out over the sidewalk to attract you. The many little side streets are fun to explore. What I really loved is that the residents in the many little houses lining the small streets use the sidewalk as their gardens and there are loads of pots and planters containing beautiful plants and flowers.
One of the reasons we came to Jaffa was to find a restaurant called Abouelafia’s. Carol and Christine have a friend, Joe Aboulafia, from Harpur College. We’ll be seeing Joe when we get back to NYC the end of October. At any rate, Carol mentioned this restaurant in Jaffa, so of course we had to check it out. We know that the name is indicative of a different family tree than Joe’s, but nonetheless, close enough. We found the restaurant and went in for lunch. It was a marvelous lunch! We had bowls and bowls of yummy dips and veggies and enormous rounds of bread to dip into the bowls. Then we had shawerma and siniya and a lovely jug of lemonade. This was a scrumptious lunch, which we enjoyed immensely.
We walked down to the seashore after lunch and saw some of the other Jaffa sights. The Mediterranean coast in this area is beautiful, albeit very touristy with loads of big hotels and high rises.
We returned to the apartment for a rest. Sightseeing is tiring and getting around in traffic is stressful. Carol has been a real trouper doing all the driving. We can’t thank her enough for all she is doing to ensure that our visit to Israel is a memorable one.
This evening we took a cab back to Jaffa in order to attend a modern dance performance by the Batsheva Dance Company, which is a world-famous group. The piece was titled Three, by Ohad Naharan. The work is described this way; Three is a triptych comprised of three sections: Bellus, Humus, and Sekus. The tripartite theological structure suggests a return to a formal, exposed, everyday foundation of dance. Virtuosity is replaced by the simple movement, by rhythm, and unison, weaving the three sections into a delicate lacework of equilibriums between the empty spaces, silence, and pauses and the body, music, and movement. It was a very interesting piece and we enjoyed it. Carol’s daughter Danit had been talking with Christine, who indicated that she liked dance, so Danit found this performance and tickets were obtained. I think we got about the last tickets available because we were is the last row of the balcony right next to the light and sound board operators, but we had a good view of the entire stage and could see all the dancers perfectly.
We had walked around the area where the theater was before the performance and then afterwards we tried to find a place to have coffee/tea. We wandered for a while, but we couldn’t find anyplace suitable. We called a cab and returned to the apartment, stopping at the corner bodega to pick up ice cream. We had our tea at the apartment along with ice cream bars.
Here are a couple of photos from walking around Jaffa in the evening.
It was another great day of seeing the sights and learning about this wonderful country, all thanks to our great hostess, Carol. She’s amazing, and funny, too!
How fab for you that you found such great hosts!