HOW'S THIS FOR A FULL DAY OF TOURING AROUND TEL AVIV?

We leave Tel Aviv to explore some of its surrounding areas and are immediately struck by strange looking contraptions on the roof tops. They are solar hot water heaters. Each appears to be a big hot water tank hooked to one or two solar panels. 98% of Israel uses solar hot water! Each unit costs only about $300.00! Amazing, inexpensive, and efficient.

Our conversation turns to Israel’s accomplishments in the past 62 years in using the environment in a more friendly manner. Today Israel recycles about 70% of its water for agricultural use.

The conversation continues as we drive through Rehovot, the city known as the City of Science and Culture, Israel’s tech center as well as its citrus center. We see citrus groves all along the road north to one of Israel’s National Historic Sites, the Ayalon Institute, for a bit of modern Israeli history of the period just before Israel’s creation as a state in 1948. After the War of Independence this site became the kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, and The Ayalon Institute’s goal is education.

Remember that the British restricted Jewish immigration in 1939, effectively sealing off escape routes for European Jews, and they outlawed weapons even as the Arabs refused to accept the 1947 partition of the land into an Arab and a Jewish state. No one doubted that a war would ensue. The Jews would have to protect themselves.

At this site, originally a training camp for agricultural workers, the Haganah opened a bullet factory that produced more than 2 million bullets between 1946 and 1948. The machinery was smuggled in from Poland beginning around 1938. The Haganah arranged for delivery, but it took seven years to get the machines in, assembled and ready for use. The site was the camp’s laundry and bakery, and the factory was below the laundry in an area 100’ long, 35’ wide and 35’ deep. This area was completed in a mere three weeks. There was an underground connection to the bakery.


Locating the factory beneath the laundry was a stroke of brilliance. The noise of the laundry muffled the noise of the factory. Fresh air was channeled into the factory through the laundry’s chimney. The bakery’s chimney was used to exhaust stale air from the factory. The heavy laundry machines had to be moved in order to gain access to the steep stairway leading to the factory.


The soap on the floors of the laundry as well as the odors covered the smell of gunpowder. The bullets made here were important in the early stages of the War of Independence—the war that commenced almost as soon as Israel was declared an independent state.


Our day is not over after this eye-opener. We head to Tel Aviv University for lunch (yes, everything in my last post and up until now occurs in the AM) and then to their on-site Diaspora Museum (no photos allowed) where we look at art, models, artifacts, and displays of Jewish communities throughout the world dating back 2,500 years when the Jewish tribes were exiled from the land of Israel. There are stunning exhibits of Jewish communities in different countries of the world. Very often there are models of synagogues created by Jews reflecting the cultures, architectural styles, and fashions they absorbed in their new countries while still retaining their religion and identity. It’s a stirring museum one should not miss.


As we drive back to our hotel, we have a great deal to ponder. We’d seen sites dating to the Bronze Age; we’d seen homes with solar powered water heaters. We’d seen evidence of exile, self-determination and struggle. Yes, a great deal to ponder…but no time to worry.

This evening is an opening dinner dance and we meet Wendy Morse, owner of our tour company and learn that there is a member of the family on every tour the company offers. She’s personable and friendly, and we understand that her presence means everything the company says will happen will meet her high standards and our expectations! Our dinner dance in a ballroom of the Dan Panorama Hotel is strictly for our tour. The music is fine, and we are up and ready to dance the night away!

travel trips vacations destinations tours "Third Age Traveler" "third age" photography "travel photos" "travel trips" "Margaret Morse Tours" world "middle East" Israel "Tel Aviv" Rehovoth fruits citrus science solar "solar hot water" recycling kibbutz agriculture weaponry bullets factory war education "Tel Aviv University" "Diaspora Museum" synagogues culture architecture dancing

ISRAEL--EVERYONE SHOULD VISIT!

My earliest memories of my grandfather’s Passover seders include the hopeful words for all Jewish people, “Next year in Jerusalem.” This year I made it. Not only did I welcome the Shabbat at the Western Wall but also I became Bat Mitzvah on Mt. Scopus overlooking Jerusalem. Little did I realize how the fulfillment of that yearly Passover wish would release feelings I didn’t know I had.

Mixed up with travel, religion, and history in our two-week trip to Israel is an emotional component both surprising and enriching. Our Margaret Morse Tour was, by far, the most perfectly orchestrated Israeli experience I could have imagined. Our guide, David, displayed encyclopedic knowledge, and as I share my experience and photos with you, I must say, “Go to Israel!”

How apropos to begin our trip to Israel in Tel Aviv. The name itself comes from Theodore Hertzl’s “Old New Land” or “Tel” meaning “old” and “Aviv” referring to the Spring of the year (new). This city and its environs reflect the bustling modernity of business, architecturally modern skyscrapers, and first rate hotels juxtaposed with Jaffa, not only the oldest part of Tel Aviv but also the oldest port in the world!


Jaffa is quite an eye-opener as we drive from our beautiful Dan Panorama Hotel overlooking the Mediterranean. Jaffa was a crowded walled city in the 1790s when it was the entrance to the land. Israel, in restoring this area, seeks to maintain its original character. The narrow, twisting cobblestone streets and stone buildings and steps remain as do the zodiac signs on the buildings, a reminder that the inhabitants were fishermen who lived by the stars.


A hostel to help newcomers learn the ways of the country remains as does the apartment where the idea of an army to protect the immigrant farmers out in the country. That army developed into the Haganah.


By far the most stunning reminder that we are merely blips in a long procession of civilizations is our arrival at Tel Jaffa. “Tel” is an archeological dig, and there are 22,000 tels in Israel, most waiting to be studied because of the enormous expense. Uncovered at Tel Jaffa are 25 levels of civilization, and we visit an Egyptian section where the wall dates to 3,300 BCE (Before the Common Era). That’s the Bronze Age.


Not only do we see the wall, but also rooms.


I’ve never seen anything like this outside a museum, but here the tel exists along a walkway to a park, a natural part of the landscape.



This is just the beginning of jaw-dropping moments because Jaffa’s history is phenomenal. While today’s Jaffa has its artist colony, nightlife, and restaurants, it is difficult to forget it was founded by Noah’s son, Japhet, that cedar trees from Jaffa were used by King Solomon to build the Temple in Jerusalem, that the Greeks believed that in the waters here Poseidon chained Andromeda who was rescued by Perseus, that Jonah sailed from here only to meet a whale, that one can still visit Simon the Tanner’s house where St. Peter stayed and realized the gospels had to go beyond Judaism’s confines, that Richard the Lionhearted built a citadel here that was promptly taken by Saladin, and on and on.

St. Peter's Church

In Abrasha Park overlooking the Mediterranean stands the Statue of Faith illustrating Jacob’s Dream, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the Fall of Jericho. I can see past the city of Tel Aviv across the entire country to the Judean Hills, and I am acutely aware of Israel’s vulnerability and the fragility of its 8,500 square miles.

This, we are soon to learn, is Israel, a dichotomy of old and new continuing the struggle of its existence.

travel trips vacations destinations "Third Age Traveler" "third age" photography "travel photos" "travel tips" world "Middle East" Israel "Tel Aviv" tours "Margaret Morse" "Dan Panorama" Mediterranean Jaffa "Western Wall" Shabbat seas oceans ports archeology digs tels Egypt "St. Peter" churches Solomon David Jerusalem statues "Statue of Faith" "Judean Hills" seders Hertzl Technorati zodiac "Bronze Age" Noah Bible history

There’s no place like home, and Rick & Pam, and Rob & I drove up through Orange and Ulster Counties last weekend to see the peak of the autumn colors.

We began here in Warwick and drove up to New Paltz on route 208 to 299 to catch the mountains up to Mohonk blaze out the oranges and yellows—right up to the sky.

We drove back down 55 to where it merged with 208, and that’s where we caught the views of the trestle.



The weather was mild, so this was a perfect day. Some people are griping because this is not the most beautiful fall ever, and maybe the reds are not as vibrant as they might be, but it’s beautiful around here, so I will simply share it with you in photos.


The colors have passed their peak now, but tuck this drive away for next year. It will make you feel good inside.

travel trips vacations destinations "'Third Age Traveler" "third age" photography photographs photos "travel photos" "travel tips" "driving trips" "New York" Orange Ulster "New Paltz" Mohonk nature autumn fall colors red orange yellow leaves farms mountains towers railroads trestles

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN VICTORIA'S BUTCHART GARDENS

One million bedding plants of seven hundred varieties are used in Vancouver's Victoria Island's Butchart Gardens to insure continuous bloom from March until October. Therefore, that Rob and I are wonderfully overwhelmed by our visit to this 55 acre, family-owned floral extravaganza is not in the least bit surprising.

Butchart Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada. It was once offered to the government but it unwisely refused. Today, more than a century after their inception, a million people a year pay to visit the gardens, enjoying not only its floral beauty, but the sculpture, the exquisite lighting designs, and the weekly fireworks displays.

Our visit to Butchart Gardens is a continuation of the tour to Victoria Island our Vancouver hotel's concierge arranged for us. As we enter the Gardens, we are greeted to a breath-taking panoramic view of rolling terrain and serpentine paths lined with vibrantly colored flowers: begonias, bleeding hearts, snapdragons to name but a few. These Gardens grew in stages, the conception of Jennie Butchart whose husband became rich making cement at the turn of the century. Around 1908 when he exhausted a limestone quarry near their house, Jennie turned that into the first of the Gardens, the magnificent Sunken Gardens.

By 1908, they added the Japanese Gardens and then the Italian Garden. Meanwhile, Mr. Butchart, who collected exotic birds from all over the world, had elaborate birdhouses set up among the gardens. He kept ducks in the Star Pond. He trained pigeons in what is now the Begonia Bower.

By the 1920s, word of the beautiful Gardens spread. Fifty thousand people visited annually, and the Butcharts named the avenue leading to the Gardens "Benvenuto Ave." meaning "Welcome" in Italian. They lined the path with flowering cherry trees purchased from the Yokohama Nursery in Japan. The walk to the entrance is so beautiful that we are blown away when we realize we haven't even begun to experience Butchart Gardens.

You will love visiting their website where they detail the events, let visitors know which flowers will be blooming when they visit, and offer a wealth of other information.I can offer you some background, but photos cannot adequately capture the lush, vibrant colors or the serene atmosphere visitors experience as they wander through the Gardens and drink in the charm and beauty. If we thought this visit would be anti-climactic after the amazing natural sights we had experienced on this trip, we were mistaken. This is one more place on this earth that is too good to be missed.

travel trips vacations destinations "third age traveler" "third age" photography "travel photos" "travel tips" Canada Vancouver "Victoria Island" "Butchart Gardens" nature flowers fountains paths "botanical gardens" animals birds birdhouses begonias dahlias roses "Japanese gardens" topiary "Italian Gardens" "historical sites" "National Historical Site of Canada" sculpture

VICTORIA, BC--DON'T MISS A CHANCE TO SPEND TIME HERE

On our last “outing” of this journey, we board our concierge-booked tour bus that travels along Rt. 99—The Pan American Highway which goes all the way to South America—and head for the BC Ferry Terminal and our trip to Victoria Island. The terminal is a destination in itself with shopping, cafes so used to international visitors that the computerized cash registers adapt to the country of the money of the moment.

In Victoria we have time to explore before our biggest destination. We get off in Chinatown, once the largest Chinatown in North America. We walk through Fan Tan Alley, once a hotbed of gambling and opium dens and now a place of pleasant shops. The alley was named after the gambling game, and it once led to a labyrinthian maze that was then Chinatown. Today only 3,000 Chinese residents live here


When we see a tour bus drop some Chinese tourists in front of a restaurant, we know that is the place to be, and we have an incredibly delectable bowl of soup filled with roast duck and wontons.


After lunch we stroll back down the hill toward the water, looking at the shops and sights, buying some chocolate, and being amazed at the number of bikes until we learn the cost of parking in the city--$2.50 an hour with no repeats.



Artists have contributed eagles to auction for charity, and they decorate the city. There is also a totem pole dedicated to the First People. This is a beautiful city on the water with marinas, varied architecture, good hotels, a zillion flowers and plenty to see—more than we can cover in this short time because we are off to the famous Butchart Gardens.

travel trips vacations destinations "Third Age Traveler" "third age" photography "travel photos" "travel tips" Canada Victoria water boats ferries Chinatown "Fan Tan Alley" fan tan restaurants food "Chinese food" bicycles "street art" art flowers totem
Free tag generator