Yofi busts it open 9/14/2011

Yofi busts it open 9/14/2011

Family Israel Trip, Summer 2011

Israel, the birthplace and center of major world religions and the ancient crossroads of empires, dates back more than 8,000 years, and continues to be the center of political conflict as well as economic, financial, industrial, and cultural growth. With more than 7 million Jews in a geographically diverse crossroads between Asia, Europe, and Africa, Israel’s population and innovative wealth-creating inventions are growing enormously.

Planning

Our trip planning began six months in advance because our youngest child expressed interest in visiting family in Israel.  Our strategy was to fly through Zurich to visit family and accustom ourselves to the 10 hour time shift.  We planned to fly back through Zurich and spend more time visiting our Swiss relatives before flying home.  There would be four to seven of us travelling on two to five separate reservations depending on the older three kids.

Booking flights, hotels, car rental

Expedia proved as useful as the double-secret ninja travel agent deals for finding cheap non-stop flights.  One trick that worked this time was to book separate tickets for each leg -- Seattle <-> Zurich and Zurich <-> Tel Aviv instead of putting all destinations on one ticket.  Another was to watch the fares carefully and buy the tickets when they bottomed out.  Flights within Europe (including Israel) are relatively cheap compared to US destinations. Avis has decent deals on cars but be careful about size and insurance.  A Mazda-5 is the smallest vehicle that would fit five carry-on suitcases.  Most of the hotels wanted dollars and cash but I expect that will change as the dollar continues to drop like a stone.
If we had been clever (or had watched the US national debt) we would have purchased lots of Swiss Francs and Shekels as soon as we decided to travel.  The dollar dropped over 30% and made everything very expensive.  All credit card companies started charging a 14% “foreign transaction” fee to make up their losses from the class action law suits they lost for hiding these fees before.  We applied for and received Capital One credit cards exclusively for this trip because (at the time we applied) Capital One was the only card that did not charge foreign transaction fees.

The Public Library augments the Internet

We went to the library and checked out all of the travel guide books for Israel then ended up buying Fodor’s Guide because we found it best for our purpose.  We looked at home exchange programs and I asked around at work if anyone in Israel were interested in trading houses for the summer but the offers were either inconvenient geographically or for the wrong dates so we ended up booking apartments and hotels for the days we did not plan to crashed at relatives’ homes.

What to see where and when?

We decided to start in the North of Israel to see Haifa, Naharia, the Galilee, Tiberius, the Golan, the Kinneret (sea of Galilee) and our relatives in that area.  We booked an apartment in Caeserea near the beach for about a week and planned to make day trip excursions from our base there to visit the North.  Our trip dates happily coincided with my cousins’ daughter’s Bat Mitzvah in Jerusalem so one of our “North” visit days was eaten by that wonderful event.  We also planned to see Tel Aviv (in the middle of the country) from our Northern  “base” during that week.  Then we planned to drive South to Be’ersheba to visit my aunt and uncle and the cousins who live there, spend one night on the Israeli / Gaza / Egypt border at my cousins’ farm home that I love so much, and then drive down through Mitzpe Ramon to Eilat.  From there our plan was to see the dead sea, Masada, Ein Gedi, and end our trip in Jerusalem at one or another of the cousins’ houses for our last four nights. Then we planned to go back to Zurich, wash our clothes, visit relatives, eat chocolate, and finally fly home.
Having had some recent, terrible experiences with lost checked luggage we decided to buy suit cases that were the maximum size of a carry-on, then stuff everything into them and check no bags at all.  Our packing list included rainy-cool weather clothes for Zurich, snorkel gear, beach stuff, and clothing that met the “respectful” coverings required by the religious people in Jerusalem.  And we took lots of electronics including phones, eBook readers (Nooks), laptops, cameras, movie camera, etc.  I broke my ankle two days before departure and had to take both an inflatable cast (with hand pump) and an ankle brace.  I packed way too many long pants and sweat shirts (note to self: next time, one each) and ended up not using the 1080p video camera (or its charger, lenses, cables) at all. 

Oldest Daughter joins us

Our adult daughter recently graduated college, after which she presented an academic paper in Southern California.  She selected one of the job offers and arranged to start her job in August, giving herself a window of calendar time during our trip that enabled her to join us just after her conference.  She met up with us in Herrliberg and stayed with us during the entire trip to Israel and Switzerland.  She is extremely well-read in history, archaeology, and the local religions and she enriched our experience enormously.  Just as the docent or guide is the most important part of a tourist’s experience, so too having an expert in the car with you adds enormous depth to the experience.  During her last trip to Israel, she participated on an archaeological dig in the North and her dig was on display in the Israel museum in Jerusalem!  The display called the skeleton buried at the site a Shaman and speculated that the turtle shells were spiritual talismans. My daughter’s theory is that the skeleton was some old crazy cat lady who lived in a cave alone with her pet turtles.

Maladies

Our youngest daughter had a bad cough for most of the trip and it spread to a few of us after a few weeks of close quarters.  Our teenager son developed digestion problems, sleep issues, terrible headaches, and sudden high fever.  Our adult daughter had some minor health issues and was first to be infected by the cough.  I hobbled around painfully on the broken ankle and then developed diverticulosis, fever, and headaches and a cough of my own.
Our flights to Zurich via SFO and then to Israel were blissfully uneventful. We had bulkhead seats for the longest transatlantic flight and I was able to keep my broken ankle elevated.

Sights

Caesarea

Caesarea includes some great beaches on the Mediterranean but the one closest to our hotel had jelly fish in June.  The beach next to the ruined aqueduct was much better.

I am always blown away by how technologically advanced the Romans were.  They brought water to Caesarea from Carmel, hundreds of Km away via aqueduct.  They built a huge water break for the port using hydraulic concrete and made an amazing harbor.  But we spent more time hanging out on the beach than visiting the sites. Photos are here, here, and here.

Akko

Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the Middle East. It was a strategic coastal link to the region. It is the holiest city of the Bahá'í religion. It is the site of Richard the Lion Heart’s massacre (2,500 of Saladin’s men and civilians) during the second crusade.  It is the site of numerous battles and it was destroyed or invaded almost as frequently as Jerusalem.  Akko is the current site of the very best Humus in the world.
We met Gil there after work while we were touring the old structures.  Gil is very nice and it is wonderful spending time with him.  More photos are here.

Haifa

I am not a big fan of the tourist sites in Haifa; it’s a big port town with lots of people.  I have been to the Bahá'í gardens many times and consider them no great shakes. 

We went to the maritime museum which I found to be a lot of fun; we were the only people in the museum the whole day. Eitana loved the girl pirate exhibit.

More photos of Haifa and the family are here.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a very large city; most Israelis live or work there.  We don’t like big cities and avoided Tel Aviv except to stop in at the “Land of Israel” museum (takes an entire day to see). We also stopped in to see relatives.
Photos are here.

Beer Sheba

The largest city in the Negev, home to the most Chess grand masters of any city in the world, site of the huge WWI battle between the Turks and the British as well as the bloodless 1948 surrender by Egyptian forces to the new-born Israeli defense forces, Beer Sheba is a big, ugly, smelly, traffic-filled, dirty sweltering city to be avoided.  We went to visit my aunt and uncle and saw my cousin who lives near-by.

Yevul

The commercial farming tour we had in Yevul made the entire trip to Israel worthwhile.  My father’s brother and his wife formed the first-ever cooperative community called a “moshav” in 1921.  His youngest daughter helped create a moshav in Gaza in the 1980’s; after Israel unilaterally surrendered Gaza to terrorists in 2006, the government removed all Israelis; so my cousins moved their farming village to the Negev where they take sewage waste and hard work to create enormous wealth from the Negev desert.  Israel recycles and uses over 85% of all sewage water (#1 country in the world).  Yevul grows vegetables, flowers, spices, tomatoes, strawberries, and prickly pears (Sabra fruit) with very cool technology such that the plants ripen at exactly the opposite time of year as the plant would naturally mature (top prices) and with yields 2-3x of other commercial farms per acre per year.

Yofi carries a box full of carrier pigeons to the war memorial tower where we wrote a note and released the birds to fly back to Yevul.  Our docent (Peter, far left) breeds carrier pigeons in addition to working his day job as a flower farmer.
We saw the site of the terrorist invasion into the Negev where they killed two Israelis and captured Gilad Shalit and we saw the Egyptian border where Bedouins graze their goats.  Photos here.

Ein Avdat & Avdat

Right on the heels of our amazing tour of commercial farming in the Negev came a double-whammy that was much better than what we anticipated. 
We stopped at the Ein Avdat canyon and the Avdat ruins on our way to Mitzpe Ramon.  We had both sites completely to ourselves (no tourists anywhere) and tramped around exploring, reading, photographing, climbing, soaking in the site.  Ein Avdat is a large canyon with a waterfall, very many animals, and some unexplored ruins.  Avdat is an amazing archaeological site of a large roman city destroyed by an earthquake, built on an oasis that was the most important site on the “incense route” for seven hundred years. Photos here.

Mitzpe Ramon (Ramon Crater)

The best hotel of our trip to Israel was in Mitzpe Ramon (ramonhotel.com); it is right next to all of the local sites. Large, clean, well-appointed rooms with fast Internet and a great restaurant made our stay there very luxurious, relaxing, and fun.

It is impossible to capture in two dimensions the grandeur of the crater; it’s like the grand canyon.  You must see it in 3-D.  It’s big, deep and geologically weird. Photos here.

Eilat

Eilat is Israel’s southern-most city and a big touristy Las Vegas-like town.  We hit all of the big attractions including snorkeling in the coral and watching the sharks get fed in the huge aquarium complex.  The water at the Red Sea beaches was nice and warm.  I discommend our hotel, the Isrotel Riviera Club which was noisy, dirty, small. Photos and videos here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

Masada

What can I add to everything you’ve heard about Masada?  It’s King Herod’s ancient, impregnable bolt hole palace (the name comes from מצוד or “fortress”). Masada is the site where ancient Jewish zealots held out against the Romans for over two years of siege and then committed mass suicide when the Romans, under continuous missile fire, moved 10,000 tons of stones and built a mountain ramp, 1800 m (6,000 feet) tall to siege and breach the fortress.

Shortly after the modern state of Israel was reconstituted, ending the diaspora the Romans had created, the Jewish Youth movement started popularizing the site among tourists and Jews as a kind of symbol of fierce Jewish nationalism.  One of their members grew up and became chief of staff of the Israeli army (Moshe Dayan); he started the ritual of climbing the snake path before dawn, arriving at the fortress at dawn, and declaring, “Masada will not fall again” as part of their celebration that they completed basic training and as a swearing-in ceremony for the army.  Jewish teenagers from all over the world also perform this spiritually powerful ritual as part of the Jewish “birth right” program to introduce these kids to their ancestral Jewish homeland.  Since the last time I was there they have added a cool museum.  More photos here.

Ein Gedi

Ein Gedi is an interesting source of water in the desert with waterfalls & lots of animals.  It is mentioned frequently in the bible whose authors claim David hid there from Saul before he became King.  (There is historical and archeological evidence that he hid among the Crete Philistines in Gaza, but who knows?  The bible is often more accurate archeologically.) Anyway it’s quite odd to see such a green, lush area in the middle of the desert.  We visited the local ancient temple as well where Jews secretly gathered during the time their religion was outlawed by the Romans.  It was very hot while we were there so we stood under the waterfalls to get wet.

Jerusalem

We ended our trip with a 3-day stay in Jerusalem at my cousin’s house in Tzur Hadassa.  Jerusalem is the capital of the modern state of Israel.  It was also the ancient capital of the united Jewish kingdom since King David 3,300 years ago.  Despite the fact that the city was conquered, sacked, massacred, and destroyed 26 times, Jews have been the majority population in Jerusalem since King David’s time.  Jerusalem is mentioned over 600 times in the Jewish bible and over 140 times in the Christian bible (but not once in the Koran).

Although we did not traipse through the new biblical water tunnels leading from the temple mount to the East, we did see almost all of the other museums and sights including the first temple site, the second temple (wailing wall), and old city stuff.  My three favorite episodes of our visit are

• Yofiel’s lighting T’Filin at the second temple
  
• The scale model and movie describing the second temple
  
• The archeological museum along the South Western wall of the second temple (because of the tour on to which we latched).

I am not a big fan of the shrine of the book (dead sea scrolls museum). But one of the placards put the 1st century BCE into perspective by explaining that it was the time in that region when religion blossomed into Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism. Lots of photos here, here.

Winding Down in Zurich

We stayed a week with my in-laws in Zurich, unwinding, sleeping, eating, lazing around, talking late into the night, and re-bonding with family.  I heartily recommend “quantity time” with relatives instead of focused “quality time.”  The cousins were inseparable, playing, wrestling, making up games.  We did a small “tourist” outing to downtown Zurich on our last day, traveling by ship, train, tram, and foot.  We saw the big sites and ate amazing food.  Photos here, here, here.

ePaper

As everyone was jumping on the Kindle bandwagon in 2006 I remained skeptical, preferring my laptop and mobile phone screens to the kindle format. I appreciated the low power consumption and amazing contrast of ePaper but I preferred paper books and still read hard and softback books at home. I rarely read from my phone; instead I listen to audio books on it.

But the week we left for our trip here to Switzerland we were planning what to do with Eitana (my 7-year-old) who is in that “reading rat” phase of devouring 2-3 books per day. We could not possibly pack enough books for six weeks. She hates reading German and cannot read Hebrew books. Last year I had gotten Elisheva a Nook to prevent further back injuries from carrying the huge text books around. It works perfectly for her; she even presented her paper at the conference last week reading from it!

I decided to try to get another older Nook – the slow, small, black-and-white ePaper kind. I found a neighbor on craigslist and she stopped by on her way to work. I gave her $75. Then I loaded it with PDF’s of the books my wife and Eitana are reading and let the experiment play out. A few days later I received a gushing email message titled “I love my Nook!” about how convenient it is, how long the battery lasts, how you can read ePaper for hours without getting a headache as LCD screens sometimes cause, how everything fits on it; it has Sodoku, etc.

Then Eitana started using it Thursday at the High School Graduation. She read for 90 minutes straight. I started to look for a third nook. Then my wife decided to get one for her father. So I was looking to get two more Nooks (in addition to the two we have) three days before our departure. I did not have time to pick them up and regret it very much. On the plane there was some contention and even I started using the Nook. It is a great form factor. I want one! When we changed planes in SFO we downloaded ten more books from the library.

So now I am looking for three more Nooks.

death of the paper publishing industry

In Japan, the most literate nation in the world with more books read per capita than any other country, the paper publishing industry has been eclipsed by Sony eReaders that pre-date the Kindle and Nook by at least three years. There have been large upheavals in the paper supply chains and livelihoods of the people working in the industry. In terms of numbers and the world’s resources, China, is of course, most important. The literacy rate in China is quite good (Go, Deng Chow Peng!) and many people read for pleasure, for news, for leisure, and even for business. At the conference where Elisheva delivered her awesome paper about the odd non-Assimilation of the Song dynasty, a paper about the future of the paper industry in China as a result of ePublishing caught the buzz. The paper publishing industry in Europe is also very big but not threatened as quickly. eReaders are not catching on as fast here. Sony is making some headway but the stores and libraries are not pushing them as hard. India has a low literacy and low per-capita disposable income; their infrastructure is also relatively poor. So despite the huge population, ePublishing is not as big a disruption as others. And we all know of the trend in the USA – Nook and Kindle are the best selling items in their respective stores. More libraries and publishers are hopping on to the formats. There are amazing Nook-only RSS feeds (Steven King!) and you can get the “New Yorker” on your Kindle (Malcolm Gladwell!!) But the real kicker as far as I am concerned is travel and the form factor. I still like paper a lot but ePaper is just as good.

Thursday: The Wedding!

I got up at 05:30 again and Heidi slept in.  I made breakfast (cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice, fruit).  When Heidi got up we went to eat “the best Hummus in the world” at Abu Hassan’s (the Ali Karavan restaurant).  It is not as good as the “best Hummus in the world” in Akko but it is better than anything else.

Then we went to the Yafo museums and antique shops.

We ran errands and hit the beach on our way to the “big event” near Rishon L'tzion.  The weather is hazy and warm.

The Event

I was completely blown away by the wedding. It was more powerful than any concert or theatre performance or other entertainment / party I have ever attended. There were about 400 people there. With two exceptions, all 51 of my cousins were there.  The event was “opulent.”  I want my kids to get married here (seriously).

Everything about the production was as good or sometimes better than a Cirque du Soleil play – A Cirque show is the only thing I have experienced that could compare to it.  The pre-production including music mixes, music video productions, place settings, flowers, props, choreography, lighting, logistics, torch-lit promenade, stage, Hupa, and food were all superb, polished, and extraordinary.

More importantly, the guests, their mood, actions, emotions, and interactions were also unbelievable: these people are direct, warm, loving, joyful and genuine.  They want to dance and to celebrate this important life event and share in the love and joy.  They are very open and emotional – everyone!  They sighed, cheered, applauded and participated in the ceremony.  They danced spontaneously. Their core values and principles hold marriage to be vital, fundamental, and most important.  I was crying (I never cry at weddings). I am very happy I came.

Part of the Jerusalem contingent.

400 guests at the garden reception.  A torch-lit red-carpeted promenade lead to a large garden. First stop was the gift box (a large safe with envelope slot for cards and a big basket for gifts.  In the large garden were 8 horsd’hoevres tables and three wet bars.  There was seating strategically placed.  On one end of the garden was the dance hall where the sit-down dinner was served (11 courses with dancing before each course).  At the other end was the Hupa (covered stage) under which the ceremony took place. A white, raised promenade led to the Hupa.  The natural and artificial outdoor lighting was carefully arranged to create a perfect contrast with filler at a midrange temperature.  The technical details are astounding.  Two sound engineers with a professional mixing board and high-end Bose speakers everywhere coordinated the sound from a prepared track that included remixes of pop songs that were mostly Israeli and US with some French, Spanish, and two Italian.

The bride and groom marched down the promenade after their parents.

The ceremony under the Hupa was carefully delivered.

After the couple accepted congratulations from every guest (again), we went into the dining/dance hall.  It had interesting (Cirque-like) lighting for dancing. 

the Food

My cousins are farmers and I did not know what to expect.  I sincerely thought that the food served before the ceremony in the garden was all we would get.  It included Mexican burritos and quesadillas, Thai chicken strips, mini-pizzas, Chinese noodles, Chinese vegetables, three kinds of sausages, burgers, and salads with spreads and dips.

After the ceremony and reception we went inside.  The tables were decked with expensive wines, juices, sodas (in elegant bottles) and we had to order water.  The first course was salads and spreads including smoked/marinated vegetables, eggplant, tambuli, hummus, cheeses, cabbage, green salads, carrots, and warm bread.  Again: I thought this course was the entire meal.  Then came casserole, then came spicy Moroccan lamb in a bread covering, then came chicken with rice and vegetables, then came steak (NY Strip) with potatoes, vegetables, noodles.  The courses were served family style.  Then came four different courses of desserts including mousse aux chocolat, tiramisu, fruits in a cream sauce, cake, and a course of fried Yemenite pastry. There may have been more food served after midnight when we left.  They continued dancing until 2am.

Between courses (I forget which 2) they showed a professionally-produced music video.  It was mixed together from clips of each family member singing separately, sometimes singing together (staged) and other times just dancing to choreographed moves.  They had the typical childhood slides of the bride and groom mixed in as well.  It was so much better than the amateur productions I have created and seen that I was blown away.

The make-up and formal photos are also better than I have seen before.

On the dance floor they passed out silly hats and flashing LEDs.

		Ela/Oded Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

We came to see a quaint, informal wedding and were overwhelmed. All of our cousins came from all over Israel; we got to see them and catch up with them all at one event.  I saw cousins from Nahalal I had not seen since 1981.

Next

Today (Friday May 6), I dropped my sister off at the airport for her flight home.  I fly out tomorrow.  We were up most of the night trying to understand the tainted jet fuel situation.  It appears all of the diesel and jet fuel in Israel has been tainted with an agent that clogs filters and prevents flow into motors.  The military released fuel to run the country from their reserves.  All of the flights are landing in Athens or Cyprus to take on fuel.  20% of El Al flights were canceled.

Gil called and wants to take me to “his” Tel Aviv to show me secret sights the tourists don’t know about.  I can’t wait!