Wednesday, November 1

Little did we realize that we were safer in Israel than in NYC.  We heard about the guy who drove into people on the bike lane and were shocked.  I began noticing how many soldiers there are around in the cities in Israel and just how many machine guns are casually strung from strong shoulders.  I felt safe, which was a strange realization as I don't like guns, and am deathly afraid of them.

We had 2 tours booked, one of Old Yafo and one of the history of Yafo.  The first tour started from the clock tower at 1, so we had a little bit of time to explore the Tel Aviv market.  See array of spices.

We walked back to the center of Yafo to catch the tour.  We started out winding our way along the cobbled streets, seeing sights that we had seen the day before and new ones.  We headed up the hill, winding up quaint narrow streets where people live.  We stopped outside one apartment built right into the wall which was opposite a crumbling wall and surrounded by art.  Turned out it was a famous artist and these were some of his work.  Art was a general thread through our visit thus far.  Art for art's sake, architecture, decorative

work, sly graffiti and posh art galleries.  In Tel Aviv, the art felt integral to the city, in Jerusalem, the art seemed more contrived and less organic.  Haifa, we will see later on was a further extension of art as breath.

At the top of the hill, was an old church and fantastic view of the Mediterranean Sea beyond.

The view from the top should not be missed.  It’s 180 degrees of sea splendor with skyline view of Tel Aviv to the north!  

After wandering down we came to a kiosk offering a free video of “Old Yafo”.  Inside was one of the guys we met from Sandemans in Jerusalem.  We went into the exhibit and watched a cheesy, tongue-in-cheek video about the roots of Yafo.  We wandered around the exhibit to see the artifacts on display and left.  

We headed off to a well reviewed restaurant across the square named __________.  We were “early”for dinner and without a reservation.  We were given a great table up against the window overlooking the water and the sunset.  Truly a beautiful sight. The meal was excellent.  Certainly worthy of its high ratings.

This was the view from our table.  These were __________ rocks, as legend goes, she was saved from certain death by ______________.

 Bill is looking happy as we look over the menu

We wandered back along the sea wall to our apt, and found this photo frame and couldn’t resist taking the touristic shot or two!