Day 4: July 11th, 2010 (Tel Aviv)

Woke up at 6:45 AM and went downstairs for breakfast. Went back to the room after breakfast, brushed our teeth and went downstairs to the bus around 8:30 AM. Our first stop was the Ben Gurion House.

Entrance to Ben Gurion's House

Since it was so close to the hotel we decided to walk over there instead of driving. It was only a 15 minute walk. Ben Gurion was the first prime minister of Israel and Minister of Defense. He lived in a very modest house especially compared to American standards. I was surprised at the lack of security at his house and how accessible all of his personal belongings were (you can go right up to everything and touch it, even though you were not suppose to touch things). We watched a movie about him and all the special accomplishments he had in his life. The highlight was the second floor of this house that had over 20,000 books in the library. We spent about an hour and a half at the house before heading back to the bus and then drove south to the old city of Jaffa.

Zach in Jaffa with Tel Aviv in the background

As we walked around the city our tour guide provided details of the city’s rich history. Jaffa is located on the Mediterrean with excellent views of Tel Aviv. We walked around for an hour and worked up a good sweat. Since it was time for lunch we stopped at a strip mall and got food. Hannah, Al and I all got Schwarma’s and Zach got cheese pastries at a bakery. Our next stop was an old Kibbutz training facility that had a secret bullet manufacturing facility underground. This facility was used during the British rule of Palestine until 1948. They were never discovered by the British nor did anybody at the Kibbutz know what they were doing. 45 workers would descend down through a secret passage under the washing machine in the wash room everyday for three years. We had an opportunity to go down the secret passage and saw the operations. Our next stop was the Palmach Museum which was dedicated to the freedom fighters of Israel before the official army was formed. We each received a listening device and moved from room to room learning about the Palmach in an interesting multi-media presentation. We all learned a lot and enjoyed the museum. Our last stop for the day was the Azrieli Observatory.

View from Azrieli Observatory

This observatory is located on the 49th floor of a mall in Tel Aviv and provides excellent panoramic views of the city. We took a bunch of pictures and then headed back down to the bus which took us back to the hotel. At the hotel we washed up and joined the Rittenburgs for dinner. We found a great little pizza place not far from the hotel that ended up having very good pizza. No complaints from anybody. For dessert we walked a few blocks and got some ice cream for the kids. We wanted to head back to the hotel because the world cup soccer final between Spain and Netherlands was on and we definitely wanted to watch the game. Al and Zach decided to stay in the room while Hannah and I went down to the hotel bar on the beach where a large screen projector TV was set to show the game. The place was packed but we were able to get good seats on a couch. I had a beer and we ordered some edamame. It was a great game with Spain winning 1-0 in overtime. We finally headed back up to the room and got into bed around 12:30 AM.