Day 5 – July 10th It was necessary to have an advanced reservation for the guided tour. I am really looking forward to this day. I expect it to be one of the highlights of the trip. We were running a bit late and park in a commercial area of the “new” part of the city. It is very hot and we were rushing to the Wall. We arrive a few minutes late. Once again, that good ol’ Israeli customer service is apparent. The security guard tells us that we are...

Day 4 - July 9th Jaffa is one of the oldest cities in existence but not of any real importance. It has been used as a port city. We meet up with my friend's friend and his wife and 3 children at a public park on the waterfront. By the way, my friend and his Israeli friends and family are very private people and did not want their names and photos posted on the internet. In fact, they did not even want their picture taken so you may notice that my photos are only...

Day 3 - July 8th Jerusalem The Holy City! My only concern besides being up to all the walking necessary to take in the whole city is that is lives up to expectations. We start off by visiting the Machane Yehuda Market. It is before the Sabbath so it is very crowded with religious Jews buying food and other stuff before sundown. Kind of an organized madness. The market is hundreds of booths with just about every food imaginable - meat, poultry, vegetable, nuts ...

Day 2 – July 7th Jet lag finally set in so we had a bit of an easier day. We headed south of Tel Aviv to the kibbutz Yad Mordachai. For those not familiar with the term kibbutz, a kibbutz is a collective community that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants, land ownership and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzes began as utopian communities, a combination of social...

Day 1 - July 6thFirst Blog Entry I am keeping this blog not only as a record of my trip but to share and hopefully at times entertains friends and family. Right before I board the plane a Lubbavitcher rabbi asks me if I am Jewish and would I like to wrap tefillin. Hell yes! I figured it could not hurt to say a prayer before taking a 10.5 hour flight. I had a very smooth flight to Israel. On time, no bumps and I was sitting next to a nice guy who travels to Israe...