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 socialism and Zionism.

Yad Mordachai is named after one of the leaders of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during the Holocaust. It is best known for the fierce battle that took place there during The War for Independence in 1947. Here a bunch of ill equipped farmers held off the Egyptian Army for several days until the Egyptian Army finally broke through.

Part of the battlefield has been left intact with Israeli trenches and broken down Egyptian tanks and artillery. A sign stated that the British supplied the Egyptians with tanks and artillery that they captured from Rommel during WW II. Thanks a lot Lymies!

It was kind of eerie because we were the only visitors (actually the only people) that were there when we visited.

Next stop was Ashqelon. A beautiful but somewhat rundown beachfront community. While there are some very nice homes and apt. buildings, it is hard to believe that the land is not more valuable. Similar situation in Ashdod. I know that we are "off the beaten path" beacuse the signs are no longer in Hebrew, Arabic and English. No English.

Ashdod had a lot of jewlry stores for a pretty run down market square. It looked like the Russians were running the town. We did catch a pretty cool free concert of a very good Israeli Celtic (yes Irish) band and an o.k. rave type band.

We finish off the day with a nice dinner at a cafe called Cafe Noir in Tel Aviv. I have a Mediterranean style Bram? fish that I never heard of.

General Observations
1. The women are getting more beautiful
2. I am still the fattest guy in the country
3. They have great bread everywhere. Lots of varieties and tasty alone as a snack.

Tomorrow - Jerusalem.