Caden headed out with me this morning to a walk/run to the beach for a farewell beach walk at Hilton Beach. We really love Tel Aviv!
There are so many cats in the area! We think Grandma Sandy would be good friends with this cat lady we spotted taking care of the many, many stray cats.
We packed up, picked up the rental car, and headed to Dov's house. He kindly invited the 11 of us to his house for a visit, a tour of the area, and out to lunch.
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| Dov's house |
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| A sign on Dov's street, to balance out the cats perhaps. |
This is our tour of the Green Line, the line drawn in the 1949 Amistice Agreement between the Israeli armies and their neighbors. It is over 450 miles long. Dov's house is about .5 miles from here. He was pretty clear that he is not as left-wing as many of his colleagues. He also said he took a wrong turn and ended up in Palestine, he would not make it out alive. His strong view was that Palestine can only become a state if they guarantee that they no longer want to eradicate the Jews. Such an incredibly complicated past.
He then drove us to another part of the wall, As you can see, the sign is only in Hebrew, and my Google Translate is not working on a photo '_'
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| Ancient well / cistern |
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| Looking out at Palestine |
Not sure why the Israeli flag was on the ground here by the firepit. There is a log of security around, so perhaps a watch point.
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| Some of the beautiful thistle in the dried grass around the path |
After Dov so generously toured us around, we headed to the restaurant Platinum Grill The food was so good! And it seemed to just keep coming!
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| The salads |
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| The pita |
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| The pita maker |
Dov, and his wife Meera, ordered for us. It was wonderful hearing their stories about the times they have lived in the US through the years.
After lunch we drove the rest of the way to Jerusalem, only make a few wrong turns! Oye! Extra stressful after our tour of the Palestinian border with Dov. Our last wrong turn got us within feet of a checkpoint before doing a U-turn. In talking with other folks after this we learned that many of them travel freely between borders, especially if they have a driver from Palestine.
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| Driving along the border wall |
We finally made it to Tantur Ecumenical Institute, the Notre Dame Jerusalem Global Gateway. A beautiful facility overlooking Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
We are staying in the facilities here which include dorm-type rooms and meals. We have been reminding our kids how fortunate they are, and certainly made the comment as they dined overlooking Bethlehem!
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| Eva and Gia - two peas in a pod! |
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