After 5 cold, rainy days, it was absolutely gorgeous today in Tel Aviv, low 70s and sunny. We started the day with an interesting breakfast buffet in the hotel. It’s advertised as a full Jewish breakfast. Not being Jewish, we had no idea what that meant. Well, if our breakfast today is an indication, it means everything you can possibly want to eat and then some. There was a salad bar, fresh fruit, dried fruit, chicken, pasta, pizza, cereal, desserts, quiche and a bunch of food that I couldn’t identify. In fact, there was so much, I had a hard time finding the actual breakfast food. I finally saw a woman making eggs to order so we both had an omelet that was good, but very different looking from what we’re used to. Instead of items being folded into the egg, everything was laid on top. It will take a day or two, but we will probably go through a “ham withdrawal” phase. As you may have noticed, we eat a lot of ham. Well, not in Israel. Not sure how we will survive.
After breakfast, we went for a walk on the promenade, which is 14 km long (about 8 miles).
Of course, we only went a short way but far enough to find Golda’s Gelato shop. It’s been several weeks since we had gelato and we were long overdue. It’s hard to get excited about ice cream while wrapped in a scarf, wearing gloves and dodging raindrops.
There are about 8 beach volleyball courts that were filled when we got up this morning at 6am. There were there when we went to bed at 10pm last night. Don’t they work??
After our short walk, I got a 45-minute massage, mostly back and neck. I tweaked my neck a few days ago and it’s been killing me ever since. My massage therapist, Doran, has magic hands. He spent a ton of time on my upper back before even touching my neck. The neck is still sore but is much better than it was. We’ll have some downtime in Greece, so I may get another one there. That should keep me going until I get home and can get an appointment with my usual massage therapist.
Then later this afternoon, we took a free 2-hour tour of Tel Aviv. Did you know that Tel Aviv is not the capital of Israel, Jerusalem is. Jerusalem also has twice the population, 1 million to Tel Aviv’s half million. Who knew??
Actually, the tour lasted about 30 minutes on the way to the Diamond Center, which was the sponsor of the tour. Once there, their goal was to sell us diamonds. It was just 3 of us, me, Peter and our new friend Robin who we met last night. After getting the ring in Antwerp (which was a much better deal) all I did was have fun trying on more rings. Robin almost bought a ring but decided against at the last minute. We met two more couples who are going to be in our group who were also shopping. Well, at least the women were shopping. They guys were sitting along the wall hoping for the best.
We have our first group meeting tonight at dinner. That’s when we’ll meet the rest of the group and, I assume, our tour leader. We leave Tel Aviv tomorrow and have a packed day of sightseeing. We’re really looking forward to sharing it with you.
I had to laugh at the “Jewish Breakfast”! That sounded like a buffet for dinner! Actually, I am sure that a Jewish Breakfast means “Kosher” so it’s more about the prep of the food than the actually choices of food, but guarantee………….no ham! You’ll have to wait awhile to get your fix!
I can’t believe that you didn’t pick up a bunch of diamonds on your tour! LOL.
That’s exactly what it was. It reminded me of the $75 Sunday brunches you get at fancy hotels. We pretty much stuck with “real” breakfast foods. I don’t know what’s kosher and what’s not, but you could be right. And one incredibly beautiful diamond ring is enough for me. I have diamonds at home I don’t wear, so why buy even more. Of course, that didn’t stop me from buying this one, except, Peter is the one who bought it not me.