About midday I ended up chatting to this guy who said it was strange to see a Brit in Tel Aviv. He believed the majority of tourists now were Russians.He imported snooker cues from England to Israel (?) and had spent the last 25 years living in Amsterdam. He recommended a restaurant to me and I'm heading off there after this.
I then wandered off in the direction of Jaffa having a coke along the way. It's weird because it's only in hot places that I enjoy or even want to drink coke. But for some reason I love it in the heat.
Life guard duty.
OAP off to collect the pension.
Interesting angle.
I was totally fried by the time I had walked to Jaffa and decided to go and hang out in the flea market for a while. It had the architecture of the Ottoman times and the weirdness of Gloucester Green Market about it. Remnants of both powers I suppose.
This market was a complete shambles and full of tat everywhere. I decided to head off to the port area and took some interesting photos.
Guys praying next to some interesting vehicles. Good way to show off the carpets I suppose!
Oh to travel around in this! Loved it. Hope there is enough air in the side car bit.
How exciting I thought when I saw this sign in the gardens over Jaffa.
BUT......
 |
| In my opinion they should fix this bridge QUICKLY!!! Was really disappointed about it. The signs are all engraved on the right hand side of the rails but I couldn't see beyond capricorn!! I was way down the other end. |
The country of Israel all started here out of Jaffa. Jews were coming here for millenia for pilgrimages as were Christians. Richard the Lionheart landed here. Napolean ransacked and pillaged the place. The Turks rebuilt it to former Roman glory and then the Brits took it for a few years before the Jews claimed the land for themselves. All the while Arabs were living here under different rulers until 1948 then many 'ran away'/were kicked out into a life of exile.
I then did a tour of the Roman and Greek ruins. The guide spoke in English and Hebrew and one of the women translated into Romanian for her friends. She told us that she arrived in Israel in 1958 via the port of Haifa and the guide's grandparents arrived through this port in 1955.
It was an amazing tour, very much like the one I did in Bath last Monday!!! But this site has about 2000 more years of history to it. No expense was spared with the light show and the guide was incredibly knowledgable. Jaffa was a tiny port but because of it's position it was the best link between the Greeks and Persians for trading.
So it's nearly 4500 years old! Mentioned in the Old Testament somewhere and cedar was imported here from Lebanon to build Solomon's temple.
Incendiary devices used by Richard the Lionheart against Saladin/ They could enter through helmets and lame/kill horses if trodden on.
Bottom layer was Greek and Egyptian and the top layer is all Roman remains.
Our weird light show with oddly annoying plastic chairs to sit on. There was me, a guy from Washington and three Romanians there. That was it!
When I was walking back to the hotel I saw the bombed out remains of a nightclub from 2006. Pretty grim stuff to see up close. I took a photo but I don't know what the graffiti on the building means so I am not posting it and it is pretty awful to see. It's all barricaded off but this memorial is part of it and I liked it. I'm just hoping it's a peaceful message and not one spouting more bloodshed.
Bit of a long post I think!! I hope I manage to find a good cafe like this in Haifa. off to the highly recommended fish restaurant now. Bye.
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