Sailing Toward Aqaba, Jordan
A lovely clear morning as we sail toward Aqaba and my shore excursion to the magical city of Petra. Yesterday’s team trivia event went well, and I helped our team rise from next to last to third place. I guess I will return for another round today at noon.
Since I have 90 minutes until the first activity I wish to join starts, I am enjoying the lounge chair on my private veranda—what a way to traavel. But blog duty calls, so while I relax in the Gulf of Suez, my memory (with the help of my brief notes), takes me back to . . .
Thursday, 24 October 2019
Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel
I try room service breakfast this morning for a quicker option than the Colonnade. The food is warm and quite adequate, especially in comparison to the more limited choices on my last HAL cruise this past March. Before disembarking for immigration and customs I report to the Lost and Found in Seabourn Square to retrieve my tinted glasses. This is the 2nd time I have left them somewhere, and the 2nd time they have been returned to Lost and Found.
By 9am I am disembarked, and I go through a very easy passport check and security clearance. It is literally a five-minute walk to the train station, where I pay 55 NIS-- (New Israeli Shekels = US$15.40 on MasterCard)-- for an open-time round trip ticket to Tel-Aviv. The two-level car is not very crowded and the 80 minute journey flies by. There are at least five stations in central Tel Aviv and I take a guess about where to get off. Although all the guidebooks and tourist offices say that English is widely spoken, very little signage appears in English, even at train stations. There are lots of military uniforms and weapons on the train and good WiFi service.
I reach Tel Aviv just after 10:30 and begin a day of too much walking—well over 18,000 steps on my Fitbit. But the sun is shining, there is a cool breeze coming off the sea (just a few blocks away), and so much to see and do. The train station I randomly choose as my getting off point, Tel Aviv-Hashalom, is perfectly located on the north-central side of the city. My first impression of the city since I was last here in 1993 is to mark the incredible building boom, with adventurous high-rises arguing for space in a crowded skyline. It reminds me most of a smaller version of LA. Across the station is a large shopping mall where I stop to get my bearings.
There is free WiFi almost everywhere, and iPhone hotspots covering all outdoors—just as good as WiFi. I have an iPod app that provides detailed maps and walking tours for every major city around the world and it works quite well here. I take a route that brings me to a large cultural center, with theatre, opera house, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in a magnificent recently-constructed building of white marble. In many cases, of course, new museum buildings sometimes outshine the works inside, as is the case here. But I enjoy a sampling of contemporary Israeli artists as well as a light lunch in the museum’s cafe.
After lunch I head for Rabin Square, a large open space with the impressive monument to assassinated PM, Yitzhak Rabin (1922-95).
Then walking through some lovely middle-class neighborhoods with low-rise apartments and condos, I come to the more “arty” section of the city, with a large LGBQT component. This area sits on the edge of the White City, largest collection of Bauhaus architecture in the world.
I reach Tel Aviv just after 10:30 and begin a day of too much walking—well over 18,000 steps on my Fitbit. But the sun is shining, there is a cool breeze coming off the sea (just a few blocks away), and so much to see and do. The train station I randomly choose as my getting off point, Tel Aviv-Hashalom, is perfectly located on the north-central side of the city. My first impression of the city since I was last here in 1993 is to mark the incredible building boom, with adventurous high-rises arguing for space in a crowded skyline. It reminds me most of a smaller version of LA. Across the station is a large shopping mall where I stop to get my bearings.
There is free WiFi almost everywhere, and iPhone hotspots covering all outdoors—just as good as WiFi. I have an iPod app that provides detailed maps and walking tours for every major city around the world and it works quite well here. I take a route that brings me to a large cultural center, with theatre, opera house, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in a magnificent recently-constructed building of white marble. In many cases, of course, new museum buildings sometimes outshine the works inside, as is the case here. But I enjoy a sampling of contemporary Israeli artists as well as a light lunch in the museum’s cafe.
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| New Wing of Tel Aviv Museum of Art (above and below) |
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| Theatre and Opera House Entrances (above and below) |
Interior Views of Museum of Art
After lunch I head for Rabin Square, a large open space with the impressive monument to assassinated PM, Yitzhak Rabin (1922-95).
Then walking through some lovely middle-class neighborhoods with low-rise apartments and condos, I come to the more “arty” section of the city, with a large LGBQT component. This area sits on the edge of the White City, largest collection of Bauhaus architecture in the world.
In my younger days I would have continued walking down the coast to Jaffa, site of the original settlement that became Tel Aviv. But since I was in Jaffa previously and it is getting close to the time to return to Haifa, I decide to catch a taxi from the Inter-Continental Hotel. The station is not far, but the traffic is horrendous—and it's not even rush hour yet. My adventure with the hotel and the taxi is another whole story that I will share only with my most intimate friends. Look for details later.
The train back to Haifa is very crowded with civilian and military types carrying loaded but locked weapons. Since there is little English signage and there are five stations in Haifi, I depend on the kindness of strangers to make sure get off at the right stop.
I am back on the Encore shortly after 7pm. I head straight to my suite and my bed--not even stopping for a snack.
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