Then we went to Israel

May 1, 2022
We took our flight to Tel Aviv via Aman, Jordan. We spent much more time wandering around airports than in the air. We awoke in old Tel Aviv and went for a walk along its waterfront. There’s an interesting flea market and a great suk (market) in old Yafo (that’s Jaffa - where the oranges come from) where we had a really good wander about. Unfortunately, while wandering, Megs got word that our arrival PCR tests came up positive for Jo and “light” positive for me. We were both pretty much asymptomatic but it destroyed our plans for the rest of the vacation. We were not able to attend the wedding that was the reason for our going there nor continue our tourism of Israel. There was even some doubt about our getting our scheduled flight home so some things needed to be worked out. It was a stressful time. We were ensconced in Momo's Hostel in old Tel Aviv. Jo was stuck inside as she was the one with the positive COVID test result. Megs was clear and I went out in the morning for a second PCR test to confirm infection or clear me. I probably should have been isolating but I made several masked trips out of the hostel to get supplies. If the test came back either positive or again as weak positive they’ll consider that a positive then I would be keeping to our room with Jo and only Megs would have a bit of freedom of movement. It was a beautiful day.

May 2, 2022
The health authorities didn’t seem all that well organized about this stuff. Perhaps they just don’t present it in English so well. It appeared that we just had to be able to test negative and present that at aircraft boarding time. If we couldn’t then we wouldn’t board and there would go our airfare and the cost of another round of PCR testing. When our nights at this hostel ran out (couple more after this date) then we’d have a problem in that we weren't supposed to be moving around but would need to find other accommodations. We would cross that river later. (In not too leaky a boat we hoped.) In the mean time we continued to dine from the selection of culinary delights offered at the mini-market next door and experience Israel from this narrow window. More later.

May 3, 2022
I awoke to emailed test results confirming that I’m COVID negative. In a couple days we'd' be able to get Jo tested again and if hers comes back negative too then we’d be able to attend the wedding we came for. We were all thinking antiviral thoughts. Jo camped out in the hostel room and Megs and I made some short walks out to look at the Mediterranean be the Mediterranean. It's really good at that.

May 4, 2022
Since the weather was so fantastic and the breeze off the Mediterranean was steady, we broke Jo’s quarantine, masked her up and got us all out for a good seafront walk to old Jaffa and back. In terms of COVID safety, she kept a long way from others and we were certainly safer than in our small hostel room with the recirculating AC. The National Independence Day holiday is tomorrow so tonight is a whole lot of partying, apparently. Jo didn't go out to join in that. I got a souvenir from the beach walk - a foolish sunburn on my feet and legs from from totally incompetent application of sunscreen. Megs had a fluorescent forehead to match my instep. There were swimmers and surfers and one guy with a kite-towed board that was just flying with board entirely out of the water and a few inches of rudder fin holding him in place laterally. We’ve had a fun supper with fresh pretzel bagels from a street market with hummus and Israeli beer (Goldstar dark lager). Then we had as good a rest as the celebratory Israelis allowed. (which was pretty good really.)

May 5, 2022
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art seems to be pretty international but focuses on works by Jewish artists I think. It had a fantastic collection of impressionist work. I just walked back and forth through it about four times comparing styles. An unplanned make-the-best-of-it visit but how wonderful! It was a highlight for me.

May 6, 2022
Jo got a positive rapid antigen COVID test. To keep her outdoors and away from others, we spent the day at the beach. The one nearest to our hostel is named “Jerusalem Beach”. There are a series of them with different names. The temperature today was around 25C with a strong breeze and nice breakers to jump through. For supper we went to a burger joint across the street from our hostel. It was great. They seem to want to try to emulate American food but they’ve put their own spin on it. Their burgers have this great overtone of black pepper and parsley like I’ve never had in a burger before. I liked it. I hope nobody points it out to them; it’d be a shame if they got all self conscious and changed it.

May 7, 2022
Jo had no symptoms but tested positive. Megs had a crap load of symptoms but tested negative. She may have just had a cold. We had to leave the hostel because we had run out of reserved nights and had to find a place that could take us. Our tactics were to stay outdoors, walk wherever we could, remain masked and only go to tourist kind of destinations that aren’t crowded. That seemed like a responsible approach so we checked out of our hostel in Tel Aviv and came to an air B&B in Jerusalem. Simple. Well no. It was Saturday so nothing was open. Like Sunday in Toronto in 1975. Tumbleweed. We finally found a taxi that was operating and that took us to the central bus station which was closed. That’s ok because all the independent shuttle operators with mini busses hang out there and go places once they have a full load. This one’s load was almost full and was able to leave as soon as we boarded. I have no idea how long the other 7 passengers had been waiting; 5 minutes or 5 hours. One guy wore cob webs and a 1984 day-glow wardrobe. The trip was less than an hour. We got our luggage to the new digs, had a great lunch on a nearby patio and then walked down to the old walled city. We looked at some of the wall sections, visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and walked through the market.

May 8, 2022
The day was spent at Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial. It was very moving and requires more than a day to get through carefully. After that, there’s nothing else to do in a day.

May 9, 2022
We went back down into the old city to explore some tunnels dug for archaeological purposes. First we spent the morning in Frances L. Hiatt Garden across the street from our Air B&B. There was a big bronze modern art horse that Megs sketched. Jo too I think. I was people, cat & bird watching. Most of the bird activity was in a large mulberry tree. As well as the universal little brown sparrows there was also a big green parrot amongst the foliage. They were all very brave and were not frightened off by the silvery plastic bag on an outer branch fluttering at them menacingly. The garden has public bathrooms and a drinking fountain so gets fair constant foot traffic. There’s a water feature that would be very nice to see in action but is bone dry. Not that the garden is in any way not well maintained. There was a guy line-trimming the lawn of weeds while we were there. The cats scattered and hid until he was done. I was hoping to see a lizard. They’re shy so did not appear. The afternoon was spent walking the parapet around most of the old city and then taking a tour of some recent subterranean archaeological discoveries. We had walked a portion of the walls back on our visit in 2001 but much of it was closed to the public then. This time we wandered along for an hour and a half seeing all kinds of it and getting wonderful views of the city we missed first trip. The tunnels are below what would have been a bridge or ramp spanning a little valley leading to the main entrance to the second temple. That was built around 586 BC and lasted until the Romans knocked it down in 70 CE. All that’s there now is a bit of its remaining Western Wall which is a particularly holy place for Jews. Some more of the western wall has been uncovered in this new dig and is in beautiful condition having been buried for nearly 2,000 years. The avenue surrounding the temple would have been alive with a market and here a Roman built amphitheater and the water drainage system visible below it too. I can picture a street scene from “The Life of Brian”. It’s all so frinkin' old. I wonder if you’d ever get over the amazement of living in such a place, waking up and opening the curtains to look out on Old Jerusalem that’s a thousand years old or Giza with three and a half thousand year old pyramids in view or Avebury henge that’s five thousand years old just amongst your neighbouring houses. Back home I’m always impressed to see anything a couple hundred years old.

May 10, 2022
Today’s adventure was getting to Bethlehem to see some sites and back. That should be simple because it’s only 20 km away. Because we’re in the holy land, our plan had some holes. First off, you can’t go to the central station and get a bus to Bethlehem because it’s in the West Bank. Israeli buses don’t go there and the Israeli bus company claims ignorance of the Palestinian bus company and won’t tell you how to find it. We gave up and took a taxi. That’s complicated because the Israeli taxis can’t necessarily drive into the West Bank. Some tour operators are licensed to do so but Joe Average taxi drivers are not. Our taxi driver dropped us at the checkpoint and we walked through security and got a Palestinian taxi on the other side. The driver was a great guy and proposed all sorts of elaborate excursions but we wanted just to go to the Church of the Nativity and then to Rachel’s Tomb and that would fill up our day. Taxi Buddy added stops at a little chapel on the site where the angels came to tell the shepherds about "glad tidings to all men" and two walls around Bethlehem where Banksy has graced them with graffiti. Our driver stuck with us while we spent a couple hours at the CoN and then tried to get us to Rachel’s Tomb but the Israelis close the Palestinian access points to it arbitrarily and without schedule just to be difficult - like denying the bus lines - so he was unable to get us there. The curtailed excision was not the moneymaker he had counted on since we took a long time at our Nativity stop so we asked him to divert to a restaurant. He chose a local “not tourist” place (that was great) where we bought lunch for us all, including him. He then took us back to the checkpoint with instructions to reach Rachel’s Tomb from the Israeli side. It required a 10 minute walk back towards Bethlehem on the Israeli side of the security wall but when we started walking the first army security stop told us there was no pedestrian access. He was a nice, sympathetic young guy and asked the next car that came through to give us a lift to Rachel’s Tomb. They did so we got there! Woot. After we had seen it and were ready to leave, we had the same problem in reverse. No pedestrian traffic out and no helpful soldier to get a ride for us. The Rachel’s Tomb site manager looked quite glum when I said we wanted to get to a bus back to Jerusalem and explained sort of “you can’t get to there from here by bus” in not so many words. So he called a cab for us and we got back that way. Healso, very thoughtfully, came out of his office to cross examine the taxi driver when he arrived to see to it he was the right one and understood his destination and that his intentions were good and had clean hands etc. Taxis were certainly quicker and more comfortable than a bus would have been but we felt a little “beaten by the system” as Megs put it. Spare a thought for the Israelis and the Palestinians. They need help - above and beyond the integration of their transit systems. I forgot to mention; Bethlehem is an anglicization of Bet Lahem which Megs informs me was the source of the name of some hospitals in England once upon a time where they cared for the ill of body and mind. The English twisted the pronunciation into “Bedlam”. At the Church of the Nativity on May 10, I saw they had an illustrated chart naming all the various saints painted on the columns in the church. I saw one I had never heard of - St. Cataldus. I looked him up and to my surprise his feast day is… May 10! Coincidence? I think not! I’m thinking he’s the patron saint of Scott.

May 11, 2022
The last full day was spent at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It’s fantastic and very large. We spent about five hours there and only scratched the surface. I learned new stuff. I recommend it to any who like museums. We spent our evening packing.

May 12, 2022
A travel day; so streetcar to train to airport then fly to Montreal and then again to T.O. Plane late arriving in Montreal. Missed connection. Lineups for everything. No information presented to ease our way. Caught a later flight. All more stressful than it should have been. We got home early Friday morning. We were fairly fried as we had been awake for about 25 hours. It took most of the weekend to get our clocks sorted. I found it hard to stay awake into the afternoon for most of the week afterwards. Jo and I tested clear of covid but then Megs tested positive, as we expected. She’s flunked a rapid test but also has a pile of symptoms which neither Jo nor I had. She felt pretty run down. I hadn’t seen her this sick in a decade or so. Travel is great but it’s pretty great to be home too. Nice to see our own little garden and feel a little moisture in the air.