Trip to Israel and Hungary

Travel Back to the United States (Monday and Tuesday, June 1-2, 2009)

2009-06-03T15:04:00.001-07:00

Travel Back to the United States (Monday and Tuesday, June 1-2, 2009)

All the Hirsch family and Doris Moss made it safely back to the United States. For Jackie and me it was a 34 hour trip, via London and New York, to San Francisco, California. We were 4 hours in London’s Heathrow airport and overnight for 5 hours in New York at JFK airport. Customs went smoothly and for the most part the flights went smoothly. The New York to California leg seemed very long, since it was the last leg of the flight and we were anxious to get home. Our son, David, and Grandson, Brady, picked us up at the airport. We found everything in order when we got home, but there was unpacking to do, bills to be paid, shopping to be done that will keep us busy for the next few days.
We thank everyone who contributed to our trip and made is successful.

This will be the last entry in the blog for this trip. We are reminiscing the wonderful time we had both in Israel and in Hungary.

Budapest, Hungary Day 7 (Sunday May 31, 2009)

2009-06-01T01:41:00.000-07:00

Budapest, Hungary Day 7 (Sunday May 31, 2009)

Today is out last full day in Hungary. Steven and Linda left today for Munich, Germany to continue their vacation in Munich. We had breakfast at the Helia hotel and said goodbye to them. The group is smaller now without Martin, Corrine, Steven and Linda, but we still had a good group of Hirsch family members and Doris Moss. We also met Tibor and Mary’s granddaughter Silvia, who drove them over to the hotel. Peter Herczfeld, my brother-in-law, remembered her from previous trips. She is a first grade teacher in Budapest.

The cool rain continued most of the day. Our thoughtful guide, Mary, had brought extra sweaters and umbrellas for us for the next part of the trip.

We traveled using our blue bus and our student driver, Victor, with our guides Mary and Tibor Bercelli to Esztergom, Hungary. Eszrergom is located on a major bend of the Danube River, forced to change its course due to the nearby mountain range.

Eszergom was the royal residence for three centuries starting in 350BC, the capital of Hungary, Eszergom was the seat of Hungarian Catholics for 1,000 years and home to the archbishop of Hungary. The castle was the home to several Hungarian Kings and was also a fortress that protected them.

The Celts had a community here as did the Roman previous to the castle, so this bend in the river has a long history of human endeavors.

Eszrergom is also located at the Slovakian border of Hungary. A bridge connecting to Slovak was destroyed in 1944 by the Germans and was finally rebuilt in October 2001. We went to the bridge over the Danube Ricer to view the Church and Castle from a short distance.

The church is a very large Catholic church was built in the 1869 after 50 years of building this church. The current large church is at the same location as a much smaller royal church was built under the reign of Hungarian, King Stephen 1, and destroyed by the Turks.

Since people lived in this location for centuries it has many coins, pottery and tools used by man going back many thousands of years ago and on display in the castle and a nearby museum.

We went into the church and a mass was being said by a Bishop with several hundred people in attendance.

In the basement of the church is what appears as an Egyptian arch and a picture of many famous Hungarian Catholic clergy including the archbishop.

The castle was rediscovered in the 1930s and the Queen’s Room a small hidden room the Queen withdrew to, was only recently opened to the public.

The tour then proceeded to the town of Szntendre, Hungary. This town was settled in the 1690s by Turks and consists of many picturesque row houses, alleys and shops. The tourist shops on the main street are selling many items. We stopped only for a short visit and walked along the main street and the nearby Danube River.

On the way back to Budapest we stopped to have lunch in a small restaurant and made our way back through the rural countryside in our blue bus.

We needed to get back to our hotel to rest and change clothes to go to the Opera. We took the blue bus to the Opera, since we did not want to get our fancy clothes wet and it allowed for more time to change clothes. The beautiful Hungarian Opera house was completed in 1884. The Opera was written by Verdi was an Italian opera about a women and two suitors, one from Sicily and one from France. It is also a play about the battles between the Sicilian and French people. The ominous signs are there in the opening when the main character, Elena, enters in a black dress as she was mourning the death of her executed brother and sings a song about the perils of seamen.

The three hour, 5 acts, opera, “Sicilian Vespers” was sung in Italian and above the stage was an electronic sign with the translation in Hungarian. Our guide, Mary Bercelli, had brought for us a guide in English, but it was hard to follow in advance of the performance. The music and singing were very good and those among us that liked Opera liked it very much. We all had a good time and Peter Herczfeld was still humming the songs as we returned by subway to the hotel.

We had completed another busy day thanks to our guides and host, Tibor and Mary Bercelli. We had a fun and busy vacation trip to Hungary. Since most of us would be leaving tomorrow, we said goodbye to our hosts Professor Tibor Bercelli and his wife Mary and also goodbye to each other since we would be all going on different flights to different cities back to the Untied States.

Budapest, Hungary Day 6 (Saturday May 30, 2009)

2009-05-30T22:56:00.001-07:00

Budapest, Hungary Day 6 (Saturday May 30, 2009)
In the morning Peter Herczfeld took us to the indoor Budapest market by bus and trolley. The Budapest market is an indoor shopping center with many small vendors. On the first floor was mainly food vendors, selling items such as sausages, meat, vegetables, fruit, paprika and strudel. We noted that peaches are called “barack” in Hungarian. I and some other family members bought and ate some fresh warm sour cherry or apple strudel. Jackie and a few others bought some famous Hungarian paprika for friends back home. On the second floor of the Budapest market were vendors selling many embroidered table covers, children’s dresses, toys, dolls and trinkets.

We walked to a restaurant on the Danube River to have lunch. It was cool and dripping outside, so we ate inside the restaurant. Since I had eaten all the strudel, I had a Cesar salad. We noted that most of the Hungarian food was not spicy as we had expected, but was mild.

After a rest in the hotel, we had planned to go to the Opera, but Mary Bercelli discovered, after we were dressed in our fancy outfits, that the date on the Opera tickets was for Sunday evening. We waited in the hotel lobby for the Bercellis to arrive with Peter Herczfeld to decide what we would do for the evening. “We were all dressed up and no place to go”. We decided after some discussion to make the best of the situation and go to the fancy NY Café for a light dinner and dessert. Budapest had its first major rainstorm during our trip this evening and we waited a few minutes to get the bus when the rain let up.

We took a tour of the NY Café along with the adjacent fancy Hotel. We checked the room rates at the hotel which were $500-$1,500/night. We decided the Hotel Helia was a better price performer. The NY Café had a cigar and pipe room, a formal dining area, as well as the more informal but very fancy area where we ate. Some of the Hirsch group posed for photos in this fancy area and we enjoyed our evening. The food was outstanding, including tortellini, chocolate drinks with orange syrup, fancy cakes, chocolate scuffle with pistachio ice cream and many other treats. On the bus trip back to the hotel we missed our exit and had to walk balk six blocks, but we were happy to walk back to the hotel and work off some of the food.

Back to Budapest, Hungary Day 5 (Friday May 29, 2009)

2009-05-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Back to Budapest, Hungary Day 5 (Friday May 29, 2009)

We left Lillafured for Budapest about 9:15 a.m. after having breakfast at the hotel. We had some rain on the trip back that made us change some of our plans. We went to Eger, Hungary which is about half way back to Budapest to see a few things and to have a break in our travel by bus.

In Edger, we went to the Liceum which was a former teachers’ training school and early on a former church college. It contains a famous and impressive archbishop library that opened its doors in 1783. It has 130,000 old volumes including medieval manuscripts that are hand written and we saw some that were written by hand in the 1400s or earlier. The book shelves of the library are made of beautiful Regency oak and go up 20 feet to a second story set of book shelves and an elliptical track around the room. Each column section of the library is labeled by one of the letters of the alphabet, so the main floor has books A-R and the top floor has books S-Z. The ceiling of the library is a masterpiece of Hungarian fresco art by Johann Kracker and represents the 16 century Council of Trent, which changed the nature of the church.

We also went to see the astronomy museum on the sixth floor. It had old telescopes that were used for astronomy in the 1800s. We had to walk up the six flight of stairs, but everyone made it. One could walk on an observation deck on the 6^th floor to see the city of Eger below.

On the 9^th floor was the Camera obscura, a dark room that uses a fixed and rotating mirror to view the city of Eger reflected on a disk laying a table in front of us.

We walked through the city streets to Sorozo Restaurant. It is a small restaurant in Eger, but had excellent food. I had cold peach soup, a Greek salad and chicken with rice. Others had fish soup and other dishes, but everyone liked the food.

Finally we walked to a Marzipan museum and shop. The Hirsches love marzipan candy, so we observed all the beautiful decorative cakes and candies in the museum, including a whole room, that were made of real sugar and starch. Later we bought a few candies in the shop to eat. Needless to say they were delicious.

On the road from Eger to Budapest we saw a rainbow near sunset time which we took as our good luck charm.

We arrived at Budapest about 6:30 p.m. back at the Helia hotel. We gave our driver, Victor, applause for getting us back safely through winding mountain roads, highways and narrow streets in the towns with a blue bus.

Lillafured, Hungary Day 3 (Thursday May 28, 2009)

2009-05-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Lillafured, Hungary Day 3 (Thursday May 28, 2009)

This is our last day in Lillafured, Hungary. The weather the last two days has been overcast. Yesterday it sprinkled a little bit, but did not bother us. Today it did not rain.

Today we took a train near the Palota Hotel in Lillafured, Hungary to the top of a nearby mountain. There were lots of children at the train station and with the encouragement of their teacher sang a simple song of “Hello”. The Hirsch choir responded with the song “It’s a Small World Isn’t it”. The kids responded with a simple song of “Goodbye”.

The train stopped at the top of the mountain. Near the train stop was a children’s play area. Since we are all kids at heart some of the Hirsch family members regressed to their childhood and played on the equipment.

We then walked a short distance to a Trout Farm to have some lunch. We had fresh trout, with french fries. We ordered a salad with it, but got a plate of pickles.

We then walked over to a nearby iron works museum. As you may recall, the nearby city of Miskolc, that we visited yesterday, had iron ore and Lillafured, where we are now residing, had a forgery works to make metal objects from the iron ore. The museum is at the location of the old forgery. It required a large charcoal oven to make enough heat to melt the iron ore. This site also had a work house which used a water wheel attached to a large wooden pole for power to blow the large bellows into a fire and to hammer the metal into objects, such as plows, ovens and a variety of metal objects.

Brother-in-law, Peter Herczfeld, and cousin, Gordon Hirsch, walked the 2 KM down the mountain. The rest of us took the next train down the mountain. After a brief rest, we took a short walk near the hotel.

We ended the day with a dinner at the hotel. The group looked at the stately conference rooms in the hotel, took one more group photo and called, using Skype, Hildegard Hirsch, Lillian Herczfeld and Peter Hirsch’s mother and relative for all the other of the group. We complete the last day in Lillafured. Tomorrow we go back to Budapest.

Lillafured, Hungary Day 2 (Wednesday May 27, 2009)

2009-05-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Lillafured, Hungary Day 2 (Wednesday May 27, 2009)

Today our adventure took us by blue bus to Aggtelek National Park to see natural caves and nearby Josvafo, Hungary to see an old cemetery in the hills above Josvafo and have lunch.

It was about 1.5 hours to Aggtelek National Park again through wooded hillsides and farm land. We saw many wild flowers on the fields such as poppies and edelweiss and rolling hills. The Hirsch family choir thinking of near by Austria and the movie “Sound of Music” burst out with song on the bus, such as “Edelweiss” and “Do-Ro-Me”.

We had a tour of one of the natural caves in the park. The slightly acid surface water filters through the cracks dissolving the soluble part of the limestone, leaving decorative deposits underground in the form of stalactites and stalagmites. Some of these underground deposits form large objects that go from the top to the bottom of the cave and took over 10,000 years to form. There are over 500 species of animals in the caves, such as blind bats and blind crabs, but we did not see any of these animals. The temperature in the cave was about 50 degrees, so we had to wear sweaters and jackets in the cave. One large open area of the cave has excellent concert hall acoustics in which our guide played a song from a Hungarian Opera along with a light show, illuminating parts of the walls of the cave. They had also placed several hundred seats on the floor, so one could hold concerts here. The Bradla-Domica caves are located in the northern most part, near the Eastern tip, of Hungary, which are on the border with Slovakia. Slovakia is one of 8 countries on the border of Hungary. Can you name the other 7 countries? A few of the caves connect to Slovakia, but the openings to the large caves on the Slovakian side are very small and difficult to navigate.

After visiting the caves we went to nearby Josvafo, Hungary. We were given a tour of the cemetery. To get to the top of the cemetery and get a high level view of Josvafo was a steep climb. Some of the family decided not to try the climb which was wise.

Professor Bercelli went with us but at the top of the cemetery area, nearly fainted, and had significant heart rhythm problems. Most of us were concerned about his welfare, but his wife and our guide, Mary Bercelli, was familiar with this problem and jumped into action. He had to rest at the top of the cemetery and his wife carefully massaged his feet with a light circular pattern on the bottom of his feet and Lillian (Dr. Stern) took his pulse, while others provided sweaters and other clothing to make him comfortable as he lay on the ground. Fortunately he recovered after a 15-20 minutes, felt well enough to walk slowly down the hill with the aid of the young bus driver, Victor, and rested in a room in a house near the bottom of the cemetery, while the rest of us completed the tour.

The cemetery had very old burial plots only marked by a post with an engraved metal plate on top. Most of the burial plots were since the late 1800s and had head markers made of stone with engravings.

We saw an old Jewish cemetery that, we were told, had been kept up after WWII by the citizens, but now was covered with weeds and not in good shape. There have not been any Jewish death since WWII since most of the Jewish Josvafo townspeople left town and most were killed or taken away during WWII.

Next to the cemetery was a restored house with things people used in the 1700s, including spinning wheels, looms, old kitchen stove, no running water and no electricity. Life was primitive by today’s standards.

After seeing the restored house we had typical Hungary outdoor lunch, prepared by a young woman from Josvafo, which included fresh potato soup, fresh “crepes” made with potatoes, flour and milk filled with Plum Jam. They eat lots of potatoes in various forms in this area of Hungary. The food was very good and we were all Hungary.

We took a slightly longer journey back to the hotel, got lost, saw again many small towns, wagons with hay on them being pulled by horses and stork nests high above the light poles on small metal platforms built by the town for stork nests. I also saw one stork sitting on one of the nests as we drove.

We had a short rest at the hotel and then had a nice dinner at 7:00 p.m.. Some of the people sat in the hotel lounge and talked after dinner, before retiring for the day.

Lillafured Day 1 (Tuesday May 26, 2009)

2009-05-26T22:54:00.001-07:00

Lillafured Day 1 (Tuesday May 26, 2009)

We are now in a small town of Lillafured, Hungary about a 4 hour drive North-West from Budapest. We are in an old hotel that is a spa in the foothills of some mountains. It took us almost 7 hours to get here since we made few stops to see things on the way to Lillafured. Martin and Corrine Hirsch did not make the rest of the trip with us, but went on to Austria to have a vacation by themselves. We said goodbye to them in the lobby of the hotel in Budapest. Our guides, Professor Tibor and Mary, made the trip with us. The driver of the bus was a student in the college. The primary stop we made, on the way to Lillafured, was in Miskolc Hungary, Hungary. Budapest is a city of about 2 million people and Miskolc is the second largest city and has 200,000 people. Most of the rest of Hungary is rural and made up of small towns and villages. Most of the drive that we took to Lillafured was through rolling hills of farm land. Hungary was never been allowed to have heavy industry by the many occupiers of Hungary, so cities never formed other than the capital city, Budapest, and Miskolc, which had iron ore.

We stopped at a communication tower that overlooks Miskolc and could see all of Miskolc from the tower.

Later we drove into Miskolc and saw an old 1841 synagogue that amazingly still stands after Nazi and Communist occupation. It was the central synagogue of Miskolc. Miskolc had, previous to WWII, several smaller synagogues but they were all destroyed. The Miskolc synagogue is much smaller than the large one we saw in Budapest, but was designed by the same architect and has a similar design. The congregation draws from a wide area near Miskolc and has 500 families. Unfortunately the Synagogue was in poor shape inside, since they do not have sufficient funds to maintain it. They did paint the outside of the synagogue. On the outside of the synagogue was a monument to WWI synagogue members who were killed and we saw many German Jewish last names we recognized such Klein, Gruen, Weiss, Stern and Hirsch. In the hallway inside was also a plaque of people who has died from 1840-1940 and had the name Hercfeld (without the letter z). Peter Herczfeld did not think this was a relation, but his father was raised in Miskolc and he planned to try to track his roots there at a later time. We had pizza for lunch in an outdoor restaurant across the street from the Synagogue.

The head of the synagogue gave us an historical update of the Synagogue and had lunch with us. He told us that they have occasional weddings there and his daughter would soon be married in the synagogue. He also told us that the oldest Torah the temple had was over 2,000 years old and the newest one was 16 years old. They had a minion every day for services, but met in a smaller room and not the main sanctuary. They did fill the main sanctuary for high holidays. The upstairs balcony area was not used since the structure was too week. For Orthodox services the women sat in the wings of the sanctuary. For Newlog (Reform) services this was not required. We left a small donation to the Synagogue.

From Miskolc we drove nearby to a large spa and swim area. We spent some time swimming and relaxing in the hot pool areas. There was also an indoor cave that connected pool areas and many of the group explored the cave. There were many others swimming and having fun in this large complex of indoor and outdoor pools. It had a interesting coed place to change clothes. There were small changing rooms and then one large set of common coed lockers. The lock on the lockers was designed so that you put a coin in, you could remove the key and when you returned the key the coin was returned.

We ended up in Lillafured and our hotel. The hotel is a good size hotel that is used as a spa, but the pool area is under reconstruction. The hotel has some nice stain glass windows and paintings depicting the kings of Hungary. The dinner that comes with the room was cafeteria style with meats, fish and chicken along with fruits and vegetables. The outside lawn area was very nice with shrubs and flowers. Fortunately there is Internet service, so I could update this blog. We plan on being here for 3 nights and then go back to Budapest.

Budapest Day 4 (Monday May 25, 2009)

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Budapest Day 4 (Monday May 25, 2009)

Today we went to see the Hungarian Parliament building and also visited the Castle District.

The Hungarian Parliament was in session so we saw the room where the House of Lords used to meet. Hungary has a unicameral parliament with only the House of Commons. The beautiful House of Lords deliberation room is only used for special occasions. In the lobby outside the House of Lords meeting room was a numbered stand for legislators to put their cigars before going into the room. They had to remember their number to pick up the correct cigar when they left the room. Today no smoking is allowed. We were also told that in the early days the room was cooled in the summer by putting blocks of ice underneath the building in small doors and then the cool air was circulated through the chambers with vents in the floor. We were not able to see the similar House of Commons room since it was in session.

We went later to the Castle district. This district was destroyed during WWII and had to be rebuilt. It was decided to use stone from the original buildings whenever possible and inter-mix the old stone with new stone. The buildings had a distinctive look.

We had lunch at a very nice pastry shop in the Castle district. We also rested at a Hilton Hotel in this district which had as part of the hotel the remnants of former Dominican Convent. There are remains of the old cloisters where the monks used to walk around a small garden and pray.

We also visited an old Matthias church that was built originally in the 1200s. During WWII they removed and hid the stain glass windows and but them back after the war. The building also had to be restored after the war. It is under renovation today. In 1309 Charles Robert of Anjou was crowned King here. In 1867 the Emperor of Austria, Franz Josef I was crowned and Hungarian musician Franz List composed the Coronation Mass for the event. We also saw the nearby Fisherman Bastion, a fairy-tale castle built in 1876 and has fantastic views of the Pest side of the Danube River. One can see the Parliament building, the new Budapest city along with the old city.

Near the church and Fisherman Bastion is a statue of a bronze horse. The word spread that touching the horses testicles would bring good luck, so the only part of the horse that is not tarnished is this part of the horse.

In the evening we went to another very nice restaurant, Kispipa, for dinner and afterwards walked over to see Peter Herczfeld’s high school.

We stopped briefly at the fancy New York café and looked again at the popular Vaci Street with all its shops and cafes. We then took the subway to see the Danube River at night with all the city lights on and the chain bridge lights were on. It was a clear night with a cool breeze and a new moon rising.

One comment is the acceleration of the buses and trams and the speed of the subway escalators. The buses and trams accelerate and decelerate very fast. If one is not holding on to something, once one gets into the bus or tram, it is easy to get thrown about. We had several people in our group fall into people’s laps or almost loose control and fall to the back of the bus or tram when it accelerates from a stop. The subway escalators are about twice as fast as those in the United States, one had to jump on and jump off the escalators.

Budapest Day 3 (Sunday May 24, 2009)

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Budapest Day 3 (Sunday May 24, 2009)

Today we went on our first official tour of Budapest and Hungary as a group. The tour started in the morning at 10:00 a.m. with Peter Herczfeld conducting the tour. The Hirsch cousins, spouses and Aunt Doris Moss went by public bus to see the Magit Island and lunch at Gerbaud pastry restaurant. Jackie and I had gone to the same places the past two days, but it was nice to see some highlights that we had missed and to be with our family. In the afternoon, Mary Bercelli joined us and began her part of the tour. We met her at Hero’s Square where there are statues of all the famous Hungarian kings. Mary gave us a detail history of all the kings and with it the turmoil in history of Hungary. Hungary being in the center of all the invaders from the East and the West was in constant change, but benefited from a melding of many different cultures. Hungary was combined with other countries at times and divided into separate countries at other times. Recently it was invaded by Germany and then Russia at the end of World War II.

We saw the biggest Jewish Synagogue in Europe in Budapest. This beautiful building was sparred by the Germans and Russians. In an outside courtyard is a metal tree dedicated to Paul Wallenberg with each leaf on the tree with the name of one of the Hungarian Jews that were killed during the German occupation of Hungary. Peter Herczfeld’s father’s name was on one leaf, but we were not able to find the leaf on this trip. On top of the Temple is a tablet with the 10 commandments. The Temple inside appears similar to a beautiful large European cathedral.

We also drove by an apartment complex where Peter Herczfeld had lived with this family and an elementary school that he had attended.

We then boarded a rented blue bus and went about 40 miles out into the countryside. Along the way we picked up Mary’s husband, Tibor, her daughter and granddaughter. Mary’s granddaughter is a dress designer and arrived in high fashion with an outfit she had designed.

We saw on the trip the ruins of an old church in a hilltop field with very thick walls that also protected it from outside invaders and several old villages.

We made it to our destination which was a horse ranch and restaurant. We were greeted by a man on a horse and the 3 piece musical group playing Hungarian music. We were treated to a wonderful horse show, which showed off horsemanship skills and which ended up with sister, Lillian, riding bareback around the track. After the horse show we had a tour of the wine cellar and a lovely Hungarian dinner. After dinner we were treated to Hungarian dancers. They got Gordon and some others to try to dance and perform with them. It was lots of fun. The bus took us back to our hotel at 10:00 p.m.. We were all tired and happy after a 12 hour tour, feasting and dancing.

Budapest Day 2 (Saturday, May 23, 2009)

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Budapest Day 2 (Saturday, May 23, 2009)

We had breakfast in the morning, met Gordon and Lou and Steven and Linda as we were leaving the breakfast area of the hotel. We again had a large selection of food for our breakfast, but not quite as many things as we had in Tel Aviv, but adequate for a very full meal to start the day.

Jackie and I had decided to go visit the Budapest Synagogue and Jewish museum, but as we left we realized it was the Sabbath day and read that it was closed. We quickly changed our plans and decided to see the Margit Island on the Danube River. We took a bus to near the lower end of the Island and walked over the Margit Bridge to the Margit Island. The views from the bridge of Budapest were very nice. One could see many tour boats docked on the river looking to the North and many interesting buildings looking south. We walked part way up the island, saw an interesting statue and very nice wooded areas and then continued further by bus when we got tired. We got off the bus near the north end of the island and explored the beautiful Grand Hotel and other places on the island.

We returned by bus to the Danubius Helia Hotel by early afternoon and I took a short nap. Jackie went to work out at the spa in the hotel. It seems that my body clock still thinks it is in California.

Later in the afternoon we found out that my sister Lillian and Peter Herczfeld had arrived and we went to meet them at the spa and hot pool. While at the spa we also met my aunt Doris Moss from Bethesda, Maryland and my cousins Martin and Corrine Hirsch from Boston. We are only missing Susanne Baker, who came in later but was too tired to join us for dinner.

As the sun set the Danube River took on a shimmering glow.

We were all picked up at the hotel in three cars by Tibor and Mary Bercelli and their daughter. They drove us from our hotel on the Pest side of the Danube River to their home on the Buda side of the river. Budapest is a merger of two cities Buda and Pest after they built several bridges over the river to connect the two cities. Mary and Tibor claim the Buda side is nicer and has more trees. Tibor is a physics professor in Budapest who specializes in microwave engineering. Tibor is semi-retired, but still does research, gives talks at conferences and still does some teaching. This is the same field as my brother-in-law, Peter Herczfeld, who is a Professor in physics at Drexel University. Since they were both Hungarian at met at conferences they have become close friends. They will also be our guide and Mary made most of the arrangements for the next week in Hungary for all the Hirsch cousins and my aunt Doris.

Mary Bercelli made a Hungarian dinner for all 11 of us and 4 of her family in her home. It was an amazing meal with 4 courses. The first course had small samples of Hungarian specialties, the second course had ground beef wrapped in cabbage, the third course was a layered casserole and a salad and sour cherries in a cream sauce and the fourth course was a layer cake like a kuggel cake with noodles, cream, raisins and severed with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I was full after the first two courses, but we enjoyed all four. Mary had to have prepared several days in advance for this big meal for 15 people. In addition there were lots of dishes to clean up afterward. Everyone was talking with many conversations going on. Afterward the Tibors drove us back to our hotel in three cars. Those that had flown in that day were very tired and those that had been here for a few days were tired. It had been a beautiful day with 75 degree sunny Hungarian weather.

Budapest Hungary (Friday, May 22, 2009)

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Budapest Hungary (Friday, May 22, 2009)

We arrived safely in Budapest after getting up at 3:30 a.m., get a 4:30 a.m. taxi to the Tel Aviv airport. We arrived at 5:00 a.m. at the airport and had to go through several security checks. We were concerned about making our 7:05 a.m. El Al flight, but we made it with much time to spare.

Four hours later and 1 hour earlier time zone we arrived at the Budapest airport, went through customs and took a shared mini-cab to hotel, Helia. Budapest is a city with lots of character, but is significantly older than Tel Aviv and Haifa in appearance and seemingly in need of more repairs. The roads that the taxi took were very narrow and we nearly hit some parked cars and had to come to a complete stop when a car or truck ahead stopped on the single lane roads. We can look out of our Helia hotel room at the beautiful Danu River with the boats traveling up and down the river.

The currency is called the Hungarian Forint (HUF) and one gets around 176 HUF for each US dollar. So $10.00 is 1,760 HUFs and $50.00 is 8,827 HUFs. I feel like I am using play money when I look at prices in the thousand of HUFs for a taxi ride. I have 5,000 HUF bill in my wallet. Jackie and I took the Budapest subway to a tourist shopping area called Vici street and went to the famous Gerbeaud Pastry Shop for some pastries. We walked down Vici Street after having some pastries and then took the subway back to the hotel. It allowed us to get some confidence in getting around Budapest with the strange street names (Dozsa Gyogy Ut., Deak Fereno Ut.), a subway system that was new to us and to find our way after getting off the subway. We also purchased a Budapest card at the airport that gives us discounts on some things for three days including free rides on the subway.

We looked around the hotel spa area and ran into my cousin Gordon Hirsch who came in a day before us. He asked to use my laptop computer to write an e-mail. He and his wife, Lou, came by to use the computer and we plan on going to dinner together tonight.

After dinner we checked to see if Gordon’s older brother, Steven Hirsch, had arrived. They had not arrived, but then we saw Steven and Linda Hirsch coming into the hotel and just arriving from Washington DC. Linda was checking in and is not on the photo.

We are expecting other Hirsch in, my sister and my aunt, Doris Moss, to be arriving in the next 24 hours.

Tel Aviv Day 2 (May 21, 2009)

2009-05-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Tel Aviv Day 2 (May 21, 2009)

This morning we had a very nice breakfast at the Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv. The spread was similar but bigger that we had in the previous Dan Panorama hotels in Jerusalem and Haifa. New additions included, crepes, hand made omelets, waffles and pancakes. It was interesting that all the hotels had lots of bread and rolls, lox, cream cheese, jam, cheeses but no bagels?

At noon Jochanan Moses, a grandson of Adolf Moses, picked us up at our hotel and drove us to his house. At his house we met his English wife, Marilyn Moses. Johanan is a retired flight engineer with El Al Airlines and a former pilot for the Israeli Air Force. He said he flew fighter jets in many of the Israeli wars. Also for the lunch was Johanan’s cousin, Shlomo Moses and his wife, Hava Moses. Shlomo Moses is still working as an electrical contractor for businesses. Marilyn Moses made a very nice lunch with our first Israeli bagels, German meats and cheeses and Moses favorite Chocolates for dessert. We had lots of discussion of the Moses and German traits that were common and of the family genealogy. I got some updates for my genealogy tree, which I will update when I return to California. Marilyn Moses is camera shy, so she is not shown in the photo. I also showed them photos of the family in the United States and we exchanged e-mail addresses and phone information. We also found out the Shlomo and Hava Moses have a daughter, Yael Ben-Natan, son-in-law, Nimrod Ben-Natan and four grandchildren living in, of all places, Cupertino, California, which is where we live. We got contact information and plan to contact them when we return home. Shlomo and Hava have visited Cupertino several times, and remarked about the grocery stores, such as Whole Foods and Trader Joes, where we shop as well. It is a small world as one would say.

Johanan and Marilyn Moses have a very nice home in an exclusive area of Tel Aviv. Many ambassadors to Israel live in their neighborhood. They were very hospitable and we had a very nice visit with relatives that I had not met and they learned some of the extent of the family in the United States.

In the late afternoon Jackie went to get a massage at the hotel Massage Studio.

In the evening we went to the Manta Ray restaurant for a light dinner overlooking the sunset on the Mediterranean Sea. On the way to the restaurant we heard what sounded like a small explosion in the distance. Most people on the street stopped as we did to look around. We did not see anything so we continued on to the restaurant, but it was a reminder that although we were in this beautiful resort area, we were also in Israel.

We needed to pack and get ready for out 7:05 a.m. flight and people have told us to be at the airport 2-3 hours before the flight in order to get through the tough security, so we will get up at 3:30 a.m. and we have a taxi waiting for us at 4:30 a.m...

This ends our wonderful stay in Israel. The people in Israel were very nice and friendly. It was easy to get around the country. Most people we met spoke English which made it easy to communicate and get information. Tomorrow morning we fly to Budapest for the next part of our journey.

Tel Aviv (Wednesday, May 20, 2009)

2009-05-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

We took a last early morning walk in Haifa before leaving for Tel Aviv. We saw a restaurant that we could pronounce the Hebrew letters as well as the English.

We had initially planned to go back to Jerusalem after Haifa, but decided to change our plans and spend 2 days in Tel Aviv. We hope to meet some more relatives tomorrow, on Thursday, in Tel Aviv.

We are now in Israel’s largest city Tel Aviv. We took a bus from Haifa and it took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to Tel Aviv. The Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv is the biggest of the hotels that we stayed at in Israel and is located near the beach. We feel like we are on the Israeli Riviera and not in a big city. People are sunning themselves on the beach and in the hotel swimming pools. We are wearing sunblock and walking in the shade to avoid the sun on this 85 degree day with a cool sea breeze occasionally coming off the Mediterranean Sea.

I found a store in Tel Aviv that provided Internet services and got the blog updated. The Internet service at the hotel in Haifa had some problems and I did not find a store with Internet service, so I was a day late in getting the blog updated. Jackie got her hair washed at a beauty parlor while I was getting the blog updated.

Later we walked south to the beach area called Jaffa. It is an area with beaches and small shops and restaurants that look like a resort area in many of the US beaches, without the boardwalk. There were streets with small rug merchants. We also planned to have dinner in Jaffe, but most of the restaurants were of the type to take out sandwiches to take to the beach or small restaurants that did not look nice enough for dinner. As we walked back towards the hotel we found a very nice sea food restaurant right on the beach, Manta Ray. The food was very good and we got to sit outside and watch the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea. We thought of the sun, now directly over the United States, where it is 7-10 hours earlier or about 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

We also could see many new large buildings being constructed in Tel Aviv to the East of us and away from the beaches. It seems that Tel Aviv is still rapidly growing. We were told that the world-wide recession has not affected Israel and there is still construction and property prices are increasing.

We are seeing far less security and troops in Haifa and Tel Aviv than we did in Jerusalem. We did have to go trough metal detectors and have our baggage searched at the bus station and at museums. We did see soldiers get on and off the bus at bus stops on our trip from Haifa to Tel Aviv, but we do not see soldiers at major street intersections or on the streets as we did in Jerusalem.

We have one more day in Tel Aviv and then we go on to Budapest.

Haifa (Tuesday May 19, 2009)

2009-05-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

We are now in the beautiful port city of Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea at our Dan Panorama Hotel. The bus ride from Jerusalem to Haifa took about 1 hour and 50 minutes. You get the feel for the small size of the country when most of the major cities are 2 hours apart. The width of Israel is even shorter and a large part of Israel is the West Bank and dessert. We could see many cities and towns outside our window to the East with many mosque towers, which we presumed were in the West Bank. Later we could see the Mediterranean coast as we approached Haifa. Most of the landscape on the trip was rocky soil with irrigation farming and in the distance there would see city buildings. We saw cows, sheep, horses, chickens as well as fields of grapes, fruit trees and vegetables. The Dan Panorama hotel in Haifa is larger and newer than the Dan Panorama hotel in Jerusalem. Our room overlooks the city of Haifa and the ports. On the other side of the bay is the city of Aka

Today we went to the famous Baha’i Gardens in Haifa which are a few blocks from the hotel. The gardens go down a steep cliff towards the seaport of Haifa. At the end of the garden is a sanctuary with a golden dome. This is the world headquarters for the Baha’i faith. We took a tour which emphasized the Baha’i faith as well as the gardens. The tour was free since they accept only money from its church members. The Baha’i faith accept all the other faith leaders, (Abraham, Moses, Christ, Mohammad, Buddha) as prophets and feel they are the unifying religion. In the end, it seems they are just another religion.

We met Nomi Sela’s (Moses) two sons, Ilan and Oded Sela, tonight in Haifa and Oded had to leave after a short visit, but Ilan stayed and had dinner with us. They were late in reaching us due to a marathon race on the streets of Haifa during rush hour and blocking most of the major streets near the hotel. Ilan works for a company in the construction industry that makes glass for windows and doors and Oded works for a company that makes computer communication packet switches which compete with CISCO. Oded had gone to college at CalState Northridge in Long Beach, Ca.. Both are married and have young children, but we did not get to meet their family. Ilan has 4 children and Oded has 3 children. Ilan spent some time updating the family tree which I will update when I get home. Their grandfather, Walter Moses, came to Palestine in 1934 from Germany and is considered an early Zionist. There was not much in Palestine at that time so it was hard work, mostly farming.

Tomorrow we are going to our last stop in Israel, Tel Aviv. We will travel by bus to Tel Aviv.

Jerusalem Day 4 (Monday May 18, 2009 Evening)

2009-05-20T03:31:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for the delay in posting. The Hotel Internet in Haifa did not work for me to post this blog)
We were unfortunately not able to meet my relative, Nomi Sela (Moses) last night. She was with a large group traveling to Jerusalem and they had traveled during the very hot day yesterday from Haifa. Jackie and I decided to go to the same very good restaurant, Al Dente, as we did the night before. We tried to get a taxi driver at the hotel to drive us to the restaurant at 50 Ussishkin Street. We had a funny experience in that I mispronounced the name of the street and the taxi driver did not know the small restaurant and did not know the street. I showed him the address in the Fodor’s guide and he still did not know the location. The driver conferred with 4 other taxi drivers and the bell man and finally they came up with the correct pronunciation of the street and the location. I realized later that they could only read Hebrew or Arabic and not the Roman letters in the English Fodor Guide. They were depending on my pronunciation to get the street name correct. We had another very good dinner. We ordered ravioli and were given a choice of sweet potato, spinach, or salmon ravioli. We were also given a choice of 5 sauces. We chickened out and chose spinach ravioli with tomato sauce.

After dinner we went back one more time to the Old City of Jerusalem and on our way back to the hotel we came across some Israeli people dancing to Israeli music. I took a video of this delightful event, but it is too big a file to post from the hotel.

Jerusalem Day 4 (Monday May 18, 2009)

2009-05-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

A very hot day in Jerusalem 41 degrees Celsius (108.8 degrees F). We had planned to go to Massada today, but with the heat we decided to see other sites in the Jerusalem area. We went by Taxi to see Mini-Israel. This is a miniature replica of historic buildings and sites from Israel.

After having seen much of the Old City in Jerusalem seeing it in miniature form was the most interesting. It was also interesting to see other sites we plan on visiting and places we do have time to see in real life form. By pushing a button near the Western “Wailing” Wall the miniature orthodox Jews started to pray and doven on one side of the wall and Muslims on the other side of the wall near the Mosques were bent over and praying.

We also liked the replica of the Massada and a narrated story of the Massada events when the Romans built a ramp to get into the fortress on top of the mountain and the Jews living there decided to kill themselves rather than be captured.

The only downside was the extreme heat. We discovered that there were umbrellas to rent as we were leaving. This would have added a little bit of comfort to the 100 degree heat.

We arrived at Mini-Israel before the 10:00 a.m. opening, so our driver, Sammy, took us to a military armor museum nearby. It turned out to be a fascinating tour. Our tour guide was a young man originally from Los Angeles. He and his family moved to Israel when he was 17. He felt it was important to serve the Israeli army, since he was Jewish.

We saw many tanks that had been used in the several Israeli wars since 1948. We saw an old tank that held only 4 people and had no air-conditioning. One of the soldiers stood with his head out of the tank in a plastic bubble to tell the men inside when to shoot and where to go. We also saw newer armored tanks that had air-conditioning and held 12 soldiers. The engines that were in back of the old tanks were now in front. The newer tanks had periscopes for viewing and communication gear and did not require someone to stand up looking outside of the tank. We had our picture taken on top of the newer tanks with our guide by our taxi driver and in front of one of the older tanks. Jackie may become a commander of an Israeli tank in her next life!!

The Armor Museum also had a wall of all the names of deceased soldiers. Brothers who were killed had their names place next to each other, as were fathers and sons who were killed in battles. There was also inside the museum a set of slides shown side by side of all the diseased soldiers. They were shown 6 at a time for 10 seconds and then another 6 and it would take 4 hours to show all those deceased in Israeli battles. I presume the Arabs would have many more deceased. The Israeli-Arab wars have killed many men and women on both sides.

Tomorrow we are off to Haifa, Israel

Jerusalem Day 4 (Sunday, May 17, 2009)

2009-05-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

This morning we were able to finally make it to the large area called the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount. The Pope was not there and the Sabbath was over for Muslims and Jews, so we were allowed in. This is an important religious area for Muslims, Jews and Christians.

It contains the black domed El-Aqsa Mosque, the third in holiness for Muslims.

The Temple Mount was one of the greatest religious enclosures of the ancient world was located here, called the Second Temple, but was destroyed, with only the Western “Wailing” Wall remaining. It is also the location of the First Temple built by King Solomon, the son of King David. Today a Gold dome of the Rock now sits at this location.

It may also be the location of the trial of Jesus by the Romans. It may also be the location where Abraham almost sacrificed his son, Isaac.

The square where these religious sites are located is 35 acres of open space with cypress trees and limestone pavement. non-Muslims cannot enter these Mosques and the only entrance to the square for non-Muslims is through an wooded ramp near the Western Wall.

We also bought some gifts on the way back to our hotel as we wound our way back through the Old City of Jerusalem.

Connected to more Moses relatives, Ruth Frachter (Moses), the sister of Nomi Sela and Ruth’s son Uri Frachter.

Jerusalem Day 3 (Saturday May-16-09)

2009-05-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Jerusalem Day 3 (Saturday May-16-09)

As we have done each morning at the Dan Panorama Hotel we had a large delicious breakfast with a wide verity of foods.

We went in the late morning by Taxi to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem where a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls is on display. The 2,000 year old scrolls were found in 1947 in a jar in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea. The building where the copy is stored as well as other artifacts looks like a white jar from which the scrolls were found. Adjacent to the building is a black wall to indicate the negative side of things.

There is also a large model of the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. The model which is to scale shows the walls, the Temple and all the buildings that were there at that time.

In the gift shop at the museum we purchased a children’s popup Passover Haggada that our grandsons Brady can use now and Jayden can use when he gets a little older.

It was 88 degrees this afternoon so we again decided to take a rest and then go out in the late afternoon after things cooled off.

In the late afternoon we searched for a nice restaurant that was open on Shabbat. We walked down some side streets and got a very nice view of the Old City of Jerusalem. We also stopped and looked at some of the hotels that we pass by every day, King David and David Citadel. Jackie left her sun glasses in one of the places we stopped at and we went back to check and a couple sitting in the lobby chairs overheard us asking the bellman for the glasses and handed them to us. Jackie was very thankful for getting them back. We found a nice French restaurant, Katy’s, on a small street not far away. It had good food but was more expensive than we were used to paying. Since we ate there early in the evening we were the only guest, but we had very good service with even the chef coming out of the kitchen and making suggestions, which we agreed to try. When it came time to pay, they told us their credit card machine did not work and I did not have the $150.00 to pay in Israeli shekels. Fortunately I did have $200.00 in travelers’ checks which they did take and gave me change in shekels.

There is a building on King David road that is under construction and has the scaffolding covered with a screen. The screen has a large photo of the city of Jerusalem to hide the scaffolding which is shown below.

The scaffolding is more apparent below the photo in the photo below:

I was also finally able to get the phone number of a distant cousin of mine, Jochanan Moses, a retired flight engineer with El Al airline. I called him and talked to him and his wife Marilyn. We plan on meeting next Thursday at their home near Tel Aviv for lunch. They are going to try and arrange to have some of their children and an uncle, Shlomo Moses attending the lunch. I also got the phone number of another distant relative Naomi Sela. I left a phone message for her, but I have not connected with Naomi yet.

Day 2, (May 15, 2009) in Jerusalem

2009-05-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

We decided not to get a tour but to walk to the Wailing Wall and the Jewish Quadrant of the Old City today. The Wailing Wall is part of the second Temple built in Jerusalem and is a very sacred place. Security was even tighter than yesterday and we were blocked several times for going down streets that we wanted to travel. We eventually found out Pope Benedict was coming to the Old City. We did not see the Pope, but we felt his presence with all the security.

At the Wailing Wall there were a large number of men praying, some at desks and others just standing. The men had prayer shalls, tallis and hats or yarmulke.
Women had a separate area near the Wall, so Jackie and I had to split up. Jackie was required to wear a shall to cover her arms. We had to go through security detectors to enter the area near the mall.

The views from were interesting and historical. One could see the Gold Dome on the Rock, but were not allowed to enter the area on Fridays. This may be the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. This is also the area where King David made his repentance to the Lord and where his son Solomon built “God’s House”, the First Temple. One can also see the famous Muslim El-Aqsa Mosque.

We had difficulty finding the Jaffe gate from which we entered the city since many exits were blocked off by security to protect the Pope. We eventually did get out by the “New Gate” and had to walk around the outside wall to get to the Jaffe Gate and find our way to the hotel.

At lunch time we went to the café that had a free Internet connection to prepare our first blog update. In the afternoon, we returned to the hotel to get out of the heat and to rest or tired legs and feet.

In the late afternoon it had cooled off, like California, the Pope was gone, the security was reduced, and we walked back through the Old City. We decided to walk through the Christian sector to see the path that Jesus took with the cross. We found Via Delorosa, which is suppose to be the street Jesus took, but we did not see any markings showing the 14 stations. We did find a building that indicated it was the location of the birthplace of the Virgin Mary. We continued walking through the Muslim, Armenian and Jewish sections. In the Jewish and Muslim section there were some visitors, but most of the stores were closed and it was relative quite due to Friday night Shabbat (Sabbath). We were impressed how peaceful everyone was and how everyone from different religious beliefs seemed to be working together, but then we noted that at every major corner are at least 4 Israeli Defense Force (IDF) or police members patrolling to make sure it says peaceful.

Changing money without a fee is difficult. The major credit card companies now charge a fee of 3% on purchases outside of the United States. Money changers charge a similar fee as do the hotels. Local banks provide the best exchange rate, but are frequently closed or may only exchange currency on certain days and hours, leaving a visitor to guess if they can exchange their currency at a bank. We also found a money changing store that was temporarily out of Israeli Shekel currency and asked us to return later.

On Friday evening is Shabbat and I tried to use the hotel elevator only to be surprised the floor button did not work. I was told that on Shabbat the elevator automatically goes from the lobby to the top floor (11th floor) and then descends one floor at a time until it gets to your floor. This prevents very religious Jews from doing any work such as pushing an elevator button or walking up the stairs. I had heard of this before, but had not experienced this type of elevator previously. I am glad I was not in NYC with 60+ floor elevators.

We finally found one restaurant, Parasido, open for dinner on the Shabbat night near the hotel. It was very busy and had good food. We completed our meal and went to our hotel to rest and sleep, for tomorrow is another day.

Jerusalem First Day

2009-05-15T02:33:00.000-07:00

We walked to the old city about a mile away. We saw many shops, on the way, selling women’s clothing, restaurants and shops selling Judaic things. The old city has a large stone wall surrounding it with entrances. The old city is divided into a Christian, Muslim, Armenian and Jewish quarters. We went in the Jaffa Gate which leads to the Jewish quarter. We walked around the Old City and saw hundreds of small shops along old stone walkways selling Judaic things and clothing. In the United States one may see only 1 or 2 such shops, other than New York City.

There were also many soldiers on duty with dogs and some with machine guns. On the way back to the hotel we found a restaurant with free Internet service that we plan on using, but we were too tired to make it back to our hotel, get the computer and then back to this restaurant.

We decided to eat dinner at a small but busy pizza restaurant near the hotel. The pizza was thin crust and good. I ordered a root beer with the pizza, but was served a malt beer. The waiter then said they did not have root beer and served me a bottle of lemonade with a glass, but the lemonade was warm. I asked for ice, but I was told they did not have any ice. Americans like cold drinks, but like Europeans, Israelis seem to drink their liquids at room temperature. Jackie was dozing off at the restaurant, so I thought we better get some sleep.

We finally got to our room at 8:00 p.m. Israeli time, 10:00 a.m. PDT. The TV had a few English news programs, but not CNN. One item of confusion with all the time zone changes was taking pills. I think I missed taking some of the scheduled medications. Hopefully this will get straightened out tomorrow. We decided it was time to go to bed.

Travel to Israel

2009-05-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

We flew from San Francisco to New York on American Airlines for 5 hours and then flew another 10 hours from New York to Tel Aviv, Israel on El Al airlines. We did have a three hour break in New York’s JFK airport. This gave us time to change terminals and have a small lunch (5p.m. EDT, 1p.m. PDT).

At the El Al ticket counter they gave each passenger a grilling to see why we were flying to Israel. They asked why we were going to Israel, what synagogue we belong to and what my Jewish name was. They use this information to screen passengers. We seem to pass.

We did sleep 4-5 hours, after taking a sleeping pill, on the El Al flight, which was a big Boeing 777 airliner. We watched a couple of movies. I watched “Mall Cop” and “Bride Wars”, which were fun movies but not very challenging. They served a snack, dinner and breakfast on the 10 hour flight. The food trays for each meal had every item wrapped in plastic and then the whole tray wrapped in plastic. They called it double wrapped for protection. The hot dish was separate and also wrapped in foil and then in plastic. It was a struggle to get everything opened without a knife or scissors. There was also lots of trash to pick up after the meal. This is not very ecological friendly, but it does add safety.

We finally woke up on the plane to be served breakfast and saw some land with a few snow capped mountains as we flew. We later could see the Mediterranean Sea as well at the boot of Italy, Sicily, Crete and many other large islands. It was on a clear day as we flew down the center of the Mediterranean Sea to Israel. As the flight landed in Tel Aviv, Israel we could see many farm fields nearby.

In Tel Aviv we got our luggage went through customs and we decided to take a train to Jerusalem. The automated ticket machine did not list Jerusalem, but only the station names. A kind young man help us get the tickets and on the right platform and track at the airport, to a station in Tel Aviv and then to change trains for a train to Jerusalem. Jackie and I had trouble lugging our suitcases up the stairs to get into the train, but we finally managed to get off and on.

The train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem took us past farm fields, many with sunflowers growing in them as well as wheat and corn. We saw “Jewish” horses, sheep and some cattle. The train also took us though a gorge with rocky hillsides and old man-made stone walls along the embankment, as we got closer to Jerusalem. The train was not a fast train and it took an hour and a half to make the journey, but it was very scenic. Many of the signs are in three languages, Hebrew, English and Arabic, so most people can manage to get around

We arrived in Jerusalem almost 24 hours later, if you count the time we left our home in California to the time we arrived at the hotel in Jerusalem. There was also 10 hours of time zones changes.

Our hotel room is modest for an expensive hotel, but it is clean and comfortable. The Dan Panorama Hotel is also within walking distance of the Old City. The hotel advertises that it had Internet capability, but they wanted $15/day for the service. We decided to look for an Internet café on our walk to the Old City in Jerusalem.

Preparing for Trip

2009-05-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

We are packed. David will be picking us up on Wednesday morning to drive us to the airport.
Newspaper and Mail has been canceled. Jack McIntosh our neighbor will look out for the house and take out our trash. Susan Caldwell will be checking the yard and feeding the birds.

We will be flying through JFK airport in New York City on the way to Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday, 5/13/09, and will arrive in Tel Aviv on Thursday, 5/20/09, in the afternoon and go to Jerusalem. We will be staying in Jerusalem for 3 days.