Tel Aviv Day 2 (May 21, 2009)

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.