Israel Day Two (October 9)

The breakfast buffet at our hotel is amazing -- choice of hot dishes (pasta and things), lots of salad things, lox, cereal, mini chocolate croissants, bread, jelly, your choice of eggs (any style), choice of tea and coffee (cappuccino, etc.) You'll see my choices in the photos. Forget to explain one of the photos from last night. Our room is on the 2nd floor. I showed the elevator panel -- the ground floor (what we could call the first floor) is 0 and the floor below it, on the elevator panel, is -1.

We walked through Neve Tzedek again, and a little in the next neighborhood, Florentine, down to the water. That took us to Old Town Jaffa. I managed to find two of my favorite shops from January (the fabric art shop where I picked out a beautiful fabric art painting last time and the Adina Plastelina shop that makes all sorts of neat things from art clay). As we're at the beginning of our trip, unlike last time, I resisted any new fabric art paintings, but I did get some small things at Adina's. (As I told the saleswoman there, if I get everything I want now, that would imply that I'm never coming back.) We than walked along to the Yaffa Port where I got a glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice and Mike got carrot/orange juice.

On the stroll back, Mike walked along the beach. I did dip my toes in the Mediterranean (the water is warm, 28C). Mike actually went for a short swim. Then we strolled to the old train station that's been converted to shops and cafes. He found a nice bench to sit and read while I strolled. I did stop to buy ice cream -- the smallest cup they had, which, to my amazement had two scoops squeezed in, chocolate sorbet and hazelnut (sorry, you only get a photo of the empty cup, it was melting so we had to eat it fast). Then back to the hotel, cutting through the theater and art complex at the edge of Neve Tzedek. The pretty trees that we saw back in January now have large oranges or grapefruits ripening on them.

After some quiet time (reading, Internet catch-up, etc.) we went off to find dinner. I had looked in the guidebood and discovered that a place we didn't go to last night because it looked like it wasn't very good, had a good review. So we went to Moses bar & grill, described as part retro lounge, part bistro. I had 3 mini burgers -- American (their classic burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo), European (mix of beef, lamb, and veal with a spicy ketchup), and one of the burgers of the week, Japanese (shredded red cabbage, mayo, and wasabi ketchup). Mike had an Israeli beer. I had a mint lemonade (I love it, you ask for lemonade and they ask if you want mint in it) and then mint tea.

As my cousin put it, Tel Aviv is more secular than Jerusalem. So, many of the restaurants are open (and busy) even though Shabbat starts on Friday night. Tomorrow there will be lots of things open. It is different feel here in Tel Aviv -- more cosmopolitan.

Here are day two photos.