First afternoon in Israel

Saturday afternoon, and hard to believe we’re here at last, probably partly because those initial impressions are much the same as anywhere else. Airport, car park, rental car office, exit roads, highways, high rise. However, the street entertainment was way better............

This guy juggled on his ladder, then waved an enormous bubble wand while we waited at the red traffic light. Way better than having your windscreen attacked by teenagers wielding bottles of far-too-soapy water that they then proceed to smear all over with their dirty squeegees. Enough said.

We’d left the afternoon a little open, wanting to see how tired we were on arrival, but having slept okay the night before, we decided to make the most of our time in the Tel Aviv-Yafo area, as we wouldn’t be coming back this way. So, Google map loaded, we headed towards the Old Jaffa Port. Thinking it would be quieter on Shabbat, we were actually surprised at just how busy the area was. I guess that as well as being a tourist attraction, for Israelis this area is like having a Sunday afternoon out by the beach.

We wandered through the narrow alleyways, wondering just how old some of the buildings were, and what this area would have actually looked like when Jonah disobediently scarpered here to board the ship to Tarshish.

Today was our first experience of “shawarma” in Israel, and it didn’t disappoint! We shared this plate for lunch, sitting outside and people-watching in Old Jaffa. Nice.

Another wander along the promenade after lunch, then it was off to Haifa, hopefully without getting lost. As we found our way out of Old Jaffa and onto the highway there was a fair bit of “keep right” from me, and plenty of calm “I’ve got it babe” from hubby, but we did okay and before long we were fairly motoring up the 20 towards Haifa, laughing at how Israeli drivers overtake on either side, and how clearly the speed limits are really just a suggestion, and if you’re slow off the mark at the traffic lights you can expect to hear a friendly little “beep” from behind. Hubby found it excruciating having to go 80 in an 80 zone when everyone else was over 100 at the very least, but after I growled a few times at his blatant disregard for how the speedo was creeping up to Israeli levels (‘cos everyone else was doing it) he kept his inner Lewis Hamilton in check (more or less).

So here’s the thing about our driving plans for Israel. After much research and some advice on the TripAdvisor forum, we decided to go “sans data” for this trip, and we are relying totally on the reportedly amazing free WiFi here in Israel. And so far it hasn’t disappointed. This is how it works. We load the map when in a WiFi zone (eg. the airport before exiting, or a restaurant at lunch time), then once we are no longer connected, Google maps faithfully (mostly) navigates us via GPS, which uses no data. We only had one little hiccup yesterday, once we got to Haifa and maps said “keep left at the fork” when we should have kept right, and we ended up going through the Carmel Tunnels, with maps saying “in 100 metres, do a U-turn”. Yep, nope. Thankfully the very kind and understanding guy manning the toll gate at the other end said we didn’t have to pay but could take a right and head back via a different route. It’s good to know Google maps can still re-route via GPS!!

Finally we arrived at our accommodation just before 5pm, and our host was waiting to show us the amazing apartment up in the heights of Haifa that will be our home away from home for the next 4 nights. We have a lovely little balcony with a view over Haifa bay, and when it’s clear we can see all the way to Lebanon!