Day Five: Lounging Around Tel Aviv

Another morning…another opulent Israeli breakfast with different salads, hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado dip, the freshest watermelon…sigh. It will be hard going home to muesli after this. Henry woke up ‘19’ this morning…and awaiting him at breakfast was his one (and only…for now) present, a beautiful pair of round, silver cufflinks with bright blue Roman glass inserts made from glass off-cuts found from an archaeological excavation, bought at Tsfat.

After a late breakfast, our first in Israel, we headed for the Carmel markets to look at all the fresh food, spices, jewellery and range of random things for sale. It was hugely atmospheric because today is Shabbat, so everyone was out and about as Friday is part of the ‘weekend’ in Israel. They work on Sundays instead. The display of fresh produce was stunning, with piles and piles of fresh herbs, lettuces, eggs, plastic buckets filled with various olives – sellers displaying their dried spices and offering them to us to smell. Our favourite stall was one full with trays of freshly baked sweet Arabic pastries shining with honey such as baklava and the regional specialty, Kadaif. We first tasted this desert in the Arabic town of Akko. It is made from Kadaif ‘pastry’, which looks like long thin noodle threads, layered with a soft cheese (in this case, goats), with the top layer of the kadaif pastry dyed orange with a sweet syrup poured all over it. It came out in a huge tray, all in one large piece, with the man cutting squares using a paint scraper (obviously, without paint on it) and selling it by the weight. It looks really strange, but is Zac’s new favourite desert.

Wandering up Nahalat Binyamin Street, we also explored the ‘art markets’, where hand-made jewellery, paintings and woodwork were being sold. After a short time we decided to split up, as the boys wanted to go lie by the pool and me and mum decided to continue walking the streets.

For Shabbat dinner, our family here in Tel Aviv came to collect us from the hotel to take us back to their house for dinner in Rechovot, about 30 minutes out of the city. It was the most beautiful night. They were so welcoming, warm and affectionate, it felt like we see them every week. We did lots of laughing together and sat down to the long table – all 16 of us. Despite a slight language barrier with the kids (mostly boys ranging from 15 down to 2 and a half), their personalities and funny comments were translated to us via the parents. Noa, who is eleven years old, baked a cake for Henry’s birthday ‘all by herself’. When I asked her what type of cake it was (her mum ‘interpreted’) she replied in Hebrew ‘the perfect cake’. She always has something funny to say, just like Sara, her grandmother (who is second cousin to my grandmother). A perfect to end to ‘leg one’ of our Tel Aviv stint. Tomorrow, we are off to Jordan.