Along the Coast

Today, we left the beauty of Kibbutz Kfar Blum in the Galilee to head towards our last stop on our pilgrimage, Tel Aviv.  We were all a little sad to leave our little oasis we found at Kfar Blum.  I think we were mostly sad because it really signifies the beginning of the ending of our trip, something I think we are all not quite ready to face.  Along the way we said our good-byes to the Kinneret and headed back in time almost 1800 years to the time of the creation of the Mishna.  We visited the Kfar Kedem village on Mishpeh Hoshaya in the Lower Galilee for a hands on experience exploring Jewish life that included costumes, pita baking and donkey rides.  Yes, I said donkey rides.  And of course, I have pictures to document the whole thing, even me on the donkey.

Three of our B'nai Mitzvah kids grinding the wheat for our pita.  See, they become young adults and we put them to work!

Hannah was the donkey demonstrator along with Amir, our guide for the day.

I think I am too big for my poor donkey...

I am proud to tell you that each and every one in our group earned their Donkey Driver's License which states "David Shukiar has, upon rigorous practical examination, been found knowledgable and capable in all aspects of donkey driving and therefore will be permitted to do the same, wherever and whenever he should so choose."  I hope my parents are proud!

 After Kfar Kedem, we piled back onto our bus and headed to the Mediterranean Coast to Caesarea, a palace and city built by King Herod more than 2000 years ago which became one of the land of Israel's most important cities during the Roman Period.  Can you guess who King Herod named the city after?

Here is our first look at the Mediterranean Sea.  

We visited the Herodian Theatre, an ancient theatre that still houses concerts today!

We also visited the new excavations along the Mediterranean shore which concluded with a visit to the 900 year old Crusader city built on top of Caesarea.

Here is our group climbing onto the ruins of the Hippodrome, where King Herod watched races a long time ago.

After finishing the tour of Caesarea, we all went and had the perfect Mediterranean lunch, gelato from a local store.  Yesterday we had chocolate and wine on the Syrian border and today we had gelato on the Mediterranean Coast in an ancient Town...  Only in Israel!

After finishing our lunch, we headed towards Tel Aviv, known as the city that never sleeps.  We got to our hotel at around 3 pm, which left plenty of time for us to play on the sores of the Mediterranean before walking on the boardwalk to grab dinner.  

Here is my feet first touching the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea!

After taking these pictures a bunch of us spent a couple of hours swimming in the Mediterranean Sea (no water proof cameras were present to record this for the blog).  After all of the touring we have done, it was so nice to relax and float in these warm waters.  Tel Aviv is such a different world than Jerusalem.  It is a young, vibrant, energetic and beautiful city that reminds a lot of America.  Tomorrow we will dive into the history of this place and learn how it helps to define Israel, but in a different way than the other cities, towns and kibbutzim do.  I will leave you with the view from our hotel in the hopes that it may entice you to come on TAE's next Israel pilgrimage...