Sunday, September 10, 2017

Trip Day 9 - explore Jaffa

Official (adjusted) itinerary:

Explore old Jaffa & tel Aviv • Home-Hosted Dinner

After breakfast at our hotel, we begin today’s discoveries with a visit to Jaffa, a 4,000-year-old city situated on the southern outskirts of downtown Tel Aviv that may well be the world’s oldest seaport. Our Trip Leader will take us on a walk through Old Jaffa, followed by a visit to the Ilana Goor Museum, housed in the private home of this renowned Israeli artist, designer, and sculptor, where artifacts from Israel’s past and artworks from its present stand side by side.
Then we enjoy lunch with Doris, a local Arab Christian. Back to the hotel for rest and free evening.

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Saturday September 9

For breakfast we go to the sister hotel next door. It's called Hotel Cinema and decorated with old cinema things. When we come back I have to take some pictures. It's interesting.

This is the entrance to our Hotel Center. It's smaller but with nice lounges.

You can rent the bikes free of charge.

Ok. The bus picked us up and Yael talked to us. In the course of the day we found out that she is very intelligent and full of knowledge. Of course she is jewish but very open-minded and knows the New Testament better then I.

The bus let us out here. View towards Tel Aviv in this direction.

I wished I could write down all the things she explained to us ... the history of the area ... why things are how they are today.

The view towards Jaffa.

And then we walked. First we saw the little harbor. But couldn't really take a nice photo.

Behind Yael is the Greek Orthodox Church. A service is in progress and she doesn't know whether we are allowed in.

We are allowed to look through the open door. I heard them say the Nicene Creed and the Kyrie eleison. No idea in what language but so familiar because it's part in our service too. It touched me very much.

The church is beautiful and I would have loved to see more.

I thought of my friend Christine and her husband Gerald and pray for healing. Christine had told me just a few weeks ago that the sign of the cross is made the opposite way (towards the heart) which neither I nor James had known before.

A few steps further was a large plaza and a Roman Catholic Church St Peter, taken care off by the Franciscan order.

Of course here too a service was just in progress. The congregation worshipping was from Africa. They were singing "praise God from whom all blessings flow" in French and with an African rhythm. It was very uplifting.

There was lace on a side altar and I sneaked a photo.

Yael found shade and then she gave us a very interesting lecture.

What has Jaffa to do with Christianity?

Why is the Church called St Peter?

Why is it facing towards Rome?

She read us a passage from the Bible:

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Joppa is the biblical name for Jaffa. Jonah lived in about the 8th century BCE. He tried to run away from God and fled from here and you all know the rest of the story e.g. the whale.

She also read Acts 10 to us and these verses also had this city name mentioned: 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

Other readings might be Acts 9:40-43 (Peter raises Tabitha) and Acts 11:5 (Peter has a dream about food)

So, the Apostle Peter has been here too. They also believe that he went from here to Rom where he was tried and then crucified and that is why the church is facing towards Rome.

Our next visit was to the Ilana Good Museum.

OMG, she might be a famous artist but ...

Besides creating herself she also collects and we were told that she finds a lot of things at flea markets. Yeah!

I really did like the house though. It is old and unique. The kitchen has a ceiling which supposedly cools the room.

The roof gardens have a wonderful view.

Mmhh. Not sure about this.

I like my next three photos though.

And then more wandering through the streets. Do you see the cat in the middle of the doorway?

This I found fascinating. Jaffa was once famous for Jaffa oranges. The fields close to the city had to give room to buildings. This is a memorial for all the orange trees gone. I think the container looks like a seed and life coming out of it (but what do I know?).

Then a short bus drive to our home hosted lunch.

There was a high wall around the house and a tree with lovely flowers was minding the gate.

First we ate (self-serve) and then Doris, our hostess, told us her story ... how her mother and her future mother-in-law had arranged the marriage for her. She called herself an Arab Christian and told us that life as such is not easy. The number of christians is really small and for her children to find Christian spouses is difficult. She was a stay-at-home mom so hosting OAT groups is the "job" she wanted.

It was quite interesting but somehow I had the feeling she was bored with us.

Back to the hotel and we were on our own for the rest of the day.

After some refreshing and waiting that the heat of the day had passed a little, James and I went for a stroll.

We went down to the beach and walked along.

Lovely!

We walked almost to the end of the promenade before the airport. There is a dog-beach and it was entertaining while we waited to see the sundown.

The dogs have their own shower to rinse off before going home.

There were more dogs then people. Some people were playing something like paddle-ball. A little white dog kept excitedly waiting for the players to mess up and retrieve it.

VIDEO! (0:31)

On the way back we came across some Jewish linedancing which actually was fun to watch.
VIDEO! (0:36)

We ended up at last night's restaurant.

We had a local beer which went down well. Our meal came with a salad. So nice that we could eat it and with an appetite since Yael told us the water is very safe here.