Nof Ayalon entrance into Modiin: The houses on left are Buchman, homes on right are Buchman Darom
Here is a photo of Modi’in, a new town in Israel, photographed from the distance. You can see that the fields abut tall buildings. The sky in Israel looks like this all summer; we didn’t have to bring raincoats. It doesn’t rain until fall.
Here’s how a street looks when we are driving in the town.
Right outside Modi’in will be a new railway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. One will be able to get from Modi’in to Jerusalem in about 17 minutes.
A playground in the center of town
One of the great features of Modi’in is a string of parks that run through the town. We played in this one for over an hour. It was nice to see dads out with their kids in the late afternoon.
If you live in one of these apartments, you are so close to the park. I took this photo from the playground.
A note from Baila, a blogger who lives in Modi’in:
Modiin is a planned city, planned and designed by the famous Israel architect Moshe Safdie. When he flew over the Modiin hills, and saw the valleys, he decided to use the natural contours of the lands. Modiin is a bunch of valleys where the shops, schools, medical centers, shuls, and of course parks etc are placed, and on either side of the valleys are rising apartment building and homes. There are currently about 70,000 residents, with plans for expansion up to 120,000 to 250,000 (depending on who you talk to and read).
Thank you so much, Baila, with all your help with this post. Baila also noted that the Maccabees reportedly lived in this area (2000 years ago).
If you’ve made it this far, and you are wondering about nature in Israel, a great place to visit is the Hula Valley Nature Reserve. I’m adding this here because I had some comments last time asking about nature tours in Israel. I’ve never been to the Hula Valley Nature Reserve, but it’s on my list for next time. We did visit Ein Gedi, where I photographed a hyrax, an ibex and a grackle. And I have a photo of Banias that I am saving for a future Sky Watch.
Views of the area near the Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, in Northern Israel: I took these photos in late June while on our two week trip to Israel. The top one shows the hills of the Golan, with cars on the right parked near a Kinneret beach. Before Israel took over the Golan Heights in 1967, snipers would shoot down at the inhabitants of this area indiscriminately. The middle one shows the lake itself, with the Golan Heights in the distance. The bottom one is the beach at Ginosar, a resort on the Sea of Galilee. The old boat one sees gives tours on the lake; as this area is important to both Jews and Christians, I wonder if they tell one set of stories to Jews and another to Christians? And what do the Japanese tourists hear?
Update: if you want to hear a little more about the tourist tales, please read my comments below (comment #16, #20, #34). I love all the interest! Wish I could take more photos of Israel.
In many public places in Israel one can find art. Above is a detail of a mosaic at Rosh Hanikra.
Even mailboxes (at left, mailbox in Tsefat) and utility boxes (at right, in Jerusalem) are often decorated with beautiful, colorful paintings.
We were introduced to the art of Sol Baskin at the military museum in Latrun. I believe the large painting at the bottom is of the Six Day War.
Ginosar, a resort on the Kinneret, has a sculpture garden. And too much green grass, considering water is in short supply in Israel.
The above realistic mural is on a building on Rechov Yaffo, Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Depicted is the light rail train that is under construction and will run in the city.
There are some wonderful art museums in Israel (Tel Aviv Museum, Israel Museum), but we didn’t get a chance to visit these on our recent trip. We did, however, go into the above building, which is the original building for the Bezalel School of Art. It now has art exhibits on each floor of the building.
Photo of this pink bouganvillea or paper flower was taken in the City of David, Jerusalem in early July. I believe the Mount of Olives is in the background.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz!
Photo was taken in early summer in the Galil, in northern Israel. I believe this is a dried-out gundelia, in Hebrew a “galgal” and in Arabic called an “akoub”.
The theme for this week in Thursday Challenge is OUTDOORS (Park, Garden, Campground, Beach, Forest, Backyard,…).
Here’s my entry for Ruby Tuesday, a fun photography meme hosted by Mary/The Teach.
Huh? you say. That’s not red. Ruby Tuesday is supposed to be something red.
Well, the night I took this photo and a few others, I went back to our hotel across the street, the Kings Hotel in Jerusalem, and loaded the pictures unto my laptop. And I discovered something strange:
All the other photos showed a blue fountain. But this one showed a reddish-purplish fountain. The next day, I went back and examined the fountain. Sure enough, the fountain has blue and red lights in it, and at night, the fountain turns from blue to red to blue.
Here it is during the day:
The omelette chef at the Kings Hotel joked with us at breakfast time about the “swimming pool” at the hotel. “Swimming pool?” I responded. “The Kings doesn’t have a swimming pool.” He was jokingly referring to this fountain. My daughter really did like the fountain, and she almost went swimming in it. One of the women in the neighborhood told me that the fountain is brand-new, donated in 2008 by someone from France:
Some of the neighborhood residents didn’t like the fountain, protesting that in a country that doesn’t not have a lot of water resources, this is a waste. But my husband and I reasoned that one could just recycle the water.
As I won’t be posting again until Sunday morning, I thought I would leave this pretty orange flower at the top of my blog until then. Can anyone identify it? I took the photo in Jerusalem.
This is probably an eschscholzia (thank you, Ilana-Davita!)
My kids like bagels. So we spend time going to bagel shops.
If any of you grew up within 600 miles of New York City, you may know that New York is well known for its bagels. And bagels are often associated with folks of those parts as a “Jewish” food.
Well, it may or may not surprise you to know that in the early days of the State of Israel, the 1950s – 1970s, it was very difficult if not impossible to find a bagel in the Jewish State. I was first in Israel in 1980, and I cannot remember eating bagel while there. I remember pizza, especially Richie’s pizza. But not bagels. Pita, fresh rolls, yes, but I don’t remember bagels.
It was a nice surprise on this past trip to Israel (my fifth time visiting) that we enjoyed not just one but two bagel shops in the city of Jerusalem. At left my son is happily chomping on a poppy seed bagel from Bonkers Bagel in the Old City.
Below you will see my daughter munching a pizza bagel at Holy Bagel on Rechov Yaffo:
How did these bagels shops rate? Hey, they were happy. And that makes mommy happy.
However, the bagel story in our home town of Highland Park, New Jersey is a bit of a sadder tale. We used to have this wonderful bagel shop just over the border in Edison on Rte. 27. They served delicious fresh bagels, and I remember buying the egg salad bagel with tomato and red onion when my son was a mere babe. However, at some point that bagel store departed, and a new one opened in Highland Park. The new bagel shop wasn’t nearly as good as the old one, both for reasons that the bagels weren’t as good and the service was, well, lousy. The new bagel shop changed owners and then closed completely. There is a Bagel Dish Cafe here in Highland Park, but alas, it is not kosher.
Now when we want bagels in Highland Park, we go to: Dunkin’ Donuts!
I should tell you the best part of our Dunkin’ Donuts is great service. Part of the way they give great service is they yell at you if you are chatting online, and it’s your turn to give your order. They keep the line moving fast, and the people behind the counter remember you. And what you ordered last time. The friendly service is quite nice. Personally, my favorite is the multigrain bagel, because of the oatmeal and sunflower seeds on top.
During the school year some teenage boys ran a service where you could order bagels from Teaneck. I don’t know much about the service or about the Teaneck bagels, but as my son will be going to school in Teaneck in September, I expect I might ask him to buy a few bagels for us.
Years ago when my husband and I were dating we used to go to a nice bagel shop on 72nd Street on the West Side in Manhattan. They served bagels, coffee, orange juice and scrambled eggs for one price, and under the glass on the tables were comic strips. Whatever it was called, it probably is no longer there.
In Brookline, Massachusetts (I grew up in nearby Newton) at Kupel’s Bagels on Harvard Street you could get green bagels on St. Patrick’s Day. Probably still can.
Any decent bagel shops where you live?
If you haven’t had enough photos of bagel shops in Jerusalem, visit Dina.
Ah, siblings. Sometimes they get along. Sometimes they squabble. Sometimes one helps the other out, like my Eldest Son did as he carried my daughter through the Old City of Jerusalem on our way to visit the Kotel. I really appreciated his offer to carry her.
See all my posts about our two week trip to Israel.
