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.
One final view of the fountain:
See what others aren’t saying at Wordless Wednesday.
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.
Anyone got a good sibling tale to relate?
At many tourist attractions in Israel nowadays you can see a little “seret” or movie about the place. This is quite welcome, as the movies are shown indoors in air-conditioning, and I found each movie to be refuge from the summer heat and the emphasis on walking and walking and walking. After seeing many of these little films, however, they begin to blend together. One, however, stood out from the crowd, and this was the one at Rosh Hanikra, the one that told the story of the ghost bride.
Long, long time ago south of these tall white cliffs lived a young girl in Acre (Akko). Her father made a deal with a older businessman in Tyre, Lebanon, that she would be his bride. So she was taken in a caravan north. As the caravan passed over these cliffs, the young bride jumped out, never to be seen again. And as the movie continued the history of Rosh Hanikra (the British built a railroad through the cliffs; the Haganah blew up the tunnel in the 1940s), the young bride appeared over and over again in the background with the cliffs.
After the movie is over and we emerge back into the brilliant sunshine, my daughter (who is 6) had all these questions: why did they show that girl over and over again? what’s a ghost? what happened to her? did she die? what happens after you die? is she still here?
So I suppose we (my husband, my two sons who are older than her, and I) came up with some sort of explanations. One week later, when we were in Jerusalem, I found her making up ghost stories one evening:
I took these pictures of this pigeon (at least I think it’s a pigeon – now I think it’s a mourning dove; it doesn’t look like the greyish blue pigeons in New York City) in the Old City of Jerusalem. A little boy with blond payis (curly sidelocks that some religious Jewish boys wear) asked me in a thickly-accented English why I was taking pictures of a bird. It seemed to be amusing to him. I told him I had also photographed ibex and hyrax, too. “Oh,” he said, “you like taking pictures of animals”. Yes, I agreed.
More camera critters here.
