Tag Archives: Israel

I’m still jet-lagged, which means I yawn all day, but am trying to stick to Snoopy’s advice of not taking naps and waiting until 10 p.m. to go to bed.

A world traveler himself, he says the jet lag may linger until I’m ready to go home. I hope not, but if so, I’ll deal with it.

Weather here is mild, chilly nights, warmish days. Forecast is for warming into the 80s by Monday or so.

I managed to get sunburned yesterday at Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, beside the Mediterranean surf. Interesting Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Crusader ruins. Lots of Russian, Canadian and Japanese tourists. Snoop says there are fewer non-Jewish American tourists these days because of what Israelis call “the situation,” which speaks for itself. Though most of the country is peaceful and very green this time of year.

So far we have been to Ben-Gurion’s desert home at Kibbutz Sde Boker, in the Negev, where it actually rained while we were there, for a wonder. Rainfall there averages a little better than an inch a year. Lots of vineyards, however. Grapes grow well there.

Then yesterday, after Caesarea, Snoop’s connections (he is a physicist, his wife is a chemist) got us a tour of the Weizmann Institute, which does basic scientific research in a variety of fields. We saw the Weizvac, Israel’s first computer, which ran on vacuum tubes, and its successor, the smaller but more powerful Golem, built two years before the discovery of the transistor, which led to where we are today—posting travelogues on the Web.

Today we’re off to the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, to try to get a handle on a possible Portuguese Jewish ancestor of mine, and later, sightseeing in the port city of Jaffa. Tomorrow a longer drive to the Golan Heights, stopping along the way at Tiberias and Safed, near the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), for some old synagogues I want to see.

Once I figure out how to download some photos onto this little Dell netbook of mine (assuming it has enough memory) I’ll try to post a picture.