First day in Tel Aviv

Israel is a very dry country (most of it being desert) and is very low on water, having had below average rainfall for several years. It thundered and poured last night. Most of the day today was just cloudy and extremely windy, but tonight, it's raining hard again. Seems to be trying to make up for the extended drought during our visit!

This morning, we got a little walking tour of Tel Aviv, the high point of which was Danny's 4th floor walkup (get it - the "high" point). Nice apartment - could use a cleaning every couple of months or so. The rest of the tour was rather dull since almost everything was closed due to Shabbes.

Then, Danny and I took a walk along the beach - which was a lot easier walking with the wind rather than against it. The sea was quite angry and the most interesting part of the walk was watching the wind surfers - as you can see. While it looks like fun, it also looks like a lot of work to avoid being dragged out in the Mediterannean, unless they want to visit Cyprus. Hey, maybe we should have tried that last year!

This afternoon and evening, we visited with Susan's cousin Janey, her husband Moshe, dog "Snowy" and their daughter, son-in-law, grandson and granddog "Yohushua" (which is the Hebrew name for Joshua, but theirs is cuter than ours). We had a wonderful time discussing families, countries and anything else which came to mind.

Hopefully, the wind will die down tomorrow so I can take a run along the sea and we can do some walking in the city. I mean, this is a desert country, right?

Arrival in Tel Aviv

Hi everyone. We got here safe and sound - all flights were on time (note to Ophir: Tell Carey that Iberia is at Terminal 3 - not International!). It was an 8 hour flight to Madrid which was about half full, so we had plenty of room. The flight to Tel Aviv was 4 hours and filled to the gefilte fish gills.

Danny was waiting for us at the airport. It was raining, but about 65 degrees, which still beats Milwaukee. Here is the view from our hotel room - my guess is that it will be a lot nicer view when the weather improves.


Here is Danny in our hotel room - a bit thinner so we are going out now to fatten him up!

More from Tel Aviv tomorrow.

Tel Aviv and Barcelona

Welcome to Gregg and Susan's Travel blog, Part 2 - the Sequel! This time, we are traveling to Tel Aviv, then to Barcelona. While this will not be nearly as interesting as the blogs from China, this time, with Danny's assistance, I hope to spice it up with pictures (who knew that you could do that!). That is, assuming my camera does not break this time (it wasn't my fault, btw!).

To show that I don't need Danny's help to upload pictures, here is a picture of our favorite child. Cinn is going to college with Joshua this week - and will probably learn more in the time she is there, than he has in four years!

Anyway, we leave tomorrow (Thursday) from Chicago with a transfer in Madrid. So, look for the opening blog from Tel Aviv on Friday or Saturday.