May 29th
It’s our last morning, and we spend it strolling on foot through the Nahalat Shiv'a neighborhood, behind the hotel. It’s fascinating because it was one of the first areas where Jews settled outside the walls of the Old City. Slated for demolition to build large housing complexes, it was saved by collective efforts, and most of it has been preserved. The majority is now pedestrian zones, creating a very pleasant atmosphere.
Graffiti artists had a blast in the neighborhood.
You’ll also find beautiful art shops here.
And relaxed locals.
Next, we transfer to the airport, arriving four hours early—which isn’t too much, since it takes us two and a half hours to check in :(. We have to queue because we couldn’t check in online; El Al’s website kept freezing during the process :( :(. Contrary to what we were told, it’s not security checks causing this mess—most passengers get through those in minutes—but El Al’s poor organization. Only 7 check-in counters are open, even though there are 15 El Al flights departing per hour at this time, meaning 2,200 to 2,500 people to process—over 300 per counter!! No mercy for families with young kids or elderly passengers :(. Yet, a women’s sports team gets to skip the line :P. Either way, we still make it to the gate with plenty of time since the flight is delayed by an hour. When we board, the staff doesn’t bother hurrying things along, letting groups block the aisle while they debate who prefers the window seat. There’s no flight attendant in the aisles to help people (including solo moms with three kids) with their luggage or speed up the boarding process. It takes 35 minutes—quite a record for a Boeing 737. There’s not even a safety demo :(.
On board, the service is the same as on the way there: a quarter-liter of water and a disgusting corned beef sandwich :(. We land in Marseille over an hour late, and the baggage handlers add to the delay by taking 35 minutes to deliver our luggage.
Just little travel hiccups :) :) :).
Trip summary:
This trip allowed us to experience places and situations that will never be the same again due to the October 7 attacks and the events that followed.
We wanted to share this modest account as tourists because these twelve days were overall excellent, except for the outing to Bethlehem and Jericho, which was a bit disappointing. The organization by Voyageurs du Monde met all our requests, and the two guides in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were outstanding. In twelve days, you leave a lot behind—we’d have loved to spend more time in Acre and Jerusalem in particular, but we were constrained by time.
We discovered exceptional places, Jerusalem first and foremost, but also Beit She’an, Masada, Hisham’s Palace, among others.
A few thoughts on specific points:
Driving:
Driving was no problem. The roads we took were in good condition. Drivers mostly respect speed limits, so traffic flows smoothly at roughly the same speed. The only gripe: they honk at the car in front a tenth of a second after the light turns green.
Restaurants:
You need to book ahead at restaurants, or risk being turned away. The ONTOPO smartphone app helped once we figured it out.
Restaurants are very expensive unless you stick to street food, which is more affordable.
We loved the dining style—multiple varied dishes placed in the middle of the table for everyone to share. It’s very convivial.
Restaurants mostly serve Israeli wine, which they enthusiastically praise. At 10 € a glass, we’ve had better. As Mitch put it, ** **
We’d been warned that service in restaurants and hotels wasn’t always top-notch. That proved true in many cases (though not in the establishments recommended by Voyageurs du Monde). Smiles are often missing, and the organization sometimes shows surprising unprofessionalism. There are often many servers, but their work pace is quite slow. At a large brasserie in Jerusalem, we had to leave after 10 minutes without ordering because the waiters were busy sorting menu pages right in front of us, ignoring us, and the hostess who’d seated us had vanished without taking our order. At another bar where we were the only customers, it took a quarter of an hour to get two coffees. Two servers were there, but they were busy with tasks more important than serving a customer. At the Mamilla Hotel, a luxury restaurant, they served our aperitif *after* the main course, etc...
Urban planning:
In Tel Aviv, architectural and urban planning choices make the city pleasant (with the bonus of great beaches). We appreciated the smart measures to preserve remarkable old buildings. We were also impressed by the security features in new buildings: underground bomb shelters, airtight safe rooms in every apartment.
In Jerusalem, the requirement to use Jerusalem stone—a light limestone—for all construction has preserved a beautiful uniformity in the facades.
Outside these two cities, buildings are often ugly, especially in newer neighborhoods that completely lack greenery, which the climate and soil conditions don’t make easy.
Signs are generally in two languages: Hebrew and English.
For signs only in Hebrew, we used the Web Translator smartphone app, which instantly translates text from photos.
Christianity, history, and tourism:
At all the Christian sites, we encountered crowds of pilgrims on bus tours visiting Capernaum, Tabgha, the Mount of Temptation, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem—even though many of these holy sites have no proven historical or archaeological basis. It feels like a circuit designed to focus pilgrims’/tourists’ attention on places without evidence that the corresponding events actually happened there. The Via Dolorosa is a prime example: the number and location of stations have changed over the years before the current doctrine prevailed. Of course, if they told visitors, “It happened somewhere around here,” they’d be less motivated. A striking example is the Stone of Anointing, which is the center of an elaborate spectacle.
The conflict-ridden co-management of holy sites by various Christian churches is downright surreal and would be laughable if the potential consequences of missteps weren’t so serious.
I hope everyone reading this post gets to retrace this journey in peace one day, and I’d like to thank Mitch for providing more precise and interesting details than mine.
A very full day
