Not being idle in Israel

 Last night we flew with Ryanair into Tel Aviv and were met by our amiable guide Ami, who is with us for the next 8 days. When we arrived at his car he mumbled a sentence which included the word I didn't wantto hear: "hernia"; I mumbled back a similar sentence which included the word "back" but something was lost in the translation and he didn't seem to understand what I was on about as he pointed from my luggage to the boot of his car. He drove us to our hotel in Jaffa, a bubbling community named after the Aussie orange coated confectionary (he didn't know).

 Fortunately we didn't bring our cat as there was nowhere in our room to swing it.

Breakfast was a fabulous shashuka.

Ami picked us up and sprinted off with us in hot pursuit around Jaffa; if one stops to take a photo he will be 100 yards down the street. We admire the TA waterfront

and then an impressive gallery full of installations.

Then it is off to the food market which is a wonderland of squat and gobbles.

After sampling a few hundred of these tasty morsels we continue our perambulation into downtown TA.

I now realise that this tour and the following 8 days is an "all things NOT included" tour as I constantly reach for my credit card or a bunch of shekels. Ami is obsessed with the cost of everything and so far we have passed 5 times through the most expensive apartment areas of TA all in different locations. It turns out he is used to New York clients who do not baulk at ordering US$125000 sculptures on a whim.

We eat lunch in a Persian restaurant(all my suggestions are fobbed off as "tourist traps")

TA's oldest lift still functioning

We then visit the Itzak Rabin museum which was both fascinating and moving and then back to our hotel where we can proudly say"We have done Tel Aviv"!