Israel. Days 9 and 10. Ha-Sof.

Friday

Thankfully we woke up to slightly better weather today.  We had another great breakfast, then took a cab to the kotel, which we still hadn’t visited.  Hallie kissed the kotel and said “Thank you Hashem.”  Then we carried the stroller up what must have been a hundred steps to the Rova, where Hallie got yet another bagel and cream cheese.  She was certainly crankier than she had been the last few days.  Maybe she just needs to go back to the discipline of school, or maybe she’s getting sick…

the kotel is fun with mommy

and somber with daddy

From the Rova we made our way out to the parking lot and got a cab to Machane Yehuda, which we also hadn’t been to yet.  We made obligatory stops at Marzipan for rugalach and Rosemary for dried fruits, and then fought our way out of the shuk.  It was ridiculously crowded.  Considering that this city is empty, Tzvi couldn’t believe how packed the shuk was. 

We walked a couple of blocks to Crave, a restaurant that serves “street food,” which is fairly new (it wasn’t here in 2017).  I really didn’t want meat for lunch, but it was on Tzvi’s list of things he really wanted to do, so we sat for lunch.  I got a tofu burrito and Tzvi got the burger.  He couldn’t decide what to get, but the waitress told him the burger would be the best burger he’s ever had in his life.  First, I’ll say the tofu burrito was excellent – the tofu was chunks of deep fried tofu.  Tzvi can describe the burger for himself. 

Tzvi: I was skeptical when she said it would be the best burger I’ve ever had, but I have to admit, if it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, it was in the top few.  The burger was ground steak (not sure what that means exactly, but I took it to mean it was a better cut of meat then just chuck), lamb bacon (crispy, delicious), fake cheese (which I usually don’t like, but this was actually good), lettuce, tomatoes, and special sauce.  It was amazing.  It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and just seasoned so well.  I was really impressed.  It was so good.

Hallie made an H out of her french fries

Steph:  After lunch we walked all the way from the shuk down to Ben Yehuda.  We stopped at Ann for kippas, where Tzvi got two kippas and Hallie bought kippas to give her friends Dovid and Yehuda at school.  After that we walked down to The Coffee Bean where I got a mocha iced blended.  We had to wait a really long time for our drinks, so that was fun.  Then we walked back to the hotel and got ready for Shabbat.

Shabbat started in Jerusalem around 5:00, but we didn’t really start until 5:30.  We sat for a bit in the lobby before going into dinner in the dining room.  We started with a basic salad bar.  For appetizers I had gefilte fish, and Tzvi had both the spicy Moroccan fish and the tuna tartare “nicoise” (which was kind of like a diced nicoise salad).  Then Tzvi and I both had the chicken consommé and the sweet potato soup.  For the main, everyone at the table had the entrecote.   For dessert I had some sort of chocolate nut thing.

Conversation at dinner was lively and unrepeatable, and everyone at the table enjoyed themselves, including Hallie who did quite a bit of running and made people take her on numerous trips to the bathroom even though she rarely had to go.

Saturday

We woke up around 9:30 and made it to breakfast by 10:00.  Avery now has the sickness that my father had and was too ill to make it to breakfast.  We’re so full from this trip we could barely eat, though we struggled to find a way.

After breakfast we had our suitcases brought back to the room and packed up.  While in the lobby, Tzvi found Shai Kehat, whose parents had told him they were coming to visit my parents before lunch.  Abby and Mordy didn’t actually show up until after lunch, but we spent a nice hour talking to Shai.

We went down for lunch around 1:00.  There was a great cold buffet with all sorts of deli meats, roasted vegetables, dips, salads, liver, different types of fish.  Then there was a hot buffet with lamb carving, veal osso bucco, chicken legs, sweet and sour duck, roasted veggies, chulent, potato dishes, and other stuff.  There were too many different types of foods to name.  Tzvi probably ate a half of a lamb.  There were about 12 desserts, but every single one had nuts. I don’t know why they can’t make even one thing without nuts.

In the moment it was difficult to appreciate it because of how overstuffed we are, but in a week we’re going to be salivating over memories of King David buffets.

After lunch we put Hallie in the stroller and walked her down to the windmill in Mishkenot She’ananim. She fell asleep pretty fast, and then we walked back to the hotel and napped ourselves.  We woke up with a few minutes left in Shabbos, packed up some more, showered and got ready to go out for the night.

Again, Avery was too ill to go out so he stayed in his room, and the rest of us went to Kadosh, a café near Mammilla.  The café has been there since 1967 and we’ve heard good things, but it did not live up to our expectations.  We though the menu was a little limiting, the service was slow, and the food was eh.  Tzvi had a “cheese toast with mushrooms,” which was basically a grilled cheese sandwich with mushroom cream sauce poured over it.  I had an egg with a side salad.  We ordered Hallie a cream cheese sandwich, but she wouldn’t touch it.  Again, we’ve heard good things so maybe they were having an off night, but we were a little sad to have that as our last meal of the trip.

After dinner we walked down to Mammilla mall and shopped at Michael Negrin while Tzvi went to Café Rimon to get Hallie a pizza.  Then we said goodbye to Gabs and she walked back to the hotel with my parents so she and Avery could leave for the airport for their midnight flight home.

Tzvi got the pizza from Rimon and we sat on some steps.  It was a huge pizza and delicious, and Hallie at a lot of it.  We also got a final slushy coffee from Roladin, which Tzvi remembered as being really good but was basically undrinkable, and a slushy coffee from Aroma to make up for that.

Then we walked back to the King David and went to sleep.

Tomorrow we’re off to Paris!

Israel. Day 8. 16 Courses.

Once again, today did not go as planned, though in contrast to Monday’s unplanned sun, we woke up to nasty rain storms and a real feel of 20 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius).

 We were supposed to meet a photograph for a family photo session at 10 am in the old city, but the weather made that impossible, so the morning was suddenly wide open.  We started with breakfast. For my money the King David breakfast is still the best hotel breakfast. Its really amazing that the same waiters and chefs have been here as long as we’ve been coming here.

I should mention that last night my parents wanted to do laundry.  Between the seven of us we filled up four large bags and my mother was planning on bringing them to the laundromat they always use near Mamilla.  We were running short on time though, so the hotel said they would take the laundry over for us.  Just before we were ready to leave for dinner, a woman who looked like she was out of some 19th century Tolstoy novel, dressed in a classic black and white maid’s uniform, came to take the luggage.  My mother explained everything, the woman nodded, and then she left.  This morning, my mother got a call from the front desk asking if they had a child in their room (this hotel is very strict about how many people are in a room because they charge up the wazzoo for extra people).  Apparently they had gone through the laundry and seen children’s underwear and they wanted to know why.  My mother was upset that they were going through the underwear and “spying on us.”  Tzvi said they weren’t spying on us, they were just doing the laundry.  I think my mother was horrified by that thought given the prices they charge for laundry, but of course, Tzvi was right.  They had done the laundry, and they had charged nearly $400 for it.

After breakfast we took a cab to the old city. It was pouring rains. Thankfully we had the King David umbrellas, which broke pretty quickly with the first gust of wind. We ran as fast as we could to the Cardo to visit the Blue and White gallery.

I don’t even know how to describe the scene at Blue and White. The gallery has been there forever (I think it may have been the first gallery in the old city). The owner, Udi, is an artists and sells his own work and other artists’ works. I think where he does his biggest business though is in small 8x10 prints of his paintings. The shop was packed with tourists (mostly American) coming in and buying handfuls of these prints. People would come up with 12, he’d say “you pay for 8.” The markup must be huge on those things. He also recently did a special painting dedicated to fallen law enforcement and said he gives a copy to all law enforcement officers who come in. While we were there, a man came in who is on the Aurora, CO state police. He said he was in the first car on scene at the movie theater shooting in 2012.

Meanwhile, Hallie was whining that she was hungry and wanted to eat a pouch.  Then she started whining that she wanted a banana, except she doesn’t actually like bananas, except Udi didn’t know that, and before we knew what was happening he sent someone out to the shuk to buy bananas. 

Anyway, through all of the madness we ended up buying two items.  one was an Udi originally of two goats, or maybe sheep, that Tzvi liked. 

The other was a Chagall lithograph.  We’ve liked this Chagall for years, but when we originally say it, it was too expensive for us.  Now the price has tripled and it’s still too expensive, but because we keep coming back and buying from him, he gave it to us for the original price on condition that we give tzedaka over the next few years up to the price he’s selling it for now.  So I don’t know what the thing is really worth, but we’re getting an appraisal for the current price, so at least that’s something.

Here’s a photo of the piece:

The original painting is oil on canvas and is hanging in the Tel Aviv museum.  Chagall painted it in 1932, apparently using really cheap paint, and so now the original is fading.  The Chagall family commission a run of 450 lithographs so that the painting could be preserved (they say the print is a better representation of the original painting than what’s currently in the museum), and sold all 450 to Udi’s father. Now Udi only has a few left, and we bought one of them.

After we were done at Udi we went back to CoffeeBagel and got Hallie a cream cheese bagel, which she ate happily.  From there we got slushy coffee and some pastries at Ne’eman.  It was pouring raining at that point, and freezing, and the guy at the bakery told us we were crazy for drinking the iced coffee in the winter.  When we told him that we don’t have it in America, he said “I was in New York, you can get this at Starbucks.”  He is wrong.

Next on our adventure running around Jerusalem on the day of never ending rain, we called a taxi and had it take us to someone’s apartment in Talpiot.  A week or so ago I was looking at instagram and saw someone I went to high school with post a really cool challah board carved out of a large block of wood - basically a slice of tree.  I messaged her and she said her brother in Israel makes them.  So we went to his apartment to look at blocks of wood and order custom challah boards.  We spent about a half hour there figuring out what we wanted.  Right now he just makes these things and sells them out of his apartment, but he’s going to start selling at a Judaica store at the tachana, so maybe we’re getting in on the ground floor of something.  Hallie was really happy because they had a toy kitchen set that she played with.

this is going to be our challah board

We called another taxi and rushed back to the hotel, quickly got our stuff together, and then went back out to meet a driver we had hired to take us to the Castel Winery in the Judean Hills.  Hallie fell asleep in the car and woke up just as we were getting ready to leave, so that couldnt have worked out better.  The winery was about a 30 minute drive.  When we got there we were welcomed into the visitors center and sat on a couch around a burning fire.  Very cozy.  Our guide, Adar, gave us some history of and basic introduction to the winery.

In short, Eli Ben Zaken started the winery in the mid-90s.  He planted cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes, harvested, made wine, aged it for a year, and called it Grand Vin, which is a title given to top wines in France, so it was pretty Israeli and cocky to call his first wine that.  But, the wine was good and the winery became a success.  Now they sell on the back wall of Chateau de’Vin with the expensive wines ($70-$100/bottle).  Tzvi was very focused on why their wine is so much more expensive than other Israeli wines.  Basically he told us (1) it’s better than other wines, (2) they put a lot more into their production (i.e., handpicking instead of machine picking, they have a special expensive French sorting machine, they only use new French barrels), and (3) they only produce about 300,000 bottles a year.

We got a tour of the production room and learned that their cheaper “entry level” wines don’t actually go into barrels at all, they just go into either large steel tanks or large concrete tanks, and sit there for a number of months.  Apparently a lot of wines are made this way and we just don’t realize it (or at least we didn’t realize it).  We next went into the barrel storage room and saw the endless rows of barrels and learned more about the storage process.  Apparently our wine fridge is too cold.

After the tour we went back to the visitor’s center and sat around by the fire tasting all of the wines.  He also served us three types of cheese and some bread.  Tzvi spilled some wine on himself.  My father vomited in the bathroom, but we didn’t find that out until later.  It wasn’t because of the wine - he’s just sick.  All of the wines were great.  Tzvi ended up buying 6 bottles, which had to be packed in a special box for checking on the airplane.  Good luck.

We drove back to Jerusalem and once back at the hotel, Hallie went to dinner with my parents in the hotel restaurant and Tzvi and I went to the sauna in the “spa" which is really a gym with a sauna and massage rooms.  Then we got showered and dressed and made it out around 7:00.

Our first stop was a cocktail bar called Gatsby.  We took a cab to the address, but once we got there, all we saw was an Aroma cafe.  We started looking around but couldn’t find anything, until we noticed that there was a wall covered in leaves. As we got closer we saw doorknobs and a small hidden G on the wall.  We went through the doors into a small room where a woman stood behind a desk.  The walls were covered in bookcases, but there was nowhere else to go.  The woman grabbed two menus, slid the bookcase aside and led us into the bar.  It was a speakeasy!

The bar, which we actually found in a recent NY Times article, was very cool.  The decor was kind of 20’sish and the music was like swing/big band, and then at one point the song from the Jungle Book.  We sat at the bar in front of our bartender Roi, who knew our tour guide from the winery because he also used to work at Gatsby.  Tzvi had a drink that was sort of like an old fashioned but had rye and pineapple syrup.  I had a drink with passion fruit and spicy chili infused tequila. Both were great.  We stayed about 20 minutes, then paid and got a cab to the restaurant for dinner.

For dinner we met Avery and Gabriella at The Eucalyptus, a restaurant in the Artist’s Colony that’s been around for 30 years but we’ve never been there.  The restaurant kind of feels like one of those bucharian places in Queens.  It’s very homey and feels like a traditional Jerusalem restaurant, not a new highly stylized place.  We were very excited for the meal as we were going to do the Queen of Sheba tasting menu, their biggest tasting menu.  It was pretty incredible.  It was really an experience.  I’ll take you through course by course.

First, they brought bread with some sort of garlic dip, tomato dip and parsley dip.  Then the chef/owner, Chef Basson, came over while Avery and Gabs were washing, and picked up one of the pieces of bread and said, “You are  two people? I’m going to take one piece, you should not eat so much bread.” Then he realized we were four people and gave it back.

I’m not going to do every course in detail, but I’ll list them all out.

Trio of soups: Jerusalem artichoke, tomato and lentil:

Barramundi ceviche with vegetables and pomegranate seeds:

Whole roasted eggplant with pomegranate seeds, tahini and parsley:

Fried cauliflower with tomato-lemon cream, tahini and black lentils:

Chicken liver on macarons with mixed berry jam:

Fish falafel served over tomato sauce:

Figs stuffed with ground chicken:

Pastia: Duck confit rolls served over carrot cream and red wine sauce:

Jerusalem Sania: layers of pita bread, lamb, eggplant, tomatoes and tahini:

Lamb “candies” with yogurt sauce and almond paste:

Entrecote with mustard and amba aioli:

Lamb neck stew with peas and carrots baked under pita bread:

Makluba: chicken legs and rice

For this course, they made a big show out of the makluba. The chef came out with a giant pot and had volunteers from the restaurant bless the makluba or something. Then he turned it over and dumped it out and invited people for photos.

Seared mulard breast with mashed potato and berry sauce:

(The mulard is a cross between a duck and a goose)

Chocolate soufflé, semolina cake, malabe, dried pears with almond nougat cream:

I should also note that during the meal they gave us shots of sangria, shots of arak, which was too licorice tasting for all of us, and shots of Jack Daniels.  We had all of the courses once, except for the entrecote and the mallard breast, which we asked for second servings of.  I didn’t eat everything, but what I did eat was delicious.  It was a special meal and different from other tasting menus we’ve done before; usually they bring things out one course at a time, but here they were kind of throwing food at us, so we had multiple dishes on the table at once.

We were the last people to leave the restaurant, and at the end of the meal the chef came over and told us how his family fled Iraq in 1951 and came to Jerusalem.  He’s been living in Jerusalem, or around it, since then, and has had this restaurant for 30 years (though only 10 in this location).

After the meal was over we took a cab back to the hotel and went to bed, stuffed.

Israel. Day 7. Into the Banana Room.

We got up early and went down to our last breakfast at the Ritz.  Everything was delicious and the big egg/pancake man surprised Hallie with Mickey Mouse pancakes. She was quite happy with that.

After breakfast we finished packing up, Hallie had a dance party on the balcony, and then we said goodbye to the Ritz and headed to Tel Aviv.

We drove straight to the Sarona Market, a food hall with over 90 food stands/stores/restaurants. There were also a bunch of rooms branching off from the main corridor with seating, each themed differently. One was the banana room. It was interesting.

We first walked the whole thing to see what was on offer. I got a slushy coffee and some cookies from a place that I think was called Soft Cookies. The coffee was really good - they pulled it from a machine and then blended it more, which I’ve never seen before. We passed a juice place that was making orange juice and Hallie saw an orange and said she wanted one. Tzvi asked how much to buy an orange and the woman working there kind of angrily said, “just take it, we don’t sell oranges.” It was kind of nice, even if she wasn’t.

For our lunch we started with pizza. We got two massive pieces of square pizza, one cheese and one mushroom. Hallie didn’t really eat it, but it was pretty good. 

Next we had ramen with tofu. I’ve never really had ramen before but I plan to have it again. It was really good. 

Hallie was crapping out so we got back in the car and started driving. We made a quick stop at Lechemim, which is the original Breads Bakery. Unlike the one in NYC, everything at this one was kosher. We got a bunch of pastries and babka. Then we drove about an hour back to Jerusalem.

We got to the King David Hotel around 330, unloaded and checked in. At check in we were informed that we had been upgraded to a family room.  We then met Ron, the guest relations manager who welcomed us to the hotel and took us to our room. I think because we’ve always stayed here on my parents reservations they thought it was our first time here so they treated us nicer. After showing us our room, Ron offered us complementary welcome drinks. We asked for soda, seltzer and juice, but realized later we probably could’ve asked for coffee or a cocktail. Oh well. 

Tzvi returned the rental car to Avis down the block after filling it up with gas ($61!) and then we unpacked. We haven’t really unpacked on this trip since we’ve been everywhere for only 3 nights, but since we’re here 4 nights we fully unpacked and then had a bellhop take our empty suitcases down to storage so they’re out of the way.  

Our room is pretty large - a short hallway leads into a sitting room with a desk, a couple of chairs, and a toddler bed for Hallie. There’s a separate room with a king sized bed that’s separated by folding doors. The bathroom is pretty big with a tub and a shower, but it’s kind of awkwardly set up - the toilet is just kind of there (as opposed to being in its own little room). They also gave us a nice basket of snacks (I guess because it’s a family room).

My parents came back and Hallie was excited to see them (we have connecting rooms). Their room is a regular room. We looked into their room and then Tzvi asked how their bathroom was, so my mother told him to go look. So he did, except when he opened the bathroom door he was met by the surprise of my father sitting on the toilet.

Once we were all settled we showered and got ready for dinner, then we, my parents and Avery and Gabs went for dinner.  Dinner was at Anna, the Italian restaurant at the Ticoh House. The restaurant is fairly small but nice. We started with focaccia - two very large pieces of bread served with olive oil. My father was disappointed because he expected bruschetta, which was confusing, because he ordered foccacia, not bruschetta. 

We ordered a few appetizers for the table, but it was all cheese so I didn’t partake. They shared a gnocchi with tomatoes and cream and a caprese salad. We also got Hallie a margarita pizza.  For mains I had salmon and Tzvi had linguine with mushrooms and truffle oil. For dessert Tzvi and Hallie shared a tiramisu and I had a lemon pie thing. It was decent.

We told them it was my fathers birthday (it actually was) and Hallie’s birthday, so they both got sparklers in their desserts, which was cool, but I think Hallie was sad when it went out on its own. 

After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel, got Hallie ready for bed and then went to sleep.  

Good day. Long day.  

Israel. Day 6. Hallie Goes to Prison.

We actually made it out today by around 8:30, which I think was a record for this trip. Our morning activity was a tour of the city of Akko up north, a place we really haven’t visited before.

We drove about an hour and twenty minutes and met our guide for the morning, Etai, right outside the old city of Akko. Etai is Hindel Jesselson’s cousin. He was an excellent tour guide and I’m happy to share his number if anyone needs a guide. 

We began our tour at the Akko Prison, originally built during Ottoman times and repurposed by the British to imprison Jews and Muslims that acted up against the British during the mandate. We saw the cells, which were basically big rooms for about a dozen or so inmates, with beds made out of clothes sewn together, a pot to make potty in (is that why it’s called a potty?) and a window. It didn’t look pleasant. We explained to Hallie that it was where they put people who didn’t listen to their mommy and daddy. That’ll scar her nicely. We also saw the gallows where 9 Jews were executed. Somber. Etai was very good with Hallie and indulged her as she kept stopping his stories, including when she wanted to see if he could make his shoes light up also (he couldn’t).

View from above:

and below:

Next we descended below the prison to see the 12th century crusader fortress that the prison was built on top of. The fortress/caves were pretty impressive and featured art exhibits, a museum about the history of the fortress, and artisans selling homemade crafts. We watched one man doing glass blowing and then bought Hallie a necklace.

From there we started our walk around the old city of Akko. At that point Hallie had gone through all of the snacks we brought for her and started complaining that she was hungry. Unfortunately there is no kosher food in the old city, but we’re told there is a restaurant opening. Anyway, Hallie kept snacking and she wasn’t even really hungry, she just wanted to whine. We walked along the walls of the city of Akko and saw the port and the ocean. Etai did a really good job of taking us through the entire history of Akko through the tour. I wish I was able to recount more of it. The Crusader history was actually very interesting and something I feel like we don’t hear much about. Akko goes back to biblical times and is mentioned in tanach; it was ruled by Muslims until the 12th century; it took the Crusaders five years to capture the city because of its strategic design and walls, and they were only able to do so because they teamed up with the Italians who came in from the sea (the Crusaders didn’t have ships), and gave the Italians 1/3 of the city, which is why there is still a Venetian Square, Pissano Port and Genoa Square in Akko.

We ended the tour around 1:30 and I made sure to stop by the JNF tourist information center. If anyone is interested, we are revamping the Galilee!

Hallie fell asleep pretty quickly once we were in the car and we made it back to Herzliya in about an hour and 15 minutes. We drove through the Carmel Tunnels, which neither of us ever remember taking, but apparently they’ve been open since 2010. There are two sets of tunnels with a stretch of road in the middle that you can exit from. You pay when you enter the first tunnel, they give you a little card that looks like a hotel room key, and then you give it back when you come through the end of the second tunnel (I guess to make sure you paid the full 2-tunnel fare). When we pulled up to the pay station to hand back the card there was a car in front of us that was taking a really long time. At least three or four minutes. People were honking and Tzvi was really freaking out. They had to bring another man over to the booth, the guy inside was calling people, it was taking forever. Finally they went and we pulled up, they scanned our card, and what do you know, “Your card is not active, where is your receipt?” Apparently the woman handing out cards before the tunnel wasn’t activating them properly, so we had to sit for about three or four minutes while they called someone to come and open the gate, because apparently the gate man can’t manually open the gate. Amazing. So Israel.

Once we got back to Herzliya we were hungry so we stopped at an Aroma nearby and got sandwiches. It said it was kosher, but it had meat and dairy on the menu, but not mixed. Who knows. Anyway, I had tuna with pickles and Aroma sauce and Tzvi had eggplant, potato and egg. Both were good. Then we drove back to the hotel and I sat in the car for another 20 minutes while Hallie continued to sleep.  

Meanwhile, Tzvi went into the hotel to talk to the concierge about our evening. We had planned on driving to Tel Aviv and having dinner at Lumina at the top of the Carlton hotel. Tzvi asked the concierge to call and confirm our reservation, and when he did, he was told that they were closed for a private event and only open for hotel guests. Originally we had planned on spending two nights at the Ritz and then one night at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv, but ultimately scrapped that plan when we decided it wouldn’t be easier not to switch hotels just to spend one night in Tel Aviv. Well, it seems that when we cancelled our Carlton hotel reservation, they also cancelled our dinner reservation.  Maybe it was for the best because we were pretty tired. We decided to stay in Herzliya and have dinner at a restaurant in the marina instead.

Hallie was still sleeping in the car so Tzvi went for one last steam at the spa. Eventually she woke up and I took her to the lobby for a cream cheese sandwich, which she ate and enjoyed. We then switched and I did a quick 20 minutes at the gym while Tzvi got Hallie ready for dinner. 

At 630 we walked next door to the marina for dinner at Bistro 56. We immediately ordered Hallie chicken with green beans, which she ate very nicely, probably better than any other meal so far. She loved her chicken so much that she started dancing.

For starters I had sweet and spicy wings and Tzvi had a dish with roasted eggplant, meat and Israeli salad. Both were good. For our mains I had a fillet steak with sweet potato mash that wasn’t too sweet and green beans. Very good. Tzvi had bbq chicken thighs with a hash of sweet potatoes, white potatoes and onions. He enjoyed. For dessert we all shared a fudge cake with warm fudge on top and vanilla ice cream. Hallie ate it all up.  

After dinner Hallie wanted to ride the kiddie rides in the mall. It was pretty cute and she rode three different rides, but afterwards we found out that we paid about $1.38 for each minute long ride.  Oh well. It was cute.

We walked back to our room, put Hallie to bed and then took a bath and watched more of A Star is Born. The movie is good but I feel like it’s about to turn super depressing.

Tomorrow we leave and go back to Jerusalem. We’re sad to be leaving the hotel. I would say that we didn’t expect to like Herzliya so much. Even though we really didn’t do much, the atmosphere and vibe of just being at the marina and at this amazing hotel is so different from being in the middle of Jerusalem.

Israel. Day 5. 80 Degrees Fahrenheit.

We woke up this morning around 830 with big plans for the day. I was scheduled to be at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (the JNF high school I recruit for) at 10 am. Tzvi was going to walk around the marina a bit and then head to Tel Aviv so we could all meet for lunch and then spend the afternoon exploring. That was the plan. 

We made it down to breakfast around 915 but I wasn’t too hungry and didn’t have time to eat so I just got coffee and then left to get a cab to take me to Hod HaSharon.

Tzvi: Hallie and I had a nice breakfast. Hallie had some pancakes and juice. I had a full plate of Israeli breakfast foods - tuna, boreka, hummus and salad. It was great. I wish I could have breakfast like this in America. I also had an omelet that a man was making in the middle of the buffet area. The breakfast was in the Herbert Samuel restaurant, but it’s a totally different chef and team between breakfast and dinner - the Herbert Samuel restaurant is really the dinner team, the breakfast just uses the space. 

After breakfast we got the stroller from the room and I said we were going to walk to the mall. That’s when Hallie said, “I want to go to the pool.” I was a little surprised but said ok, we could go look at the pool. The pool is on the roof with seating overlooking the marina and the ocean and is rather beautiful. Once we got up there, Hallie said she wanted to go in the pool and wanted to sit on the chairs. It was warm and sunny and she was pretty adamant so I said sure and we went back to the room to change. 

We then spent the next couple of hours in the pool and laying on chairs. It was great. That’s when we decided to just scrap the plan and I told Steph to come back here to the hotel so we could do this for the rest of the day.  

Steph: My morning was pretty uneventful. Campus looked the same as when I was there in November. I met with Mordechai, the head of school, who I hadn’t met with in November. Then I said hello to some of the staff. Nice visit. Then I headed back to the hotel, changed into a bathing suit and joined Tzvi and Hallie at the pool.

Around 1 o’clock Tzvi went back to the room and ordered room service but asked them to deliver the food to the pool.  A woman came with a big foot cart that she parked next to our seats. I had a Roquefort salad, minus the Roquefort cheese, plus tuna. We ordered Hallie a cream cheese sandwich and French fries, and surprisingly she actually ate the sandwich and liked it.  Win. We also got a delicious fruit salad.

We went back in the pool and swam for a while longer. Hallie loved splashing around in the pool. At one point we tried ordering iced coffees with khalua but we just ended up with iced coffees, which were still good. Hallie got a cold milk with whipped cream.

Hallie really didn’t want to get out of the pool, but around 3 she was getting tired so I walked her around for a few minutes and she fell asleep in the stroller. Then I came back to the pool and we swam and laid there until 5 when the pool closed. 

The pool wasn’t that crowded, but there were a few people. There was one group of Israeli women who were pretty loud.  There was also a group of seminary girls in black dresses and black stockings who were also kind of loud and at one point see playing Jewish music out loud and then realized that no one else wanted to hear it. At one point they saw people jet skiing and jumped up and said, “oh my God we have to go jet skiing.” Then they started frantically googling  and calling jet ski places, and when it was all in Hebrew they held their phone out to a random Israeli walking by and just said “what are they saying?” Yuck.  We also saw a frum couple that first came up to the pool with him wearing a big kipa and her wearing a skirt and long sleeve shirt. Then they left and came back ten minutes later, him with no kippa and her in a skimpy bikini.  Then there were a couple of older women discussing their schvimkleits.

At 5 we walked into the marina to Golda, an ice cream shop. We asked about nuts and they said only one flavor had hazelnut. So we tried a bunch of flavors, and then Tzvi asked another question and the guy said that all of the flavors have “nut cream” and he didn’t know what kind of nuts. At that point Tzvi had already tried one of the flavors and it seemed pretty unlikely that there were actually nuts in it, but the guy was insistent so I got a cup with two flavors and Tzvi got nothing. I had a Hershey’s cookies and cream flavor (it seems that they are big on that here) and some chocolate lotus. Both very good, but the whole thing was just annoying because I only got it because Tzvi was getting it and then he didn’t even get it.

After that ordeal, I went back to the room and Tzvi went to the spa to use the sauna and steam room while I gave Hallie a bath. Then we switched and I went to the spa while Tzvi got ready.

Around 630 we went downstairs for dinner at the Herbert Samuel restaurant in the lobby. As noted above, the restaurant uses the same space for breakfast, but it’s amazing how they convert the breakfast buffet into an open kitchen. Like everything is actually cooked right there in the same space that they set up breakfast. Pretty amazing. 

This was the kitchen set-up for dinner:

Contrast that with the morning breakfast set-up. Pretty cool transition.

We started by ordering wine. Tzvi knew what he wanted but I had to try a few first. We immediately ordered Hallie a plate or chicken and potatoes, which came quickly and was delicious. To start Tzvi and I shared two appetizers. The first was a large piece of whole roasted cauliflower served on mushroom purée with balsamic reduction and a poached egg. It was delicious.  The second appetizer was a veal short rib tortellini, which were basically two huge pieces of pasta stuffed with veal and surrounded by mushrooms and peas. I need to find another word for delicious.  The chef also sent us a raw yellowtail appetizer with some sort of gel and chili peppers, which Tzvi ate and said was really good.

For the main we shared the chateaubriand for two. It came as four pieces of steak with a giant roasted marrow bone and more crispy potatoes.  It was so good, and it was cooked so perfectly that Tzvi and I actually liked it cooked the same way. Usually I like my meat more well done than Tzvi, and this was a little rarer than I usually order but was still perfect. 

For dessert we all shared the sorbet which was a scoop of mango and a scoop of raspberry over a finely diced fruit salad. I don’t usually care for sorbet but this was good. We also shared a dessert of date cake served over some kind of cone type crisp and sesame brittle with two scoops of tehina ice cream. It was really fantastic.

After dinner we came back to the room and put Hallie to bed. She actually went to sleep easily. Then we took a bath and went to sleep.

Perfect day.

Israel. Day 4. Sunday in its Exact Condition.

We woke up around 9 on Sunday morning, got dressed, packed a little and headed to breakfast. Same fare as the last couple of days and all delicious. After breakfast we finished packing and Tzvi walked to Avis to pick up our rental car. While we were waiting, Hallie made friends with a bunch of bellmen and the greeter man. He kept saying “come with me, I give you chocolate” and Hallie was like no. Then he told her its good, don’t go with strangers. Then they were friends.

Here are a few parting shots of our room and the beautiful Waldorf lobby.

We finished packing, checked out, loaded our car and were on our way to Herzliya. We’re spending the next three nights in Herzliya, while my parents and Avery and Gabs are going to Eilat. When we originally planned this trip my parents decided they would spend three days in Eilat while we went to Herzliya, as they wanted to have a few days alone for a romantic beach vacation. Then when Avery and Gabs said they wanted to come to Israel they got added to the Eilat trip, but we still never got invited. 

We drove the hour to Herzliya and checked in at the Ritz Carlton. The hotel is on the marina/beach. My parents actually stayed here for a couple of nights at the beginning of their trip and told the guest relations manager, Katie, that we were coming for Hallie’s birthday.  Katie met us in the lobby with balloons and told us there were more surprises for Hallie in the room. A bellhop led us to our room on the 10th floor, and just as he was opening the door, Tzvi turned to me and said, “we got upgraded.” At check in they told Tzvi that we got an upgrade because of our Marriott status, but he kept it a surprise until we got to the room. 

So, our room is amazing. Our room is an executive suite with a sitting area and a separate bedroom (the doors to the bedroom have slits, so it’s  not totally separate), as well as a balcony overlooking the beach that you can access from either room. We also have a kitchenette with a fridge, a sink, a stove and an oven, so we could basically live here forever. Oh, and Hallie has her own powder room. If white supremacists take over the government and we’re forced to leave America, I’m moving into the ritz. Sorry, I mean when they do. 

By the time we were settled into the room it was almost 2, which meant Tzvi had to head to the spa for his massage.

Tzvi: We each booked four hands massages, which means you have two masseuses working on you at the same time.  I went first. My massage was with two Russian women. One had short dark hair and a tattoo on the back of her neck. I was a little scared of her. We started the massage and they asked what kind of pressure I wanted. I said medium. I did not get medium. What I got was probably the best massage I’ve ever had, but it was quite a bit firmer than medium. At one point I cried out, “tell Putin I’ll tell him whatever he wants to know!” Anyway, it was great, and I recommend everyone try it at least once. Two masseuses means every body part gets worked twice as long.

After my massage I spent a few minutes sweating in the hamam and then went back to the room to switch with Steph. Hallie was still up so I put her in the stroller and walked her around the hotel. She fell asleep pretty fast and then I went up to the rooftop pool and spent about an hour laying out in the sun, reading and swimming. It was glorious. 

Steph: While Tzvi was at his massage I took Hallie around the Marina. There’s a little mall next to the hotel so we walked through looking for food. I ended up getting Hallie some strawberry Dannon yogurt and Fiber 1. Good lunch. She sat outside and ate it looking at the water. I tried to get her to go to sleep but that never happened. Finally it was time to switch.

My massage was the same, so painful but so great. I’m pretty sure at one point one of the Russian ladies was on top of me. Her knees were on my calves and her arms were doing my back. Sometimes I’d be like “ow” and she’d say “no, its good.” It was.

Tzvi and I met back in the room at 4:45 and got ready for dinner. We made it out around 6 and drove a half hour to Tel Aviv. We tried to find parking near the restaurant but there was no street parking, so Tzvi dropped us off and decided to drive around one more time before going in a lot. As soon as he passed the restaurant and turned left the waze said he was ten minutes away. So much for going around the block. Luckily when he got back to the street where the restaurant was he found a free street spot right there. 

Dinner was at Malka, the only kosher restaurant of famous Israeli chef Eyal Shani, who has a lot of non-kosher restaurants in Israel as well as a chain of fast-casual places around the world called Miznon, including one in Chelsea Market in NYC. The restaurant is trendy and well designed. We were seated in the sukkah, a steel hut in the middle of the restaurant. The place was empty when we got there at 6:30 but slowly filled up until it was packed. Tzvi was the only kippa for our entire meal.

Our server came over and explained that the restaurant focuses on fresh and natural foods, so nothing processed and everything simply cooked. They dont have starters or mains, but rather vegetables, fish, chicken and meat. The english menu was hilarious. They really need someone to proofread it because some of the dishes were ridiculous.

“Fennel babies roast gently.”

“A bag of pea so wonderful we haven’t touched it at all.”

“A plate of spirit dazing spicy things. A slice of bread.”

“Key of the heart. There is only one.”

“Ontrib night stake, melting, juice.”

If you would’ve told me this was some sort of new Israeli poetry I would’ve believed it. Needless to say the menu needed some explaining. Actually, this was the one time we were able to glean more from the Hebrew side of the menu than the english.

We started by ordering bread in a bag, which was one piece of delicious bread in a paper bag, served with a bowl of techina and tomato foam. I asked for more bread and was given a second piece. Thanks. Then we each got a glass of wine and ordered Hallie the “Golden thin schnitzel filled with burning mashed potatoes that erupted.” This was basically a massive piece of chicken that was coated in mashed potatoes and then deep fried. I don’t know how they managed to fry the schnitzel without the potato breaking away, but it was amazing. Perfectly crisp and delicious.

To start, I had the “Leek in its exact condition,” which was a bowl of leeks that must have been slow roasted; they were caramelized and so soft and tasty. Tzvi had the “aubergine fillet medallions, olive oil,” which was some sort of eggplant thing - maybe confited eggplant? - in a bowl of olive oil. He loved it.

For our mains, I had “fillet on a steak,” which was actually fillet on a stick - a skewer of pretty sizable steak cubes with roasted onion and tomato and a salad, all served on what was basically a piece of cardboard. Tzvi had “lamb ribs and arabic salad” which was lamb chops, but actually a pretty accurate description. He said his was incredibly delicious.

For dessert we ordered the chocolate mouse, which Tzvi couldn’t eat. First they came and set a new paper cover on the table, and then they brought out the mouse in a paper cone. The waiter asked if we were ready. We said yes. He said are you sure you’re ready. We said yes. Big build up. Then he threw it down on the table and it lightly exploded onto the paper. Cute. Hallie and I scraped every bit of chocolate up off the paper. Rich and delicious.

When we were just finishing up, the manager came over to tell us he needed the table. Seemed a little odd, but Tzvi said that when he made the reservation it said we had the table until 8:30. Maybe that’s normal here (or in other countries)?

All in all, a fantastic meal, at times comical, bordering on dinner theatre, but all really delicious and memorable.

Hallie and I agreed it almost looked like doodie on a table.

After dinner we drove the half hour back to Herzliya and got Hallie ready for bed. Since Tzvi didn’t get dessert we called room service and had them deliver the Ritz Cake and a soy latte. The cake was like a chocolate log with some sort of rum cake and little chocolate balls on top. We got Hallie into bed pretty quick and then got into our own bed and tried to watch A Star is Born on on Tzvi’s computer while eating the cake, but Hallie wasn’t on board with that plan and refused to go to sleep. She spent at least 30 or 40 minutes intermittently crying and calling out to us to come give her more hugs. Eventually she went to sleep, but we didn’t get very far in the movie and then we went to sleep.

Good day.

Israel. Day 3. We Ate the Whole Waldorf.

Shabbat was lovely.

I think it was supposed to start at like 4:50, but that was the early Jerusalem time so really add some minutes and add some MORE minutes and THEN shabbat started. My dad walked over from Mamilla to go to shul at the Waldorf (because it seems Mamilla is doing everything to keep OUT the religious Jews, including not having davening). Tzvi, Hallie and I went downstairs closer to 6 where we met Gabriella and her friend Hannah in the elevator. We were sitting in the lobby when I saw Jamie Geller again walking around with her kids. This time I went up to her. She was so sweet and we had a nice conversation about mutual friends (whatsup Grant), honey garlic brisket, and great Israel hotels.

For dinner we were seated at a very nice long table in the restaurant. The place was so packed that they seemed to be using the entire restaurant and the central lobby area for diners. After some difficulty figuring out seating we we made kiddush and the meal began. I should just stop there because I don’t know if the meal actually ended. It could still be going on for all i know. Hannah and Sam Cohen (boys and gabs family friends from home) joined us for dinner which was very nice. There were like 5 salads on the table when we sat down, all fresh and very good. Then we ordered, which took a while.

Actually, i should just say everything took a while.

I started out with beets, onion and zucchini stuffed with meat and rice. Then we all had chicken soup which was bland but decent when you added salt. For the main most of us had veal ribs, which were basically like short ribs. When she brought mine it was about half the size of everyone elses and all fat, so we sent it back. I then got a monstrous one and it was delicious. For dessert they brought a chocolate ball thing that had caramel or lemon cream in it and then also a lemon dessert that wasn’t a tart but had some sort of cookie bottom. Both were pretty good. Tzvi couldn’t eat the lemon thing becuase of nuts, but one of the servers did drop one on him. He said something to the manager and asked about having the shirt laundered. The manager was very apologetic, took him to reception and arranged to have the shirt cleaned free of charge. Hopefully no one gets fired.

After that we made the mistake of asking for tea, so that was another half hour. As we were finishing the desserts we told the waitress we were still waiting for the tea and she told us, ‘yes, I know, I’m just clearing the plates.’ So I guess they consider tea a separate course and you’re not allowed to have more than one course at a time. I think we got back to the room at 10:30, and by that I mean we rolled back to the room.

I gave Hallie Melatonin and she slept well. We all slept well and didn’t wake up until 9:30, which was amazing.

Shabbat morning we got up and went to breakfast. It was pretty much the same except certain hot foods were missing and you couldn’t order a la carte. I was still so full from the previous night that I could barely eat. I don’t think anyone went to shul. Hallie hung out with Avery and Gabriella a bunch and we didn’t do much all morning.

We finally left the Waldorf around 12:45 to go to the David Citadel for lunch (again, Mamilla doesn’t have a shabbat lunch, so we were eating at the sister hotel). Obviously we were there before my parents. We were seated at this amazing large round table with super comfortable chairs. Problem was we were right near a big set of open glass sliding doors that led out to the food area and created a draft, so we made them close the doors, but then every time Tzvi went to get something for the rest of the meal he’d leave the door open and we’d all freeze. Lunch overall was pretty good. Great salads and vegetables, solid cholent and chicken, good kugel, and decent dessert. We ate well.

After lunch as we were heading downstairs, our family friend Abby was walking in to meet us. Tzvi had walked Hallie around and she fell asleep, so we all sat in the lobby and talked for a while. Tzvi fell asleep on the couch. It seems many people just go to hotel lobbys and fall asleep on couches, but dressed well. A literal interpretation of homeless chic. Anyway, we all split up an hour before shabbat ended and agreed to touch base after.

We bathed Hallie and got dressed to go out. After some texting, we decided on Tachana HaRishona (the first train station), where there is a bunch of restaurants and shops. We didn’t decide where to go but said we would meet there. Tzvi mentioned a crepe place he saw online that looked interesting. We got ready to go and went downstairs to get a cab. We texted my parents and asked if we should walk over to Mamilla to cab with them, but they said “better get a cab from Waldorf.” Then we texted Avery and Gabriella to ask if they wanted us to wait for them, but they said they were already with my parents.

We took a cab to the station and walked around a bit. We still hadn’t heard from anyone else so we kept walking around. We walked all the way to the end of the station where we found the carousel closed, which made Hallie really sad. She actually said, “I’m sad the horsies are closed.” We’re going to need to find her a carousel to go on because she went on and on about the horsies all night. It had been a while and we still hadn’t heard anything from my parents or Avery or Gabriella, so we texted them and discovered they were at the crepe place.

Before bringing Hallie in, I went to the crepe place and asked about nuts and found out that Hallie couldn’t eat anything, so that was a bust. We decided to just get Hallie pizza, and that’s what everyone decided on. We ended up at an Italian place called Fiori. Hallie had pizza, I had pasta with broccoli and garlic, and Tzvi had eggplant parmesan. The food was fine. My parents and Avery and Gabs spent the meal talking about their upcoming trip to Eilat (that we’re not going on), so that was stimulating.

After we ate we decided to go back to the crepe place for dessert. There was a band playing live music, but only a smattering of people gathered to watch. Tzvi took Hallie and sat in the front row. She loved it. She says she wants to learn drums, but guitar is her favorite. Maybe she’ll be a music prodigy (although it’s probably already too late for that). The band was a Shlomo Artzi cover band (we don’t know who that is, but the singer of the cover band said he’s the Israeli Bruce Springstein). It was pretty good. My crepe was okay. We got Hallie a cup of whipped cream, so she was happy.

After the crepes we decided to walk back to the hotel because it wasn’t that far, but we forgot it was a lot of uphill. Once back we put Hallie to sleep and then Tzvi went down to the lobby bar to use the vouchers they gave us for free drinks when we checked in. For some reason all of the bartenders are American. Tzvi ordered an old fashioned for himself and some fruity thing for me called a Russian River Punch. The bartender made my drink in a plastic to-go cup with a straw because they’re not supposed to let people take glassware out of the bar, but then he said he made Tzvi’s old fashioned in a real glass because he just couldn’t make it in plastic because it would hurt his pride.

Tzvi brought the drinks back to the room, we took a bath, and then went to sleep.

Tomorrow we’re off to Herzliya!

Israel. Days 1 and 2. The Whole Plane Smells Like Fish.

Here we go.

Wednesday was hectic but not terrible. We left for the airport around 4:15 PM, in the snow. Tzvi fell down in the snow bringing suitcases to the Uber. Unfortunately I didn’t see it.  Hallie fell asleep on the way to the airport. We checked in at the SkyPriority check-in and got through security with no real issues (though they made us take our shoes off even though we had pre-check because the TSA agent didn’t know what she was doing). We bought some stuff at Hudson News, tasted some scotch and then headed to the gate. There was still almost an hour until our flight but they had already started boarding. We took Hallie to pee and they made another boarding announcement. We figured we should just get on. When we got to the gate they told us we would have to gate-check the stroller. We were like, sure and we’ll get it when we get off the plane in Paris.  But NOPE, they said we wouldn’t see our stroller again until we arrived in Israel, but that we’d be able to rent strollers at no charge in Paris. So that was the beginning of the end. They said it was Air France’s policy and there was nothing to do. Great.

We are flying in Air France Premium Economy on an A380. We got on the plane and walked quickly to our seats. It’s amazing how they really make you feel like there’s not an entire planeload of people right under you (the a380 is two floors). We booked two seats by the window and one in the middle, but it ended up that the entire middle row was open. The flight wasn’t full at all. It didn’t matter too much though because the arm rests of the seats don’t go up, so it was really just more space to throw our crap. Once we were settled they had to de-ice the plane, and then we were delayed even more because only one runway was open. So we literally sat there for two hours. That was fun. Hallie kept asking when the food was coming. Obviously when it did, she didn’t eat any of it. The label said pepper steak and mashed potatoes, but it was pretty gross.  Tzvi was upset he didn’t book a regular meal but managed to get the vegetarian pasta dish with cream sauce, which he said was at least edible.  We took off around 8:40pm and the flight was 6 hours and 11 minutes to Paris. Hallie slept maybe 4 hours. I did not.

pretending to sleep

actually sleeping

finally comfortable?

The premium economy was nice because the seats are hard-shells no one can recline into you, but the seats don’t go flat like business, they just kind of slides a little and then there’s a footrest that goes up. They were fine but not the most comfortable and Hallie had a lot of trouble getting comfortable and eventually she just sort of ended up on the floor leaning on her seat.  Also, the people behind us didn’t shut up the entire flight, so that was pleasant. Also, the flight attendants gave Hallie all of the kids toys they had on the plane as a birthday present, so we left with a bag full of more than a dozen small boxes of toys and puzzles, all of which are for ages 5 and up.

We landed in Paris at 9:10am, an hour after scheduled arrival, but really it just meant a shorter layover for us. As we got off the plane I asked about rental strollers and no one had any idea what I was talking about. Then one woman was like “oh, after security.” What she did not say was “after you walk 25 minutes and take a train to your next gate.” It was long. Hallie was crying. Great experience. We finally got through the second security check and still no one knew about the strollers, but then I spotted one in a corner! Victory! We wheeled Hallie to the next gate. People also had these shopping cart looking things that they were using to hold their carry ons, but I couldn’t find any for myself. We stopped at Pret-a-Manger to get some breakfast. Hallie did NOT like the yogurt and wouldn’t try the croissant. The Pret coffee was good. The only thing Hallie did have was a cup of cold milk and whipped cream from Starbucks.  Nutritious breakfast.

We got on our next flight around 11:15 and arrived in Israel at 4:45 local time. Decent flight. We just had regular economy on an a320, so it was basically like a JetBlue flight.  Hallie watched some of Toy Story and slept almost 3 hours. There was a lunch service, but it was gross and I didn’t touch it.  The hot portion was seabass with Mediterranean sauce and pasta.  Tzvi eat three of them and said it was “edible for plane food” but the entire plane smelled like fish and reminded Tzvi of the summer that he worked for his father’s friend doing telemarketing out of the friend’s apartment and every day the guy would microwave fish for lunch.

Once off the plane we made the long walk to passport control without the stroller, got through passport control pretty fast, and got our luggage fairly quickly. Then we had to look for the stroller. We finally found it near the oversize section. Well, it wouldn’t open. It was like something was stuck and there was nothing we could do. Then we heard cracking, so that was a good sign. We managed to get it halfway open and dragged it over to the lost luggage counter to report the damage. The woman said she didn’t work for Air France, but she would write up a damage report that we should submit. I kept trying to open the stroller and finally after another crack it opened. It is now lopsided and probably going to collapse any minute, but at least it’s open. We better get some compensation.

Avner, a driver we’ve used in the past, was already waiting to drive us to Jerusalem, so getting out of the airport to Jerusalem was smooth and easy. In the car we tried to switch Hallie over to Hebrew, but she kept saying “Merci” which she learned during her hour and a half in France.  We’ll get there.

Check in at the Waldorf was easy as well.  We’re here for three nights and had booked one night in the lowest category room and two nights in a grand deluxe room, but because of our status with Hilton they upgraded us to the grand deluxe for the first night as well.  The hotel is very nice as well.  I’d say it’s a typical Waldorf design – everything looks and feels very high-end and blends modern and traditional design features.  Our room is pretty big with a king bed and a big comfortbale chair in corner which has now been removed and replaced by a rollaway bed that is definitely bigger than a twin but still looks smaller than a full.  The bathroom is also beautiful and has a great freestanding tub in the middle of the room.  We have windows that open out to a “balcony” that’s just big enough for one person to stand on, and has views of the old city walls.

We got our bearings and headed to Waffle Factory for dinner. I’ll say the waffles are nice but the service leaves something to be desired. We ordered pizza for Hallie, salad for Tzvi, and I tried to order a custom salad. Two waitresses had to come over to deal with my order and they just couldn’t do it. They couldn’t understand how I wanted to do substitutions and that it would be expensive. I was like…just do it, I’ll pay anything. But nope, they couldn’t get their heads around it. So, I ended up with shakshuka. It was good, but not what I wanted. For dessert we got a waffle with chocolate and vanilla whipped creams, warm chocolate, lotus spread, lotus cookies and oreos. They sent one of the guys over to talk about allergies. Ends up he’s from Colombia and went to YU, graduated in 2014. The waffle was good, but Hallie was pooping when they brought it, so they left me the lighter to do a candle for her birthday when she returned.

After dinner we came back to the hotel and the cot still wasn’t here. Hallie bathed and got ready for bed and it still wasn’t here. Tzvi called again and was like my kid needs to sleep.

After Hallie went to sleep we took a bath and opened our complimentary bottle of wine. That was nice. Smart to drink something dehydrating in a hot bath after 18 hours of traveling. Oh well. Even though we spent the entire day traveling, ending it with that bath and a glass of wine really made us feel like we were on vacation.  Then I went to sleep at Tzvi did some work on the bathroom floor.

1:40 AM.

“MOMMY I WANT TO COME IN YOUR BED.”

 Well, that was it for the next two and a half hours. She peed a few times, cried, walked around, ate some muffin, and finally ended up on the floor next to my bed. Tzvi was snoozing along very nicely. It was rough.

 FRIDAY

Tzvi woke me up at 7:30 panicked that he couldn’t find Hallie, which woke Hallie up. She climbed into our bed and hugged Tzvi.  She said, “I’m cuddling Daddy!” and then about ten seconds later she was out cold.  I went back to sleep. Tzvi laid there awake and unable to move for fear of waking Hallie.  Finally we all got up around 9:15, got dressed, and headed to breakfast.

Breakfast was a standard Israeli buffet. Hot foods, lots of cheeses, breads, pastries, and vegetables.  Really good roasted vegetables.  Avery and Gabriella we were ready the same time so we all ate together. The food was good and it was very nice just sitting. There are two restaurants in the lobby but it’s all pretty open, so it’s kind of just one big space with a glass roof in the middle.  Also I’m pretty sure I saw Jamie Gellar having breakfast with her family. I did not say hello.

After breakfast we walked through Mamilla to the old city. Hallie liked seeing the men playing music. Walking into the old city we ran into Ethan Jesselson and took a picture. The first stop in the old city was iced coffee at Café Neeman. Hallie asked for some seeded bagel thing but then didn’t like it because she didn’t want the seeds.  Like the entire thing was covered in seeds, so I don’t really get why she asked for it in the first place.  Tzvi got a boreka. We walked to hadaya and got Hallie a bracelet to replace the one we bought last time we were here that got lost when the diaper bag was stolen out of our car (or maybe out of a shopping cart (or maybe I just left it in a shopping cart)) at the Stop N Shop in Inwood.

“I just blue myself.”

Anyway, Hallie was hungry so we went to CoffeeBagel to get her a bagel with cream cheese. That’s when it started pouring. Actually, I think it may have been hailing, because it was pretty loud.  We stayed at CoffeeBagel as long as we could and then decided to skip the Kotel due to rain, and walked through the shuk back to Mamilla. It wasn’t fun.

We met my parents in the Mamilla lobby as they checked in. That’s when they found out that the lunch we were supposed to have tomorrow wasn’t a typical Shabbat lunch, but just a regular a la carte restaurant lunch. Mamilla seems to be the least religious of all of the hotels, though we did see a religious man in Feragamo shoes and a Feragamo belt sleeping on a sofa in the lobby, so who knows.

After they checked in we all went to Roladin for lunch. Three of us got tuna salads and my dad got some quesadilla thing. I walked Hallie around in the stroller until she fell asleep. Lunch was fine but once again the waitress didn’t understand the questions so I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, but at least it was closer. 

After lunch we came back to the hotel and explored.  There’s not much to explore.  There’s a “temporary” gym since they’re still building the permanent gym, but we saw people in there who said its been temporary for years. There’s also signs all over that say the spa is on the lower level, but I don’t think they ever built it.  After that we just went back to the room, lounged around, and got ready for Shabbat.

Shabbat shalom!