Kid day in Luzerne

The smart helpful matron of our hotel suggested we go to this park--the Lido beach on the north side of Lake Luzerne. It was kind of the opposite of "bricha amcha." Clean and lovely with very clear rules: it was verbotten to enter the pool without showering. The lake was cold but refreshing and Akiva and I swam out to a big floating raft and hung out with the big kids.


The boat ride back to the center of Luzerne at sunset was worth the wait.

Arriving in Luzerne

Here we are on the train from Zurich to Luzerne at around noon having been up since 2am. Photo taken by a nice couple from Austin who looked much less destroyed than us even though they'd just flown all the way from Texas.
Luzerne is total postcard bait. Hard to take a bad picture here.
Revived by beer and Coca Cola we went on to the loveliest lakeside park. I guess we passed some historical sights on the way but keeping the kids happy with swimming and ice cream was the order of the day.

Bricha Amcha

Well, I'm going a bit backward in time here but we just had to tell you about some of our ludicrous last days in Israel. This is a little spring fed pool across the road from an army base that we found with the help of our new friend, Fay and by cell phone, her friend Moshe Tov. Fay had never been to these pools and we were led, getting lost a few times, by several phone calls to Moshe Tov. Finally we found in the midst of an agricultural area a little grove of trees. In the middle of this grove of trees were these little concrete pools. The pools were surrounded by Israelis of all stripes, a couple of tents, some making coffee, a bunch of guys on dirt bikes--this is "amcha"("your people".) This was all accompanied by a fair amount of debris and trash and no facilities whatsoever.
As Sammy said, "This is not like our pool in West Orange."



We had a lovely shabbat dinner hosting the potter Daniel (see earlier post) and his wife Helen and Fay and Moshe Tov. On Sunday we had another crazy day driving around with Fay getting lost and finally finding a beach around sunset. We made it back to Fay's moshav at around 10pm where we all slept for a few hours until this crazy, nice woman got up at 2am to drive us to Ben Gurion airport. The glaring lights of the Duty Free store and the 30 shekel McDonald's Happy Meals (no toy, no explanation; can this be called a Happy Meal?) made sure no one was going back to sleep. So on to Switzerland.
Note guys on dirt bikes. They could not stop 20 feet away but had to roar right up to the edge of the pool.

On to Switzerland

Well the title of our blog should really change. We are no longer in Medinat Yisrael, we are in Medinat Suisse. And we have wasted many superlatives up until now because the mountains and lakes and the toilets are all amazing. It was really rough leaving Israel even though we had an incredibly generous 2 a.m. ride to the airport from our new friend, Fay. The kids did not really sleep again. So you can imagine how rough some portions got. The low point was probably when while collecting our luggage in Zurich we realized we had lost an inconsequential little duffle bag containing an aluminum water bottle, some extra kid clothes... and cute little beaded bag containing my driver's license and credit cards. We decided not to sweat it figuring it probably got blown up at Ben Gurion or something.

After changing our minds 3 times about (and returning and refunding) what rail pass to buy (we were REALLY tired) we got our selves on a train to Luzerne and the oohs and aahs have not stopped. We will be home so soon; its very strange.

Anyway, the fact is that if I told you all the things we did today it would take me an hour and its already midnight. Must go to sleep and dream of a plan for tomorrow, our last day of sightseeing.

Scenes from Klezmer

So we are fortunate enough to be in Tsfat during the huge Klezmer Festival
or just "Klezmer" as everyone calls it. Unfortunately the festivities start at 8pm and we haven't found any babysitters so we've missed a lot of the craziness that gets kicking up later into the evening. Tonight Elliott bravely managed to keep the kids out late and I met them in time for the 10pm fireworks. Then we enjoyed a little 3 piece that had set up on a small plaza/balcony thing. They actually played something like Irish music. Totally different from all the wailing clarinets everywhere. I should have talked to them but it was really nice to just sit with limp children and listen.


This first photo is of a guy who did magic and music for kids. It was earlier in the evening but did not captivate Akiva and Sam much.




They did like checking out the Na Nach Nachman kid though.



My favorite part of Klezmer is just checking out all the crazy stands of stuff for sale. There are the predictable hot dog, cotton candy and popcorn stands; but also beer (including an Israeli microbrew,) and I don't mean a big licensed beer tent, I mean folks who hoofed it down to the supermarket and bought some Goldstars and put them in a cooler. Scarves, tie dye. Plenty of kabbalah doodads and religious gear. Big Moroccan pancakes made on a pillow. Some kind of ironing board cover that is supposed to make ironing safe (saw lots of people buying this.) Some enterprising young men were able to stretch many extension cords to get power to a "hurva" ruin at the edge of the old city. There I watched them setting up pillows and hookahs. Looked pretty swank.
I just dig the free-for-all nature of it. We were going to set up a lemonade stand and donate the proceeds to something good. But alas, tonight was the last night of Klezmer and we never got our startup launched. Maybe next year.

Potting with Batya

Akiva and Sam got to learn a little about potting today. It was really pretty amazing. They had a great time. Their teacher Batya Erdstein does beautiful work and was really a terrific teacher with the kids. The studio was itself pretty cool. It was in an old cistern below their home.

More from Tsfat, the mystical city.

To the left is a picture of the home we have been staying in here in Tsfat. Below is a photo of the family before Shabbat in the courtyard. Even though we are all a little bit travel weary and ready for home, we have really been enjoying Tsfat. The community here is extremely welcoming, especially because we come with introductions from the family who is renting to us. Earlier in the week Akiva and Sam got invited to participate in a Kitana - a kind of home based summer camp program. Though we couldn't just drop them off it was really good for them to get to play with other kids who all spoke English. We got really wonderful Shabbat invitations and had a very warm Shabbat.

Yesterday morning I invited the kids to join me in going the Ari's Mikveh - ritual bath. I spent a long time talking with Sam about what a "spiritual bath" meant. He wanted to know if might be a good remedy to the minor destruction he and his brother inflicted earlier in the week by biting into yoga blocks that were stored in their room. The water, in this ancient mikveh which is said to have been used by the Ari, a great 15th century Kabbalist who introduced the custom of Kabbalat Shabbat, comes from an underground spring and is quite cold. Sam only went in up to his belly. Kiva went all the way. They both really liked it and want to go back.
Last night we walked through the streets of Tsfat for services. Every other block is a synagogue filled with worshipers. Often the singing and prayer spills out into the various alley ways. I spent some time dancing in the street with Sam on my shoulders, outside a famous Charlbach minyan. At one point he said, "Aba I am really glad we came here. Its fantastic." He said this loud enough for some of the black hats near by to overhear and smile at me. Then he whispered in my ear so only I could hear, "I was being sarcastic." Oy the sense of humor.

We had a late night Shabbat dinner with Daniel and Hellen Flatauer. Our kids had spent a fair amount of time in Daniel's studio watching him throw pots. They were great hosts, with toys and books for the kids and fascinating stories about their lives and what brought them tot Tsfat. You should check out Daniel's work www.haaripottery.bolgspot.com It was a real treat.

We had lunch today at Joy and Evan's, who had a full Shabbas table and two kids a little younger than ours. It turned out Joy and I know each other from UCSC when she had dreadlocks and went by the name Cheyenne. They moved here two years ago.

Finally after a little rest at home we went to Seuda Shlishi at David and Miriam Friedman's. We had also visited David's studio http://www.kosmic-kabbalah.com/ earlier in the week and bought some of his really amazing Kabbalah inspired art work. I also got to sit in on a Kabbalah class he offers once a week which was a real treat. Again it couldn't really have been better to have such a warm and interesting welcome. For me at least it was one of the nicest and most traditional Shabbatot I have had in a long time.

The combination of art, Jewish spirituality and just the over all vibe of the city is really quite attractive. Also more than in Tel Aviv you can feel a different pace of life here. While I imagine the community here might sometimes seem quite small, it also feels quite genuine. I am tempted to say it is a city I could live in.

This week the kids will get a pottery class, Sarah will check out a yoga class, we have a short tour planned, more art and Kabbalah and 3 nights of Klezmerfest, the biggest Tsfat party of the year.

Gettin' mystical in Tsfat

I am amazed that I have any more "wow"''s left in me but I think Tsfat rates a wow so far. Somehow I think travel fatigue and some naysayers along the way had prepared us for being really bored and alienated here. But it's been a very refreshing change. First of all the mountain air is clear and dry and (in the mornings and evenings) cool. Second, Tsfat is a place where the Jewish tourist really has a job to do. (Beyond just spending money.) You feel wanted and welcomed here. They've been expecting you.


We painted hamsas at a lovely paint-your-own pottery place --Art Lishma. The kids got to play a little soccer with some local kids. And we've had two meal invitations.

Tsfat

We arrived in Tzfat today, got situated in our house and left. We have the rental car until tomorrow so we decided to head for the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). We had to bribe the kids to get them back in the car. They really just wanted to stay put for a while, but we knew that we would have enough staying put in Tsfat. Anyhow they really loved swimming in the Kinneret. Sarah and I loved it a little less. The lake was, well - lakey. Gooey mud and pointy rocks. But it was beautiful watching the sun go down and the colors of the sky change against the background of the Golan. The place we went swimming was also pretty cool in its own way. Very mellow. Only a handful of families. Mixed Arab and Jewish. It had a kind of working class, multi-cultural vibe and was very far from Tel Aviv. Tomorrow I (ET) got back to Tiberias to return the rental car and take a bus back to Tsefat. Pictures to follow.

Full of Nazareth

It's really late but I am still up digesting a great dinner we had at Tishreen in Nazareth's Old City. Gadi, the manager of Fauzi Azar arranged for his sweet littlest sister to babysit for us. Even though she had already been through a crazy morning shift with them, Alda agreed to come back and reported that they were "angels". In all other ways she appeared perfectly sane and truthful. This morning she watched them while we took a walking tour with Annika. We really enjoyed the coffee roasting shop where we tasted "wedding coffee", which if I understood correctly, is brewed for 3 days. It was really strong and I would need a word beyond bitter to describe the flavor. It may be why I am still awake. I also spent a lot of time and actually went back to a spice shop where we purchased freeke (yes, pronounced "freaky") which is roasted green wheat. I also bought freeke spice so when we are in our house in Tsfat we will try to make something similar to the real thing we had at Tishreen. I'll report back on that.

Old Camp Swig Friends

So as I was shopping with Kiva for party favors in the shuk for his B-Day party, I bumped into our friend Osnat from Camp Swig who we hadn't seen in 14 years. Still I recognized her immediately behind her small table of hand made Jewelry at Nachalat Bin Yamin. Delighted to see each other we made plans to get together. Here you see Freda who was also at Camp Swig with us.

Here is Osnat.






















Like so many thoughtful Israelis, they brought Bamba a peanut butter puff snack that our kids always appreciate. This by the way is Banana Beach just North of the Dophinarium.

Heading to Nazareth

We hit the road today in our little Subaru hatch back. Our car was kind of small and as you could see there wasn't much room for luggage. But sometimes a suitcase can make brothers closer. Driving in TLV was a little wild. In minutes I was honked at and Israeli drivers lived up to their reputation as some of the world craziest. In truth however this was just a warm up for the drivers in Nazareth where almost no rules seemed to apply. I had no choice but to drive over street median, down impossibly narrow and steep streets and finally up a stone staircase to our parking space.

Sarah promised photos of Fauzi L. Azar Inn. Here you see the kids playing after the long drive.

The walls are incredibly high.

This is the common room just outside our room. For more about this great guest house visit the link below http://www.fauziazarinn.com/