Israel day 12 – rest day in Tel Aviv

We were certainly looking forward to today!  But before that, here is the sun last night going into the water, as it is supposed to.

We got up at 8am then took the opportunity to Skype Laura, Kris and the boys, just before they headed out to the Aussie Rules.  After breakfast Julie and I together with a lady from the trip, Maritha, waked over the road to hire some bikes from an automated system.  We managed to do this with little fuss, then around 9.45am headed north up the coast as far as the bike path would go. 

 

We rode past the marina which had many cafes with quite a few people in attendance, which seemed enticing but it was too early for a break. On a few more k’s to the north then the path headed away from the beach and we just went with the flow in a big loop coming back south through what might have been the middle of the city but was hard to tell because there doesn’t seem to be a CBD here.  Not much to see apart from huge apartment blocks everywhere and more being flung up all over the place. (Insider joke: “the national bird of Israel is the crane”).

 

It is the Sabbath so not much traffic or people around on the streets.  We looped back towards the coast going through older more run-down areas with narrow footpaths, and ended up at Jaffa where we walked the bikes up the hill and enjoyed a long lunch in a restaurant with great views of Tel Aviv back north along the beach.  Here is Julie deciding what to eat.

It was great to just chill and not feel time pressured.  We left the restaurant about 2.15 then pushed through the crowds thronging the paths back to the bike station.  Just next to this is the adult playground, which is actually an outdoor gym, but it looks pretty funny to see adults sitting on the equipment like kids.

We looked at laying around the pool but as it is only about 23C and windy we decided against it.  Mal decided to try out the hotel gym for a while and Julie came back to the room for a long read of her book in the bath.  We head out tonight for a meal then a visit to a contemporary dance performance.  Nothing makes our minds clang shut faster than the words: “contemporary dance” so we have both resolved to try to keep our minds open and maybe we might even enjoy it! We will update this post when we get home and let you know…………