the longest 40 miles in the world.
Today's itinerary:
Just try to get into the Knesset, peasant
The Sorek caves
The Armored Corps Memorial
Tel Aviv once more
Sleeping, mainly
We went back to the Knesset, since Thursday and Monday are the tour days. We got to the office just a little too late, beaten by a pack of noisy, screaming schoolchildren. Not surprisingly, there's heavy security at the Knesset, so we had to wait 45 minutes for the pack o' children to be processed. We finally got to the front, and the guard said the next tour in English was not in 15 minutes (as Micky had said) but at 2pm.
So much for the Knesset.
From Jerusalem we started west. Our first visit was the Sorek caves, a cave of stalactites and stalagmites that are still growing. The educational film we saw after (instead of before) was on par with educational film strips of the 60s, but the caves were amazing. They're evidently unusual in that they're still growing.
The caves were swarming with Israeli teenagers on a school trip. It struck me as weird that these kids were in school on New Year's Eve. Then Darin pointed out that they'd just had a week (or more) vacation for Hanukkah. And given that this is a nation built around the 6-day workweek, I wouldn't be surprised if a two-week year-end break was all they wanted. Besides which, they have their own New Year's holiday anyhow.
After the caves we drove the Armored Corps Memorial, a museum to the tank forces of Israel's Defense Forces. They had a video for us to watch as well about the Armored Corps. I could have done without the guy boasting he was sure this Memorial would become Israel's largest tourist attraction.
They also have every model of tank Israel has used (starting with a regular ol' truck in the War of Independence) and models of tanks they captured from their neighbors.
A tank, split in half, so you can see what it's like inside. (It's tiny.)
Next to the rows of tanks is the wall of names, on which the name of everyone who's died in combat for the Armored Corps is named--without rank. Which is pretty neat. I mean, as a memorial. It's reminiscent of our Vietnam Memorial--was that the first of its kind?
We had lunch nearby--I had a pita filled with hummus, pastrami, and french fries--we finally headed back to Tel Aviv.
Where Darin and I fell asleep at 6 and woke up at 7 the next morning. Mitch and Scott also slept. Carole and Steve went back to Cafe Regata, the same place we'd eaten when we were first in Tel Aviv.
Some way to celebrate the New Year, eh?
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Copyright 1998 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com