My thoughts on Israel
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:25 am
Those who have read my memorable trips thread will know that I spent a fortnight in Israel in 2009, when I was 17, but given the current situation, I thought I'd elaborate on that a bit, and share my thoughts.
It was a school trip, comprising members of the Upper and Lower Sixth, about 20 of us altogether, plus members of staff. I was in the Upper Sixth, my final year. It was January, the off season I suppose, but we needn't have worried about it being too cold, as it turned out to be one of the hottest places I've ever been. It was certainly cold in the UK, though, but this didn't really hit us until we flew back into Manchester, two weeks later, from Ben Gurion. We had been warned, beforehand, that while getting into Israel was easy, getting out was another matter, and they regularly strip searched tourists who were leaving. While they didn't actually subject us to this, there was definitely a lot of waiting around. I'm still not sure why this was the case, though. Why were they more worried about people leaving, than entering?
We spent the first two days at a hotel in Tel Aviv, which is a busy, modern city, just like any other. The main thing I remember about it is the boardwalk, a long promenade on the coast of the Mediterranean, with a seemingly endless row of outdoor restaurants and bars, and a whole load of delicious, tempting smells of food. It was impossible to choose which one to go in, so we just went in one at random. A guy at the entrance, fairly young, I think, said something to me in Hebrew, so I said, I'm sorry, I don't speak Hebrew, and without skipping a beat he switched immediately to flawless English, and took us to a table, and was really attentive to us the whole time we were there. We must have seemed like complete fishes out of water, having split off from the main group, four blind English girls, still in our school uniforms, at that point. Hearing about all the recent missile attacks on Tel Aviv, I couldn't help thinking about that time, and how friendly and helpful he was to us.
From Tel Aviv we took the bus to Eilat, in the extreme south of the country, and this is where the heat really hit us. The bus journey took us through the Negev Desert, and my ears popped, as we went though it, as we were apparently below sea level. We stopped for a break on the way at a small group of shops with a McDonald's, where I got a large coke. It was quite an eerie experience standing outside, in the desert, a sense of complete, desolate isolation and emptiness, despite the nearby shops. In Eilat we stayed at a hotel called Migdal Towers, which is, of course, a tautology, as migdal means tower, in Hebrew. Eilat was our base for most of the time we were there. On one of the days we took a boat trip on the Red Sea, as far as the Egyptian border, then back to Eilat. It was an old fashioned boat with a wooden deck, on which they had laid out a whole load of really nice food, olives, sun dried tomatoes, all good healthy stuff. On another day we went to a place, a little outside Eilat, called Dolphin Reef, a dolphin sanctuary on the shore of the Red Sea, and we swam with the dolphins. On another day we were supposed to go to the famous rock city of Petra, just over the border in Jordan, but we were advised not too, as tensions were high, at the time. And a lot of the rest of the time, we just lazed around on the beach and in the sea, sampling lots of different restaurants, and so on. I particularly liked all the different seafood you could get.
It goes without saying that Israel is a completely secular, Western country, but there are, nevertheless, a lot of devout Jews there, as I found out at the hotel when I realised that the lifts were going up and down, doors opening and closing, but no one was getting in or out. I asked our guide about this, and she said that since it was a Saturday, the sabbath, devout Jews were not allowed to press the button to call for a lift, as this was considered to be work, so the lifts were laid on for them.
We spent the final two nights in Jerusalem, at a hotel on the Mount of Olives, the cellars of which were apparently built by the Knights Templar, as I was recently reminded when I started reading a novel about them. I found the Old City very claustrophobic, all enclosed and full of people. We also spent a bit of time at the Hebrew University, since the trip, ostensibly at least, was supposed to be educational.
Anyway, this has turned out to be a pretty long post, but I do like writing travelogues, as some here may have noticed. Israel is a really interesting place, full of friendly people, and I sincerely hope that it all turns out well for them, as I'm sure it will.
It was a school trip, comprising members of the Upper and Lower Sixth, about 20 of us altogether, plus members of staff. I was in the Upper Sixth, my final year. It was January, the off season I suppose, but we needn't have worried about it being too cold, as it turned out to be one of the hottest places I've ever been. It was certainly cold in the UK, though, but this didn't really hit us until we flew back into Manchester, two weeks later, from Ben Gurion. We had been warned, beforehand, that while getting into Israel was easy, getting out was another matter, and they regularly strip searched tourists who were leaving. While they didn't actually subject us to this, there was definitely a lot of waiting around. I'm still not sure why this was the case, though. Why were they more worried about people leaving, than entering?
We spent the first two days at a hotel in Tel Aviv, which is a busy, modern city, just like any other. The main thing I remember about it is the boardwalk, a long promenade on the coast of the Mediterranean, with a seemingly endless row of outdoor restaurants and bars, and a whole load of delicious, tempting smells of food. It was impossible to choose which one to go in, so we just went in one at random. A guy at the entrance, fairly young, I think, said something to me in Hebrew, so I said, I'm sorry, I don't speak Hebrew, and without skipping a beat he switched immediately to flawless English, and took us to a table, and was really attentive to us the whole time we were there. We must have seemed like complete fishes out of water, having split off from the main group, four blind English girls, still in our school uniforms, at that point. Hearing about all the recent missile attacks on Tel Aviv, I couldn't help thinking about that time, and how friendly and helpful he was to us.
From Tel Aviv we took the bus to Eilat, in the extreme south of the country, and this is where the heat really hit us. The bus journey took us through the Negev Desert, and my ears popped, as we went though it, as we were apparently below sea level. We stopped for a break on the way at a small group of shops with a McDonald's, where I got a large coke. It was quite an eerie experience standing outside, in the desert, a sense of complete, desolate isolation and emptiness, despite the nearby shops. In Eilat we stayed at a hotel called Migdal Towers, which is, of course, a tautology, as migdal means tower, in Hebrew. Eilat was our base for most of the time we were there. On one of the days we took a boat trip on the Red Sea, as far as the Egyptian border, then back to Eilat. It was an old fashioned boat with a wooden deck, on which they had laid out a whole load of really nice food, olives, sun dried tomatoes, all good healthy stuff. On another day we went to a place, a little outside Eilat, called Dolphin Reef, a dolphin sanctuary on the shore of the Red Sea, and we swam with the dolphins. On another day we were supposed to go to the famous rock city of Petra, just over the border in Jordan, but we were advised not too, as tensions were high, at the time. And a lot of the rest of the time, we just lazed around on the beach and in the sea, sampling lots of different restaurants, and so on. I particularly liked all the different seafood you could get.
It goes without saying that Israel is a completely secular, Western country, but there are, nevertheless, a lot of devout Jews there, as I found out at the hotel when I realised that the lifts were going up and down, doors opening and closing, but no one was getting in or out. I asked our guide about this, and she said that since it was a Saturday, the sabbath, devout Jews were not allowed to press the button to call for a lift, as this was considered to be work, so the lifts were laid on for them.
We spent the final two nights in Jerusalem, at a hotel on the Mount of Olives, the cellars of which were apparently built by the Knights Templar, as I was recently reminded when I started reading a novel about them. I found the Old City very claustrophobic, all enclosed and full of people. We also spent a bit of time at the Hebrew University, since the trip, ostensibly at least, was supposed to be educational.
Anyway, this has turned out to be a pretty long post, but I do like writing travelogues, as some here may have noticed. Israel is a really interesting place, full of friendly people, and I sincerely hope that it all turns out well for them, as I'm sure it will.