Hummus and Hypercausts

We have just (well, a couple of weeks ago) come back from Israel after a whirlwind 11 days visiting family and being as touristy as we could manage. DH has a lot of relatives in Israel and we have gone several times but not for the last four years, so Daniel was the only one of the kids to have been before (just before he turned 2). 

Long flights with three small children is never going to be relaxing but we all managed pretty well. For a start, we flew from the tiny airport 15 minutes from home, changing planes in Paris. And when I say tiny, I mean about 200 yards from the taxi drop-off to the check-in desk, and the same distance again to the gate. I swear there were more staff than passengers! Coming back, we had a very early start but less than an hour after landing we were home and lunch was cooking, which was utter bliss. Well worth the long layover on the way out and not-quite-long-enough transfer time on the way back. 

First stop, after a day settling in, was the Persian synagogue. It is beautiful... and Orthodox. Which means that I (and all the other women) was upstairs in a gallery, taking no active part in the service, and I had all three kids with me. I didn’t even bother picking up a prayerbook. Keeping two active small boys and a 5 month-old baby quiet, reasonably still, and gainfully occupied for a couple of hours requires a superhuman level of multitasking which definitely does not leave room for following the service with more than half a braincell. Other kids there run in and out of the men’s section and play in the hall but Daniel was too shy and Ben too small. Adam did go and sit with DH and his dad for a bit, and I had an arsenal of peggies and matching cards, story cubes and picture books. Even so, I spent my entire time shushing them... until another toddler suddenly acquired a whistle, which no one rushed to remove from her, at which point I figured I wasn’t doing as badly as I had thought. I even got an approving smile and pat on the shoulder from the Rabbi’s wife, who rules the ladies’ gallery with an iron hand, AND when she came over at the end of the service to find out who I was and where I came from I actually managed to conduct the entire conversation IN HEBREW! This was the first time I’ve had enough Hebrew to cope with a whole (basic) conversation. It was gratifying to know that the intensive study I had done in the couple of weeks before we went had been worth it (I didn’t reach my goal of finishing the Teach Yourself book but managed 10 chapters out of 18). 

Shabbat over, it was time to get out and about. Coming from a part of the UK that is flooded with tourists (known locally as ‘grockles’), I have spent years battling a deep-seated aversion to appearing at all grockly when we go anywhere, but I seem to have finally conquered it and we embraced our grockleness and grockled as hard as we could. 

The excavations at Caesarea were amazing and Daniel was hugely excited by the archaeology. I have always wondered if I was flogging my own interest in history a bit hard for him but here I was just following him around from one place to the next as he enthused about the tiered seating at the side of the arena, mosaics, baths, and hypercaust systems. That made my heart happy. 

In Haifa we visited the incredibly beautiful Bahá’i gardens (the bottom bit, not the near-vertical 45-minute walk down from the very top of Mount Carmel) at the boys’ request, after they saw a picture in one of their books about Israel. We have friends who are Bahá’i and recently went to a Persian New Year celebration with their community, so that tied in nicely. Then off we went to Akko, at a family member’s recommendation, and spent an afternoon exploring the old Crusader citadel. We will definitely be going back on future visits, maybe with an overnight stay to fit more in, but this time we were concentrating on enjoying just a few things rather than packing in so much that everyone was exhausted. Oh, and halva ice cream is a thing. A thing I need more often in my life, so I must try to find a recipe, since travelling all the way to Akko isn’t really very practical on a regular basis. If you do happen to be in Akko, however, go to Endomela on HaHaganah Street. You won’t regret it. 

The following day we spent on the beach in Herzliya Pituach, and I rediscovered some things I had forgotten about it: 

1. The sea is warm. I had forgotten this was possible. Even Ben enjoyed going in. 

2. There are sparrows everywhere but not a single seagull (widely reviled in our part of the world for their tendency to steal food out of people’s hands). This I could live with. 

3. Very pretty orange shells. The kids collected loads, which we then left in a cafe later in the day. Boo. 

Another day, we pootled over to Beit Shemesh to see the stalactites in the Avshalom Caves. Note to self for next time: The English tours are at 11am and would avoid the ear-splitting chaos of endless Israeli school groups. Still, much oohing and ahhing. Then a fantastic evening with DH’s cousins, who have produced several more kids of their own since we last saw them. Adam bonded with the smaller ones over mud pies in the park, while Daniel regaled an adult cousin at great length with tales of dissecting a squid at the aquarium a few weeks before, and his birthday party at the Lego shop. 

Next stop, Jerusalem, with an overnight stay in a very nice hotel, courtesy of my father-in-law. We spent a day at the Israel Museum seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls and other cool things, and then the next day exploring the Old City and visiting the Western Wall. Daniel and Adam went to the men’s side with DH and got to roll a Torah scroll. Ben and I on the (much smaller) women’s side... got to walk up to the wall. Being Friday afternoon, it was quite quiet, but as always I was acutely aware that blokes have a much better deal there. It is a special place with a wonderful atmosphere but the stranglehold of the Orthodox authorities makes it far less inspiring for me than it could be. The shuk was as fascinating as ever and Daniel chose a new menorah and Adam a new kippah. 

The trip ended with a massive party for all the extended family members, with lots of time in the swimming pool. I tried out my Hebrew, then retreated to hide behind their (invariably superb) English, and enjoyed a brief foray into French with an elderly relative who went to an ‘Alliance’ school in Iran 60-odd years ago. If Wikipedia serves me correctly, these were French-speaking Jewish elementary schools set up across the Middle East. It was the best language we had in common so we each dredged up as much as we could from the depths of our memories, knocked off the rust and had an extremely ungrammatical but lovely conversation. My grandmother (a French teacher) would have been proud. 

So that’s about it. The kids enjoyed the apartment complex swimming pool; Adam’s record was 5 hours in one day, Ben’s was an hour and a half. It was fairly cold water but he must have realised that it was the most comfortable he would be all day. The heat was exhausting at times but no one burned (apart from me and DH a bit at the beach - nothing awful). The kids coped extremely well with all the changes and strange people, though the Israeli tendency to fondly ruffle the hair of any passing child horrified Daniel to the depths of his very English don’t-touch-me soul. Story cubes were a great icebreaker for him. We even survived the airport security, including the passport control lady who told us absolutely seriously that we should change our surname so she would know we’re definitely Jewish. 

As usual, I am determined to keep up with my Hebrew and be fluent by the time we next go. We’ll see! I do love visiting Israel - archaeology everywhere, being in a place where Judaism is the norm (from a mezuzah on every door to kosher cafes and restaurants everywhere), the food (I am a certified falafel addict), Israelis’ love for kids (only surpassed by the Italians’), wonderful family and more. Obviously the place has its problematic elements but I am so glad we get to go at least every few years. 

Having said that, it was lovely to get back to manageable temperatures and plenty of green!