Tour of Tel Aviv. Daily walk in Tel Aviv Journey to ancient Jaffa
Yesterday we made a forced march through Tel Aviv. We managed to see and feel so many things that I don’t even know how to tell about it all. Every place we have visited deserves its own article, if not more.
We started our journey from the market on Lewinsky street
The first stop was the famous Penso burekas. It's pointless to write about this place. A little bit general information- has existed for about 80 years, the fourth generation of Penso feeds the entire old Tel Aviv with pastries since the time when there was no trace of Israel. The best bourekas in the country without any options, although I don’t come to them because of them, but because of my favorite apple strudel, which they also have home-made, so to speak.
I think it is also worth noting an important fact that a huge burekas and a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice cost us 22 shekels - by today's standards and prices, this is not just cheap, but generally unique.
More about a few famous shuk shops - for example, Naknik Boutique) Sandwiches with pastrami, reminiscent of Ruben in Yehuda HaLevi in size and quality.
No less famous than Penso, Baklava Nazareth is one of the few places in Tel Aviv where you can buy real Arabic sweets like baklava (baklava?) and knafe. By the way, it is kosher and seems to even supply its products to the esteemed Israel Defense Forces, referred to in friendly circles as the IDF.
Unfortunately (and one can also talk about this endlessly - about what is happening in South Tel Aviv), the market looks abandoned. Most of the houses in it are, if not on the verge of destruction, then it is definitely impossible to look at them without pain.
Although some houses are still being restored.
As I said at the beginning, I started, about every place we visited, you can write a book (I think that they have been written). Shuka is still full of everything - the Turkish restaurant Niso (Lewinsky 47), Maadaniyat Yom Tov (famous for its salted fish and anchovies), the Pereg shop selling condiments since 1922 (the oldest place on the market) and so on. Go and explore for yourself - you won't regret it. And we will go further, to the Nachum Gutman Museum.
Before, by the way, it was the house of writers. It was inhabited by Yosef Chaim Brener (before he was killed by the Arabs) Yosef Aaronovich and his wife, one of the most famous Israeli writers of the Baron Court.
Talking about the Gutmann Museum also does not make much sense. I'm ashamed to admit it was my first time there. All hands did not reach.
Self-portrait of a young Gutman from the Tel Aviv Museum.
Now to the museum itself - I like this picture - how the dude pulls the devil out of the well). And this is the artist's father, the famous writer and man Simcha Ben-Zion.
Simcha was one of the first Hebrew teachers in Odessa. He taught at the same school as Bialik and Ravnitsky. Nahum, by the way, painted this trinity more than once.
After the pogroms in Chisinau in 1905, Ben-Zion left for Israel. He organized a kind of "writers' forum" in his house, in which the already mentioned Brener, Yehuda Burla, Alexander Ziskind-Rabinovich (AZAR) and many others took part. He also published a magazine in which, for the first time on the land of Israel, he published a story by Shmil Chachkes. It was the famous short story "Agunot", from which Chachkes took his pseudonym - Shai Agnon. To date, he is the only Israeli laureate Nobel Prize on literature. Concurrently - one of the best writers of the 20th century, the level of Joyce, Kafka and Faulkner.
(The photo is also mine, from the Agnon Museum in Jerusalem). Rumor has it that Shimon Rokah, one of the founders of Tel Aviv, gave the pseudonym to Chachkes after reading Agunot. We went to the house of Shimon Rokah after the Gutman Museum.
The Rokach family is so famous that you don’t even know where to start) In honor of Shimon Rokach, she named the street in Neve Tzedek, on which the house is located. A boulevard in Tel Aviv is named after his son Israel Rokah, a minister in the government of Ben-Gurion. The house itself is also famous for the very original sculptures of Shimon Rokah's granddaughter, Leah Madjaro-Mints.
Rokach's house also has an original dinner table, behind which - as in - sat all the streets of Tel Aviv)
If you do not pay attention to the prohibition signs, you can go up to the third floor (where the artist and sculptor herself seem to live), and politely ask to admire the view from the balcony of the sea and the red roofs of Neve Tzedek.
You can also admire the skyscrapers under construction, but in this case it is less interesting.
I liked it very much! interesting in the right way. Empe. It turned out that only my girlfriend and I signed up. Got a private guide and a very nice walk plus and learned a lot! Thank you!
I really liked the daily tour of Tel Aviv on Fri 27.9! The guide Elena, a highly professional person who loves her land of Israel, managed to convey the difficulties of creating the city of Tel Aviv, spoke about its creators and the features of that time, about important people Tel Aviv today. The guide is not only knowledgeable, but also intelligent, like in the good old days. :) I was pleasantly surprised, thank you!
we were a family, 2 adults, 2 children, the youngest was 3 years old, we were very comfortable - the children were waiting for them when they periodically trudged a little slower for an excursion. The group was small, there were 3 other people besides us. the guide is very interesting, tells such amazing details that you cannot read in the guidebook. very sensitive, constantly asks if everyone is comfortable, offers to sit on a bench while she talks. it was so interesting that instead of the declared 2 hours we skipped 3 (again, the guide was interested in whether everyone was comfortable and if not comfortable, offered to shorten the route, but since no one was tired, even the children, and everyone had time, on the contrary, we increased the route and learned a lot of new and interesting things), we are delighted, thank you!!
It so happened that the tour was conducted for me personally - the group did not gather. The tour was wonderful and very informative. The guide clearly loves his city and country, and this love imbues you. I was shown historical places, referring to facts from the past and based on the present. Due to the fact that both of us were in no hurry, I managed to listen and join the history of Tel Aviv not for 2 hours, but even a little more. The guide refers to "you", does not ask any personal questions, is ready for dialogue and requests or wishes, is very polite and friendly. I recommend Tel Aviv to visit and thank you for the tour. In addition, the system of tips is very developed in Israel and they should always be left to such specialists.
The tour is great! Elena is a wonderful guide! It is evident that the man loves and knows his job. We were worried that it would be difficult to walk in the heat, but everything was more than acceptable. We recommend an excursion - an interesting and informative pastime!
As for the organization, I would like it to be more clear when booking which route the excursion will take on a particular day, and the name of the meeting point in English would not hurt, since we had problems with indicating it when calling a taxi.
I liked the walk very much. Intelligent, knowledgeable guide. He did not load with dry details, but gave information vividly and emotionally. It's nice to hear from someone who genuinely loves what they do.
Thank you!
We continued our acquaintance with Tel Aviv along the blue route in the company of Ekaterina. In Tel Aviv fell in love completely and irrevocably. Many thanks for the professionalism and emotions.
The guide was distracted all the time and corresponded by phone. She told everything as if she was tortured ... and forced to speak. Everything is crumpled quickly and without mood.
Hello!
I want to make two points in your review:
1) the quality of the presentation of the material... We have known the guide who worked with you on the route for a very long time... we know him as a great specialist and connoisseur. She is fluent in the material and knows how to present it well… It’s hard for me to say what exactly was wrong on your particular tour… but knowing our guide, I tend to consider it more as an accident, not the norm… regarding the fact that everything is crumpled and fast – format excursions offer a cursory acquaintance with the city in 2 hours ... Only 2 hours that fly by disastrously quickly ... If you dive into the topics of the excursion in detail, then, alas, the scope of the sightseeing tour is simply not enough. When we were preparing these routes, our task was to select from a huge layer the necessary minimum that would help tourists make an impression of the city. Perhaps the format of a sightseeing tour does not suit you and you should pay attention to more thematic tours.
2) regarding telephone correspondence… I agree with you that this is unacceptable. However, I will try to explain what happened. There should have been more tourists on your tour, but they got lost. And instead of writing directly to the office, they harassed the guide. And the result was a situation that the office did not know about, but the guide decided to help the tourists. Every tourist is important to us, and we do not leave them at a difficult moment. However, I agree that this is not correct in relation to those who were on the tour ... and one could well have acted differently in this situation.
We would like to offer you our apologies. True, it is a pity if our guests leave us with negative emotions. I sincerely hope that this was the only moment of your holiday in Israel and that it did not spoil the impression of visiting Israel.
I walked around Jaffa (nowhere, including in the voucher, it is not specified that we are talking about Jaffa).
These walks are a day in Jaffa, a day in Tel Aviv, and a meeting at the border of cities.
The next day, without an appointment, I walked around Tel Aviv, learned a lot interesting information.
I recommend to everyone!
Undoubtedly, it loses in comparison with other cities and settlements of the country, famous for their ancient monuments. Although walking around Tel Aviv and the old port of Jaffa adjoining it can also reveal many interesting pages from the former life.
Features of staying in the Israeli capital - the opportunity to almost simultaneously get acquainted with cultural and historical sights, spend nights in bars and nightclubs, relax on the Mediterranean coast.
Walking around Tel Aviv Museum
All tour operators note that since the city was founded not so long ago, in 1909, masterpieces of ancient architecture cannot be found here, but local museums keep many artifacts with a history much longer than that of the capital itself. Therefore, one of the days of your stay in can be devoted to trips to museums, the most famous of them:
- Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, which tells about the history of the Jews in different countries, difficulties and their overcoming;
- Eretz Israel Museum, which introduces not only history, but also culture, ethnography, archeology;
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art, a treasure trove of old masters and contemporary classics.
The Palace of Independence adjoins the same company - another mandatory point of excursion routes in the capital of Israel. The palace complex is the pride of every inhabitant, because it was in it that in 1948 the an important event: announcement of the creation of the state.
Journey to ancient Jaffa
The map of the capital shows that two settlements, Tel Aviv and Jaffa, are steadily moving towards each other, have become almost a single city. Jaffa is considered one of the most ancient cities on the planet; it is mentioned in various world legends and myths.
Many tourists, walking around the city, try to imagine Noah, who built his famous ark here, or Perseus, who freed Andromeda. Jaffa is also connected with legends: from here, according to them, the prophet Jonah set off on his journey, and the righteous Tabitha resurrected here.
Jaffa today is a huge tourist center, where everything is for guests, restaurants and bars, art salons and souvenir shops, chic museum collections and no less rich flea markets. It is only important that you have enough strength to see all the interesting points and sights.
Just a short walk around Jaffa and the old part of Tel Aviv (Neve Tzedek and Florentin districts)
The route is basically simple - you can see it on the map. From our courtyard on the street. Ben-Zvi to the Jaffa Flea Market (Shuk a-Peshpishim) and from Jaffa through the old Jaffa railway station to the Neve Tzedek area, from there we return home to our Tel Kabir area through the Florentine area. All this is the southern part of Tel Aviv (Drom Tel Aviv).
In red - our way "there", before the Hebrew lesson, and in blue - back home, there is no photo on the blue line, everything that is posted here is along the red route.
Former source of water (Sabil) for pilgrims, built by Jaffa Governor Abu Nabut in 1815. Here is what Bukvoed writes - I recommend this LiveJournal to everyone interested in the past and present of Israel (http://bukvoed.livejournal.com/105410.html) in my LiveJournal - The coastal part of Palestine had already been occupied several years before by the violent Mehmet Bey Abu Nabut , one of the petty tyrants that abounded in Turkey. He fortified Jaffa, which has an excellent military location, built an embankment with batteries according to the level of the waters and left many terrible memories and two beautiful fountains in this city. Suleiman Pasha, shortly before his death, with the permission of the Porte, sent an army against him and forced him to flee to Egypt (1819)
Abu Nabut, by the way, is a nickname, it means "Father of the club", because our hero constantly walked with a club and did not hesitate to use it (but there was order ...)
Ben-Zvi street, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was born in Poltava and after many adventures became the second president of Israel: he was elected president on December 8, 1952 and remained in this post until his death in 1963. Ben-Zvi believed that the president should be a public figure, and his dwelling - to be modest. For 26 years he lived with his family in wooden house in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem. The state then bought the neighboring house to improve conditions at the presidential residence. In every city in Israel, there is probably a street named after him and his portrait is on the 100-shekel bill.
Abu Nabut Park on the street. Ben-Zvi, this street from the most ancient times was the main route from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and the ancient pilgrims and crusaders and pilgrims of the new time of the 19-20 centuries, of all faiths, upon arrival at the port of Jaffa, walked (or rode) along this road, going up to Jerusalem. Now there are some conceptual figures of the contemporary Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin. And the source fountain is used as a warehouse for park inventory.
But Bookvoed shows old postcard, where this fountain is called the "Source of St. Tabitha" no more and no less! 
Crossroads of Jerusalem Boulevard and St. Ben Zvi, the border of Jaffa and Tel Aviv (since 1950, the cities have been merged into a single municipality). We immediately see the characteristic Jaffa architecture.
And the Jaffa Flea Market (Shuk a-Pishpishim) begins. About him it will be necessary somehow to make a separate report.
And this is Raziel Street, which was Boutros Street (that is, the Apostle Peter) in old Jaffa, at that time - the first financial street of Jaffa, the local Wall Street, now in a very deplorable state, although there are signs of its cultivation. Although what does "Chalki" have to do with it - is it actually a furniture store?
this part is already more cultural - an apartment building after repair
we crossed Jerusalem Boulevard once again and headed towards the interesting district of Neve Tzedek - along the way the old Jaffa railway station. There is no longer a railway here, the station is now a cultural and restaurant center (and, it seems, a museum). But due to the fact that there are several weddings here at once and the shooting of some kind of film, we bypassed the whole thing
and these are the houses of Neve Tzedek (roughly translated - the Abode of Righteousness). Shops, cafes, galleries, a very picturesque area - and it is even older than Tel Aviv, of which it is now a part. Founded in 1887, when 48 families settled outside the walls of Jaffa on the sands of the purchased land. It was more than 20 years before the founding of Tel Aviv.
well, just a city of contrasts ...
Victorian shop, "Alice in Wonderland"
here used to be right in the Citroen store in 1936, it seems to me that I showed it already. Now the car is gone - probably bought ...
earlier in this store they were not allowed to take pictures, now they seem to be not paying attention.
st. Shabazi - the central one in Neve Tzedek and the "House of Tamar" with figurines on the facade (I already put a photo of it) - so here we will focus on the play of light and shadow in the pre-sunset Mediterranean hours.
and I already had this cat - but it is so good
in the gallery shop
Moroccan shop with samovars!
winter flowers of Neve Tzedek (some pink Cthulhus, really)
Photos
Tour of Tel Aviv - Cognitive and gastronomic.
Today, in the station complex on an area of 5.5 hectares, there are 22 restored buildings of different eras. Adjacent to the complex is the Israel Defense Forces History Museum, located on the former site of a British military base. The buildings of the station and the building materials factory, built by German settlers - Templers, have been preserved. The house of Wieland, the owner of the factory, warehouses and an old Arab house have been preserved. There is an information point for tourists on the territory of the complex.
2. Neve Tzedek. The abode of justice.
4. Rothschild Boulevard crosses Nahalat Binyamin Street. Part of Nakhpalat Binyamin Street is pedestrian. On Tuesdays and Fridays, there is a market on this street that sells interesting crafts and souvenirs. Manufacturers themselves often sell, some produce products for sale right on the spot. Bright, beautiful, something to see.
5. Nearby - parallel to Nahalat Binyamin Street - Tel Aviv Carmel Market. In the Yemeni quarter in the market area you can go to a restaurant
