Day 4 – Wednesday 26th March

Chagall and Yafo {Joppa}

After breakfast we caught a taxi to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art [ILS42]. We had to enter via a Security scanner and our bags were checked. We also had to hand in our cameras prior to going to the Collections. It is a huge building with very high ceilings and ramps to access some of the exhibits. As we were wandering around, Ginny remarked that when they were in the Guggenheim in New York, she walked around a corner, and there was a Chagall, and wouldn't it be funny if it happened again... Within a few moments, it did. There were nine works along two walls. We spent a while looking at them. I must have made a comment that I love his colours, but not the style of his paintings, as one of the Security ladies, told me that the Old Masters are downstairs. She picked up on that well. There is a painting of Chagall's that I did like. It is The Wailing Wall and was painted in the early 30s. It is more sombre in tone than his usual style, and I found myself drawn to it in a way I haven't found with the other works. There was another Chagall in a different collection, that Ginny hadn't seen before.

They also had Rodin bronzes, which were exceptional, naturally. It is a large museum with many different facets of the art world represented – some I appreciated, but there are some installation pieces which are frankly, disturbing. I didn't spend any time with those once I realised that they were not what I consider to be art.

After having a juice and a rest, we went to find the Old Masters. In a room near-by they have boxes cut into the walls with a large number of miniature rooms decorated in different styles – Renaissance, French Provincial, Queen Anne, Georgian, Victorian, etc. It was fascinating. I commented that it was unusual to have to stoop so low to look in the rooms, and was quickly told not to complain about having to stoop. Well, yes, I guess when you are closer to 6 feet than to 5, it is a bigger issue. I realised later that they were low due to the children who visit the museum.

In the Gift Store at the entrance, I had bought a card with a work by Maurycy Gottlieb – Day of Atonement. We went into one room and the original was on the wall. It is very large, and his detail and use of colour is beautiful.

It was now nearly 1:00pm, so we decided to head to Jaffa. We had originally planned to walk along the waterfront, and thought we could get a bus to the water, and walk from there. Glenn asked the Security Guard which bus we needed, and where to get off. After waiting for the #82 bus for 10 minutes or so, and having had three #18s go past in that time, we decided to take a taxi to the Market in Jaffa. The taxi driver asked if we knew the fare, and I said, don't you have a meter? He said Yes, why not use that? I said that would be good. It cost ILS31.50.

The Flea Market is an experience. There is a lot of stuff set out on the ground, as well as on tables. A lot of it is what we would term junk, but to people who haven't got a lot of money, it would be a cheap way to obtain some household items, tools, clothes, shoes, etc. It was quite sad really. The buildings are shabby with gaps and rusted wiring. Glenn couldn't believe that there seemed to be no council regulations they needed to abide by to fix them up.

We walked into the shopping area, and Ginny bought a fruit smoothy. Afterwards we started walking towards the Visitor Centre and Museums at the top of a hill. As we approached a restaurant, a woman asked us if we wanted to try the best falafel in Israel. As it was past time for lunch, we decided to try felafel, which is the Israeli fast food, even though it did not originate here. She brought out dishes of tahini, hommus, tomato and cucumber, and lettuce, and a plate of pita bread. The felafel arrived with chips. The hommus is the best we have ever tasted, very smooth and creamy, and the felafel tasted really nice.

We visited the Church of St Peter, which is lovely inside with pastel coloured marble. We wandered around for a little while, and then decided to head back to Tel Aviv. We didn't hurry, and it took us about an hour to reach our hotel. There is a footpath almost the whole way along the water between the two towns.

We had dinner, and then there was a meeting for everyone on the tour. The other members had arrived that afternoon, and are mainly from the US. We were told we would have an early wake-up call, and the bus would leave at 8:00am.