IKEA

So this morning we woke up and I felt magic, no alcohol the night before obviously is good for you, so I threw myself on the shower, 5 minutes later my get up and go got up an left, how can a shower be so draining.  I have decided that I seriously cannot eat bread, this is not the first time I have felt like this, but it's certainly the worst. So thats it me and bread are no longer friends.

View from the Breakfast table

We took breakfast together in the hotel and watched the lovely view from the window, I think I have now converted My Beloved to yoghurt and melon. We set off for Tel Aviv, GPS was set, and we were heading south. We arrived in Tel Aviv in a blaze of sunshine,  now the trouble as I have said before is Shabbat closes everything down, bar eating establishments. This would also include car parks, so having driven around Tel Aviv at least 20 times in either direction we eventually found a space in the car park of the Geriatric Hospital. We walked to the Azrieli Centre because this is where the best view over the city can be found, well not today, SHABBAT, now when we checked online the restaurant and observatory where open, but not when we arrived. So we headed to the beach, why? because you know that is gonna be open, and thankfully it was and it was heaving with like minded people.

We parked up only to be told by a young woman, YOU CAN'T PARK THERE, its only for American Embassy workers!! and we would know this because we read Hebrew.....so we re-parked in a non-American parking space. We began our stroll along Tel Aviv beach. Oh the sights, there are bikes in Tel Aviv that you can hire, you pays your money, takes your bike, and when you have finished you re-park and your done, they are ace looking bikes too, their are cycle lanes all over the beach promenade and around Tel Aviv too. The sun was lovely and toasty on our backs walking up towards the marina, and suddenly the noise level increased, we discovered a group of about 100 or so men and women dancing on the promenade, it looked like latin american/zumba and was great to watch. Next on the promenade was people playing some kind of bat and ball right across the prom, and that noise was louder than the dancers.

Things quietened down after that as we hit the Marina and the swimming pools on the Promenade, one inside and one outside. The yachts were beautiful and we picked the one we wanted when we win some millions, the trouble with that is you have to be in it to win it, and seeing as we now live outside the UK we can't even get in it to win it.

We settled on a restaurant for lunch and sat at a lovely table inside, the menus were bought over and this is what they read.

LaLa Land served us our lunch and LaLa Beach was actually where we were, although neither of us realised this until we tagged ourselves on Facebook, you have to love facebook, it's so informative. We left LaLa Land, well the restaurant and headed down the beach this time, watching people playing volleyball and working out as we went. Something that I have been seeing alot of since I have been traveling around is workout parks, these funny little parks have equipment set out for exercise that anyone can use, young or old and today the ones we found in Tel Aviv were being utilised to their full potential. There was guys doing chin ups, there were children playing, and there were people dressed for winter all working out.

Tel Aviv is an amazing city, and the buildings were amazing, some of the million dollar apartments over looking the beach were gorgeous, but prior to arriving at the beach we had got a little lost in what can only be classed as down town, now you would have thought we were in Africa, it was an array of colour. But it was also a little intimidating and we decided not to stop and reset the GPS until we were out of the ghetto....especially as we were the only whites in the village.

When we left the beach front, our next stop was Ikea, we travelled round and round and round and round, and we could not find Ikea, not having a sim in the ipad now I couldn't google it, I tired it on the phone but could not get anything that wasn't Hebrew to pop up. We decided today was not the day to visit Ikea and headed home, slightly irritated. On the way home we decided a pit stop was in order, now I like the pit stops in Israel most of them are large shopping areas, and the one we stopped in was no different. So Cafe Bunno it was, two Americano's later and we were on our way again.  The nutters on the road had come out to meet us, you had bikes weaving in and out between, lanes one, two and three, you had cars undertaking, and cars stuck at funny angles on the side of the road, its always exciting being on these Israeli roads, or is it scary, I just can't decide.

After our sunny day I was chilly mainly because the maid had left our window open in our room, we were quite chilly. Walking along the corridor to our room I could feel the breeze coming under the door, and hear the wind whistling around our room all before even opening the door. So I decided I needed soup to warm me up, so it was orange and vegetable soup taken at Habank, and My Beloved took the Pate, I have to say the Pate is rather addictive here.

We finished our evening in the Business Lounge, I was uploading photos from our road trip, My Beloved checking in with work, by the time we hit our pillows we were both very sleepy indeed.