Arts and Beaches, Saturday

The Beach at Tel Aviv

Today, of course, is the Sabbath so many businesses are closed during the day or at least through the morning.  Following breakfast we went for a stroll along the beach.  The people of Tel Aviv seem to really enjoy living on the sea.  The beaches were crowded and the eating and drinking places which encroach on the beach itself were packed.  We stopped for a coffee and did some crowd watching.

Beach Umbrellas

The part of the city in which we are staying is very similar to the Gold Coast in Australia or Miami Beach in Florida, at least as it was in the 1950s. 

Some observations.  To take a Taxi in Tel Aviv is to place your life in the hands of a madman.  Never, even in Paris, have we seen such disregard of road rules.  Cars move between lanes with no warning and if anyone slows up they are immediately notified that they have transgressed the unwritten code by loud and raucus horns from those behind them. And yet many people take their lives in their hands and ride bicycles.  These are not just the young, they seem to be a popular mode of transportation for many, regardless of age.  Recently, according to our friend Miriam, Tel Aviv has taken a page from other cities, setting up racks with public-use bicycles which can be rented for reasonable charges.  If you would like to know more about this, Miriam recently did an article on it which can be found at: http://esra-magazine.com/blog/post/tel-o-fun.

"Green" Bikes

Because Israel is constantly under threat, there is a very high and very obvious level of security. We have always thought the level of security in Paris was high, but in Tel Aviv, at the door to the hotel where one would expect to find the Concierge, there is a security guard, a young man armed with a pistol.  It is not uncommon to see members of the Israeli Defence Forces going home for the Sabbath, young men and women, in the streets with serious arms.

It is routine for everybody to pass through security under most circumstances.  When we went to the shopping centre yesterday, we went through a metal detector as well as having to open our bags.  Imagine the outcry in Australia or the United States if you had to do this every time you went to Westfield Plaza.

In the afternoon we went to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art

To go in, we went through the same process with our bags and the metal detector although we were less surprised since this is common in Paris in the galleries and museums although not found in the major London galleries. The museum building is interesting.  The entrance leads into a very large atrium-like space with a huge painting by Roy Lichtenstein on the wall.  The selection of paintings by the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists was surprising with many works we had not seen before.  It is a great collection with many exciting modern works by Picasso, Miro, Modigliani and others.  There is some interesting sculpture at the front of the building as well.

Sculpture outside the Museum

Then it was back to the hotel, dinner on the beachfront and getting ready for tomorrow's expedition to Jaffa.

Dining on the Beach