Israel Trip Summary

The weekend trip to Israel was great.  Aside from the two rocket attacks everything in Tel Aviv was fine.  I ♥ the Iron Dome!!   And the beach was awesome!!  Except for the beach, I enjoyed Jaffa more as it had much more history to it.

Jerusalem was a good day trip.  Just enough to get the feel of things but many more days are needed in order to do it right.  Especially since we couldn't visit Temple Mount due to security issues on the day we went.

Israel isn't exactly the cheapest place to visit.  Prices are way better in Czechland.  But the €7 frozen mint lemonade on a hot day is so so worth it.

There were lots of differences between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  This weekend made me realize that I need another 10 to 14 days to go back to Jerusalem and see the rest of Israel and Palestine.

The list of places for future visits include Haifa, Nazareth, Beersheba, Eilat, Galilee, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Ramallah and the Dead Sea.

One of the cool things is that Israel no longer stamps passports.  Instead you receive a ticket that is used instead of the stamp.  It's a free souvenir and prevents future travel hassles.  An Israeli passport stamp would prevent entry to Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and the U.A.E.  All of which are on the list of places to visit sooner or later.

Overall it was a super visit and Yad Vashem was outstanding.  Things looked way worse on the news then what we experienced.  I made sure to post daily Facebook updates so that everyone knew we were safe.  We made it back to Prague on Monday, all safe and sound, prior to the Tel Aviv airport being closed.