Our Summer in Israel: Bauhaus and Chocolate

A short blog entry tonight for a low key shabbat in Tel Aviv...

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast and didn't head out until after 10:00. We met up with a city tour of Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv. According to the guide, Tel Aviv the majority of buildings in Tel Aviv are built in the Bauhaus style, which makes it an important distinction for this type of architecture. The tour started with a very interesting history of the city, and then took us to several buildings on and around Rothschild Boulevard that were built in this function over form, very practical international style. We also saw one older building in a more ornate style with a detachable roof so part of the house could be used as a sukkah at sukkot. Abe, being an architect, of course loved the tour. The kids mostly got a kick out of saying the word "bauhaus," and applying it to anything cool ("That is such a bauhaus sculpture"), and had fun walking around the city seeing cool things. One cool thing they found was a water machine designed to refill plastic water bottles. Many of the boulevard in TA have tree shaded promenades down the middle and Rothschild is a prime example of this, so it was mostly a nice shady walk in a pretty part of town.

Just by good fortune, the tour began and ended right around the corner from the famous Max Brenner's chocolate restaurant. So, we feasted on chocolate for lunch (Ella got a milkshake, Jonah a chocolate pizza, I got a bread and spread platter [with chocolate, pesto, labneh, jam, etc, and Abe got cake and cappuccino, and everyone willingly shared with Sylvia). Very, very tasty!!

We tried to walk around the Neve Tzedek neighborhood after that, but mostly everything was closed for Shabbat, so we decided to come home and take it easy instead. A relaxing afternoon, catching up on some work, and dinner at home (with lots of vegetables to make up for lunch!).

We're looking forward to welcoming the Golds tomorrow!!