mandess.com - My tourist guide to Israel

The Nahum Gutman Museum of Art

Ilan — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:09:18 +0000

Located in Neve-Zedek neighborhood in Tel-Aviv, the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art was opened on May 3rd 1988 by the Nahum Gutman Society and the Tel Aviv Foundation, in the presence of Israeli President Ezer Weizman. The entire museum collection was donated by the artist’s family who wished to illuminate Nahum Gutman’s multi-dimensional character and portray him as painter, illustrator, sculptor and children’s author, thus allowing the public to become acquainted with his oeuvre.
The museum’s first director and founder was the late writer and curator Yoav Dagon. The museum was established in a historical house, built by the Schulman family in 1887, one of the first 48 houses forming the nucleus of Neve-Zedek.
The museum exhibitions create a meeting space between Gutman and young Israeli contemporary artists, creating a cultural dialogue between old and new works of art.The visit to the museum exposes the visitor to a wide range of Israeli artistic endeavor, including an inner cultural dialogue between the different eras and perspectives. The fact that Gutman drew both Tel Aviv and Jaffa, portraying Jews and Arabs with the same amount of love and interest, provides us with a wonderful tool for the teaching of tolerance as well as a cross-cultural meeting place.
The Nahum Gutman Museum of Art is funded by the Tel Aviv/Jaffa Municipality, the Ministry of Education’s Cultural Affairs Bureau and private donors.

Haifa International Flower Exhibition 2012 / April 7th – 14th

Ilan — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:39:11 +0000

With the coming of spring and blossom, during the Passover period, the mythological flower exhibition is returning to Haifa. 19 years after the first “flower show” took place, Haifa is proud to host the largest flower exhibition to ever take place in Israel.

Spread across 30 acres of exhibition space at Hecht Park, at the southern outskirts of Haifa, nine breathtaking “Flower Worlds” will be exhibited. Each world is impressively large and spectacular in their rich and colorful beauty with a scent to intoxicate. Each of these worlds is dedicated to a unique theme: Flower World, Paris Boulevard, The Hanging Gardens, Land of the Rising Sun, Wild World, Senses Land, Fantasy Land, Never land, and the Vanishing Garden.

The exhibition’s visitors, who are welcome to stroll through the “flower worlds”, will experience a breathtaking sensory delight of soft scents, nature, sights and colors that are unique to the exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the general public from 10:00 – 22:00 in the evening at which point, as the dark descend, an enchanting light display will illuminate the park.

A vast team of Danish artists and flower designers will be coming to Israel especially to create the “Flower Worlds” and to realize the exhibition. This is in addition to the over 500,000 flowers that are being shipped in for the exhibition from the far reaches of the planet to be exhibited alongside local Israeli produce.

Work has already started in preparation and with much enthusiasm by Israel’s leading flower designer, Benzi Gil, in collaboration with his Dutch partner Alexander Zilmans. Co-owner of ZUIDKOOP, an internationally acclaimed flower design company, Zilmans is one of the world’s leading and award winning flower experts. He has founded a school for flower design in Taiwan and is responsible for various international flower shows. His expertise lies in designing arrangements for large-scale events such as family, diplomatic, and royal events and can boast designing the Iceland summit for Gorbachev and Reagan.

Alongside the “Flower Worlds” will take place various artistic activities, exhibits, and outdoor events for the whole family. Furthermore, there will be a sculpture and herb garden, flower carpets, topiary gardens, a flower market, planting and seeding workshops, environmental workshops and more.

April 7th – 14th 2012 Opening Hours: 10:00 – 22:00

www.haifaflower.co.il

Upper Galilee trek – optional plan including Keshet Cave and Monfort Fortress

Ilan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:41:57 +0000

Keshet cave - Click to enlarge

Galilee is the greenest area of Israel. It is hilly with many historic sites, carefree scenery, recreational and gastronomic offerings for tourists.

This post is an optional plan that is suitable for one or two days in the Galilee area, weekend or middle of the week.

Day 1 , Saturday:

Visiting Adamit Park - the Keshet Cave and Garden Trail.
Visiting the Pottery fair at Vradim Village.
Checking in our wooden house at Elkosh village.
Dinner at Hurfeish village.

we woke up early and left Tel Aviv at 10:00 heading for the north. Our first attraction to visit was the Adamit park, 400 meters above sea level (click here to open a map) in which you can see the Keshet cave and walk the “Garden trail” and more.

The trail for the Keshet cave is paved and suitable for all walkers and even a wheel chair which allow you to get a few meters from the magnificent Keshet (arc), and takes 15 minutes to get there. There are signs and a paved parking lot. There are toilets and drinking water too.

From there we went to a nice pottery fair in Kefar Vradim. We saw nice hand made pottery, sculptures, Judaica, Pitchers and cups. We bought two cups and a pitcher.

Our Wooden house in Elkosh

We then headed to our room at Elkosh village not before we stopped at Hurfeish village which is a few minutes drive, to eat. We sat down at one of the places for a lamb Sambusak (like a pita bread with minced lamb meat on it), Salad and Tea.
After that, we headed to our cozy room at Elkosh village.

Day 2 , Sunday:

Breakfast in the garden
Visiting the Dalton winery which is located at a town called Dalton. The winery is at the industrial area number 3. Dalton is close to Gush-Halav village. You can take a
Goren Park – Observation of the Monfort Fortress. An easy 5 minute walk on a paved trail, suitable for all ages.
Goren Park – Going down the valley for the Kziv river, takes about 45 minutes one way. Difficulty level – medium to difficult.

We started day 2 with a breakfast in our garden, and we then headed to Dalton winery for a tour. We had wine tasting inside the visitors center. Israel is known for it’s good red wines, which is what we tasted. Two wines I can recommend were the Cabernet Sauvignon and The Shiraz. They are very good red wines, that are aged in wooden barrels.

Monfort Castle

We then headed to the Montfort Fortress (Hebrew: מבצר מונפור‎, Mivtzar Monfor) which is a ruined crusader castle, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of the city of Haifa and 10 miles (16 km) south of the border with Lebanon.
The site is now a national park inside the Kziv nature reserve, and it constitutes an important spot of tourism and attracts many tourists both from inside and outside Israel. The Kziv river flows all year long.

There is a choice of 4 to 6 hour trek, but we came at 13:00 which would of been too tight, as it gets dark at around 17:30 in October. So, we just stopped at the Monfort observation and then followed the unpaved road (1km) east and a bit up to the Ein Tamir “Olives” parking lot, which is the Kziv river trek starting point .
We follow the trail marking and went down the mountain to the Vally.

So, to sum it up you have these options for Park Goren:

7 km trek, 4 to 6 hours of medium to difficult difficulty level – Start at the Monfort Castle observation point and go down the red marked trail. At the river you’ll see the remains of a crusader farm. Up on the hill you’ll see the Monfort castle. Head east while you cross the river a few times , until you get to remains of an old mill. Trail continues in flora bushes and trees, ponds and fountains. After 3 km from the farm, you’ll get to the Ein Tamir fountain which is waters that flow from underground, surrounded by white stone and magnificent flora. Very nice place for lunch!
From there you’ll take the blue trail which is steep , and onto the Parking lot above. Last part will take you about 45 minutes to an hour. Please bring drinking water.

Kziv river (Ein Tamir)
Second option is to separate the two – see the castle and then take the car to the end point, and go down to the river. So, just enter the Goren park, stop at the first parking lot you see, that is the Monfort Observation, park the car and follow the paved trail that leads to the observation of the castle, that’s a few minutes walk.
Then take the car and drive strait along the road , about a km east (maybe more) until you get to the Ein Tamir / Olives parking lot. That’s the starting point of the blue trail that gets you down to the Kziv river, the white stone and the cave. That option is shorter and will take you about 2.5-4 hours to cover depending on your pace.

Follow the RED, GREEN and BLUE markings.

Goren park map - Click to enlarge

The narrow cave - not for clastrophobics...

White rocks

Breakfast at Elkosh

Turned out there was a pottery fair at Vradim Village, so we stopped there.

Gush Halav village from a distance

Dalton is only one of several wineries in the green north, you should visit at least one.

Links:

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Ramat-Hanadiv park, gardens and hiking area

Ilan — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:04:16 +0000

At the southern end of Mount Carmel, between Zikhron Ya’akov and Binyamina, lies Ramat Hanadiv, a natural gem dedicated to the memory of Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
Its located a bit north, 66 km and about an hour drive from Tel Aviv.

The memorial gardens sprawl across approximately seven hectares (17.5 acres), surrounding the Baron and Baroness Rothschild’s crypt. It is situated in the heart of Ramat Hanadiv, and its broad lawns, trees and colorful seasonal flowers are only some of the points of interest that attract many visitors to the gardens. The garden is comprised of several small gardens including the Cascade Garden, Rose Garden, Palm Garden and Fragrance Garden, as well as an Amphitheatre for outdoor concerts.

Hiking - Throughout the Park, are color marked, 3 circular hiking trails ,1.5 to 4.5 km in length . One is on easy to moderate difficulty level and the other two are moderate to difficult level. suited to walkers of all kinds and capabilities. Passing through typical Mediterranean terrain, hikers can stop along the trails to enjoy magnificent views at the observation points or to discover sites of prehistoric settlement, a hidden spring, and an acclimatization cage for hikers – all meant to help preserve the ancient living landscape of Israel.

Ramat-Hanadiv park offers a large parking spot at the entrance to the park, and has all facilities as a restaurant and cafe (open Sun-Fri), drinking spots, and rest rooms. It also has an information center.
Gardens have one level pavement trails and are suitable to handicap persons as well as wheel chairs. Hiking trails are good for children and adults.

Ramat Hanadiv web site

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Shenkar graduates 2011 exhibition

Ilan — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:25:13 +0000

Shenkar is a well known college for design and engineering. The annual exhibition for 2011 displays works of graduates for print, fashion, interactive multimedia, industrial design and more.
Shenkar is situated in Ramat Gan city and the exhibition will be open through 14-29 July 2011.

Here is a short video I made of the exhibition.

Shenkar Web Site

White Night in Tel Aviv

Ilan — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:46:31 +0000

Since being declared the White City by UNESCO in July 2003, Tel Aviv-Yafo city has been marking the honor in an annual one night fest offering special events (music, theater, dining, etc) for the benefit of the residents and visitors of Tel Aviv.

This year Ive been to a concert held at the CLIFF beach in north Tel Aviv. There were two shows: first was Shem-Tov Levi ensemble, and then Mati Caspi and Shlomo Gronich. I’ve heard and seen Shem-Tov Levi in the Eilat jazz festival, but I’ve never been to a Mati Caspi or Shlomo Gronich shows. The two shows started at 2:00 am and ended at about 5:30 am.

It was two shows that were excellent, in sound, light and place.

Bob Dylan concert, Israel 2011

Ilan — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:18:57 +0000

My ticket! See videos at the bottom of this page

Bob Dylan , legendary American singer-songwriter performed in Israel on June 20. The concert was held at the Ramat Gan Stadium as part of Dylan’s world tour.

Dylan for me is one of the most important musicians and icons, in music and human rights activism as well. Just celebrated his 70th birthday in May, Dylan performed in Israel as part of a world tour, which has been launched in Asia (and caused controversies regarding his China concert) and will end in Denmark in late June.

This was Dylan’s third concert in Israel. He performed here in the past in 1987 and 1993, and visited the country during the 1960s.

The concert included songs from Dylan’s entire career. I hope I can see him here back again in the future.

P.S.: regarding the China “controversy”, here’s my 2 cent on this: was he performing for the government of China or for the people of China?

Dylan submitted this response in his web site:

May 13

To my fans and followers

Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called China controversy which has been going on for over a year. First of all, we were never denied permission to play in China. This was all drummed up by a Chinese promoter who was trying to get me to come there after playing Japan and Korea. My guess is that the guy printed up tickets and made promises to certain groups without any agreements being made. We had no intention of playing China at that time, and when it didn’t happen most likely the promoter had to save face by issuing statements that the Chinese Ministry had refused permission for me to play there to get himself off the hook. If anybody had bothered to check with the Chinese authorities, it would have been clear that the Chinese authorities were unaware of the whole thing.

We did go there this year under a different promoter. According to Mojo magazine the concerts were attended mostly by ex-pats and there were a lot of empty seats. Not true. If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly Chinese young people that came. Very few ex-pats if any. The ex-pats were mostly in Hong Kong not Beijing. Out of 13,000 seats we sold about 12,000 of them, and the rest of the tickets were given away to orphanages. The Chinese press did tout me as a sixties icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. The concert attendees probably wouldn’t have known about any of those people. Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.

As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There’s no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.

Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.

One of the songs played in the concert was “Tangled Up In Blue”. Here it is:

The Jerusalem Festival of Light 2011

Ilan — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:25:27 +0000

The Butterfly Effect - A tale of lights with the actors suspended in mid air

Artists from Israel and abroad take part in the festival and use light in order to create statues, installations, performances and artwork, discovering the unique quality of the integration of light as a creative element .

During each week, the festival brought 250,000 visitors to the Old City and succeeded in introducing a new trend in Jerusalem nightlife.

The festival is targeted towards a wide range of the population. The festival includes both displays of museum artwork and activities suitable to all audiences.

Popular dog names and breeds in Israel

Ilan — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 11:17:03 +0000

As of January 2011, there are about 196,000 registered male dogs and 191,000 females. About one third of the male dogs are castrated, and more than half of the females are neutered.

Say my name, say my name…

It’s the forth year where “Lady” is the top favorite female dog name. “Lucky” is now the first choice after beating “Bony” who still runs strong as second choice for male dogs.

The popular male dog names:

Lucky
Bony
Cocoa
Rocky
Sean
Simba
Rex

The most popular female dog names are:

Lady
Mika
Sandy
Mocha
Bony
Lola
Lucky

Popular pedigree :

The Labrador is still the most popular, 3 years in a row, with about 20,000 dogs registered.
Doberman pinscher is second with about 18,000 dogs.
Third is the German Shepherd.
Fourth is the Pekingese.
Golden retriever is fifth.

Hamei Ga’ash spa and hot pools

Ilan — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:25:23 +0000

There are 3 hot pools

Ga’ash is a kibbutz in central Israel, between Herzelia and Netania city. There is a nice spa there under the name of Hamei Ga’ash. In this spa are 3 hot pools of mineral water drawn from the depths of the earth, at temperatures of 36°C for the big pool and 40°C for the 2 smaller ones. All 3 pools have jets in their sides too.

There are also showers, lockers (bring your own lock) and hot and dry saunas. There is also a hall with live music and drinks and a cafe that serves light food, hot and cold drinks and more.

The place is nice if you are looking to sooth your body and get your core temperature up. It is however covered, so expect it to be a bit noisy too when it’s full.

Opening hours:
Sunday 10:00 – 18:00
Monday 08:00 – 23:00
Tuesday 08:00 – 23:00
Wednesday 08:00 – 23:00
Thursday 08:00 – 18:00
Friday 08:00 – 16:00
Saturday 08:00 – 18:00

You are advised to call for the latest information prior to your arrival: tel. +972-9-9539404

Entrance fee to all the above mentioned facilities is 67 nis for a child and senior and 77 nis for an adult.
Free large parking lot.

More info on their site.