Fastest Cars in the World in Jerusalem

Formula 1 race cars from around the world are coming to race in the outskirts of Jerusalem in a program called "Formula Jerusalem: The Peace Road Show." Ella and I went to the Old Train Station where three of the Formula 1 cars are parked and out for display. Two of the cars you can go inside the red rope and take a picture of you standing next to it. We also saw Nascars, an English racing car, and a couple of Ferraris. All the cars I just talked about were inside a huge white tent. There were a couple of other cars outside the tent. There were go-karts that were an inch above the ground, a car that looked like a helicopter without the propeller, and a car that looked like a giant Jeep. Everyone in Jerusalem is really worried about how much traffic the race will cause because some of the roads will be blocked off for the race so that regular cars can't go on the "track." My family and I are going to line up on the sidewalk and watch the cars race and I'm sure I'll post about the race on the blog after it happens. You don't often get to see a car race in the middle of a city, and I'm very happy that I'm here for the race.

Soccer

Last night, Noah and I went to an Israeli soccer game with our friends at Teddy Stadium. It was Israel versus England in the Under 21 World Championship. Israelis love soccer and go insane at the games. It was loud, wild, and big. There were 22,874 people at the stadium and it wasn't even full! Israel won 1-0 and everyone was really excited when they scored a goal. We were sitting pretty close to the field and could see the players really well. Most of the people there were Israeli fans, but I did see some English fans there, too. It was an awesome experience and it was for sure a highlight of the trip.

Crater Day

Last week my family and I went to Mitzpe Ramon. Mitzpe Ramon is in the Negev. It’s the biggest crater in the world. We stopped there on our way to Eilat. We went hiking to a lookout point on the first night. It took about twenty minutes to get to the top but it was worth it. I sat on the “head” of the lookout because the lookout point looked like a camel, so I sat on the head of the camel. In the morning, we took another hike down into the crater. It was a hard-ish hike because the path was really narrow and there were a bunch of rocks, but it was fun. We were supposed to hike into the crater and all the way to the Visitors’ Center, but we didn’t have time. Instead, we drove there and we saw two rooms dedicated to Ilan Ramon who was the first Israeli astronaut. He was also a fighter pilot for the IDF and he led an important mission against Iraq. One of the rooms is dedicated to his career as a pilot because he trained in Mitzpe Ramon. The other room tells the story of how he flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia and died when it blew up. At the other part of the Visitors’ Center we saw in a 3D movie how the crater was formed. It wasn’t created by a meteor. It was created by natural causes over thousands of years. We also saw a movie about all the animals and plants that live in Mitzpe Ramon. Mitzpe Ramon was really fun and I hope I go there again.

The "camel" lookout over Mitzpe Ramon

Sitting on the head of the camel lookout

Ilan Ramon display at Visitors' Center

 

In Eilat

My family and I just got back from Eilat. Eilat is at the bottom of the country and across the Red Sea is Jordan. It was amazing. We stayed at a great hotel called Dan Panorama and we were right across the street from the beach. The first day we mostly just hung out by the pool. We relaxed and had a nice time. The next day we snorkeled in the Red Sea, which was really fun. We saw fish and coral of all sorts and we saw some scuba divers. We snorkeled for three hours before we packed up and headed over to the Underwater Observatory. The Underwater Observatory was really cool. It is a museum under the water where you can see all the fish and coral under the water. The coral is very colorful and the fish are active. The fish barely notice you when you are there. It's fun to see the fish go about their everyday life. We also saw some HUGE sea turtles and some sting rays. We saw sharks too. They were really cool, but freaky. It was really fun to go to Eilat because in my Hebrew class at Weizmann Day School we learned about Eilat and the Underwater Observatory, so now we actually got to go there and have a nice time.

The Night Spectacular: Sound and Light at the Tower of David

Last Wednesday, my family and I went to an outdoor light show. The light show was about the history of Jerusalem. We saw the Canaanites, Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks. We also saw the Romans, Early Christians, Early Muslims, Crusaders and the Mameluks. There was also the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, and last but not least, STATE OF ISRAEL! The show was at the Tower of David Museum which is an ancient citadel that’s just inside Jaffa Gate at the Old City. It was really cool because the show was on the walls of the Tower of David. It was awesome and I loved it.

photo courtesy of GoJerusalem.com

Kibbutz Gezer

Last week, my family and I went to Kibbutz Gezer. We learned about Kibbutzim in school and how all the members participate in farming and different jobs, but today not all Kibbutzim are like that. There are many Kibbutzim where they don't farm anymore and they have swimming pools, gyms, factories and modern technology. On Kibbutz Gezer, they don't farm themselves, but they have workers who do all sorts of gardening. They have wheat fields, orchards and dairy cows. They also have the first baseball field built in Israel, and they still play on it. It's a really beautiful place and the members are lucky to live there.

Camping at J.L.

In the last post by Ella, you learned about the music, booths, and swimming at the Jacob’s Ladder Festival. But you didn’t learn about the camping part of the festival. You can camp anywhere so everyone was camped really close together because everybody wanted to get a good, shady, flat spot. There was also football lights all night which was fine with us because we didn’t bring flashlights. But it was NOT fine when they were still on at 2:00 in the morning. It wasn’t like the camping we usually do because we usually have a cooking stove, lantern, and a tent that can fit 9 people. Even though we didn’t have all of our gear, camping at the Jacob’s Ladder Festival was really fun and when you all go to Israel, I hope you will go to the Jacob’s Ladder Festival too.