FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 29, 2019 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 69
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Aft er arriving in Tel Aviv
and visiting the ancient
port city of Jaff a, we
drove in the minivan carrying
our family to Caesarea.
We had a “learning tour” of
the city, built in the 1st Century
B.C.E. by the paranoid King
Herod the Great. I guess I would
be paranoid too if I knew my
spouse and two sons were plotting
my death.
Herod put them to death and
never trusted anyone again. But
his genius and drive did build an
engineering feat: a port city that
was once the third largest in the
world, and many palaces that
survived for centuries. He also
built in Caesarea a huge amphitheater
that survives today as a
site for concerts.
Touring the wonders of Caesarea
From there, we were off to
an unusual natural spring
once used in ancient times by
Israelites, Greeks and Romans to
irrigate their estates. Today it’s an
old-fashioned “swimming hole”
in Nahal Hakibbutsim. Th e kids
and adults laughed endlessly as
they jumped and swam and slid
down a natural waterfall.
What fun — and a much needed
break from the 100 degree
weather!
Our meals at sit-down restaurants,
and the hotel’s breakfast
menu, off ered endless plates of
salads, cheese, meats, breads,
fruits and then deserts.
In Tel Aviv, we feasted at Yitzhak
Hagadal Restaurant. Th e food,
mostly fresh or freshly baked, was
plentiful and the kids learned to
eat schnitzel, which substituted
for their favorite food, chicken
fi ngers, by another name.
Th e best site of all that day was
to watch the six children, from
4 to 13, play lovingly together,
with smiles as big as the moon!
Now on to Jerusalem!
Enjoying Sachne, the natural water
springs we went to afterward touring
ancient Caesarea
The ruins of an
ancient mosaic
At the Caesarea
ruins listening to
our guide Gil
At the swimming hole
The port of Caesarea
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