Resistant Traveler

Airport Security is a Joke

2011-07-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

I traveled to and from Las Vegas from the Burbank, CA airport to visit my daughter's family and my grandsons this past Father’s Day. I had a great time there enjoying a cabana at the J.W. Marriott in Summerlin and the "Greatest Show on Earth" at the UNLV stadium.

However, air travel security is a joke. Las Vegas has the new X-ray scanners, and I got to experience that. I was told to remove my wallet and hold it in my hand and raise my arms above my head. Fine. While I hate the intrusive searches just to take a plane, it was better than driving 5 hours, as long as there were no traffic problems.

When I got out of the X-ray machine the TSA person went through every compartment of my wallet. What the heck can I use from my wallet to take down a plane? This seems so ridiculous.

However, I see the complete joke of security when Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi can travel all over the United States with only a college student ID and other people’s expired boarding passes. I become even more enraged when I see on the Internet as a sweet little 6-year-old girl is frisked, and as a baby is given a pat-down while being held stomach-down by its mother. And then there is the crying young woman who said the intrusive body search she had to endure in Dallas made her feel violated. Of course it did.

You don’t see the airport screeners for Israel airlines going through people’s diapers. This happened to 95 year old Lena Reppert who suffers from leukemia and has to wear an adult diaper in her wheelchair. For Israel the screeners are well trained and interview people who they might suspect. They know what to look for and have the best airline security in the world. Meanwhile we have TSA staff that are needlessly thorough instead of smart and leave us neither free nor safe, just annoyed. I think next time I will drive to Las Vegas or take a bus.

Rennie

China trip summary

2010-11-07T20:00:00.001-08:00

Many folks have commented they loved the humor in Part 1 and Part 2 of the China trip, however, it was just too long. So I have created a summary. Obviously, if you want the details, you can scroll down and read the whole story. I have received great comments, like "very funny," "hysterical," and "really got a kick out of it" on my cartoon video: "Rennie does not want to go to China." But you have to click on the link to see it:http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7442923/

Day 1 in Shanghai: Lot's of tall new buildings. Arrived at the hotel and cab driver left with our luggage. Wanted us to pay the meter fare when he came back. We got our luggage and laughed at him.
Day 2 in Shanghai: Went to the Jewish Museum and the 2010 Expo. If you don't like someone, send them to the Expo. Drivers here are crazy. Traffic lights, lanes, one way streets, cross walks, and sidewalks are only suggestions. As a pedestrian, on a one way street or sidewalk you can be hit from any direction at night by electric scooters none of which use their headlights.
Day 3 in Shanghai: Tour started. Went to Shanghai Museum and silk carpet factory. Didn't buy anything.
Day 4: Took bus to Suzhou, pronounced Sue Joe. Went to the Master-of-the-Fishing-Nets-Garden-Home-and-Tourist-Destination. Dianne bought silk paintings.
Next was a silk spinning factory. Dianne bought silk scarves.
Day 5: Got on the riverboat for a 4 day trip on the Yangtze River.
Day 6: First stop, The Three Gorges Dam. Amazing structure and potential ecological disaster. No one drinks the tap water in China, not even the Chinese.
Day 7: We took an excursion up the Shennong Stream. Dianne purchased porcelain shoes.
Day 8: Shore excursion to the Ghost City of Fengdu. Saw a wonderful example of a Chinglish sign: "Beacuse (sic) being under constrction (sic) cause inconvenience to you, invite respectively forgiving." Dianne bought a wooden face mask.
Day 9: Arrived in Chongqing (pronounced Chung King) Saw the pandas. Wow! They are like big cuddly koala bears on drugs. Dianne bought an umbrella.
Day 10: Arrived in Guilin and took a ride on the Li River. I bought post cards. Dianne bought four wood carvings, an old watch, vase, bracelet, other stuff, a partridge in a pear tree, and a suitcase to hold it all. We learned how to get ripped off by the vendors even when you negotiate the prices.
Day 11: Arrived in Xi'an. (pronounced She Ann) Visited a tea plantation. Dianne bought a tea strainer and Osmanthas tea. Dianne bought all sorts of things like Tiger Balm and silk gift bags.
Day 12: Walked on the ancient city wall of Xi'an and visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. I purchased a jade chop. (You will have to ask me what that is.)
Day 13: Saw the Terra Cotta Warriors. Very exciting. I bought a book and Dianne bought miniature Warrior figures.
Day 14: Beijing: Went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Nothing to buy.
Day 15: Went to the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and a cloisonne factory. I purchased a collapsible walking stick and Dianne bought cloisonne jewelry.
Day 16: Visited the Summer Palace and a pearl factory. Dianne bought two pearl necklaces. Most of what Dianne purchased were for gifts, and if didn't say that I would be in a lot of pain. Tell her you think this was funny. PLEASE!
Day 17: From Beijing left for home, Whoopee.

China Part 2

2010-10-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

China Part 2

After I got home I made a 1 ½ minute cartoon movie about my resistance to go to China. You can see it at http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7442923/

Wednesday Oct 13, 2010
While much of the additional information for the places we visited is from the website for the Travel China Guide Tour company, Dianne and I went with China Plus Tours due to it’s small group size limits. You can find out more about China Plus at http://www.ChinaPlusTours.com toll free: 888-868-8811

Our first tour today is a boat ride on the Lijiang River from Zhujiang Wharf to Yangshuo County in Guang Xi Provence. I thought it would be a 3 to 3.5 hour cruise, but it turned out to be 4.5 hours. While the scenery was beautiful, it was just too long for me. Lunch was served on board and at our last port I learned how the merchants can fleece the tourists, even after bargaining. Dianne found a stall that had some carved wood shutters (see photo), that she had been looking for. Plus she found a vase, figurines, jewelry, etc.

Dianne bargains hard. He started out at something like 3400 Yaun ($503 US) she got it down to 1600 Yuan (about $260).After she paid, he said he had more things she might like upstairs, and while upstairs his wife would wrap our purchases.

You guessed it, not everything she paid for was put in the bag and Dianne had more items she purchased from upstairs. Dianne got so much stuff I went to another stall and bought a suitcase to put it in so we could get it all home. The suitcase was $38, but I negotiated it down to $25. Obviously I am not as good at bargaining as Dianne. Anyway, we now have three suitcases for the rest of the trip.

We drove back on the bus to Guilin and visited the Guilin Tea Science and Research Institute. It is the key tea institute of Guangxi founded in 1965. The whole plantation contains about 40 hectares, and owns 250 different tea plants. We learned how the same bush can provide 4 types of tea; white, green, oolong, and black depending on which leaves are harvested. We participated in a tea ceremony and tasted all 4 types. Dianne and I have prepared tea all wrong our whole life. We then went to the gift shop and purchased a tea strainer. Remember how the factories work: Show you how it’s made and then ask you to buy. You can read more about this plantation at http://www.guilintea.com/cby/help.asp?action=about

Thursday Oct 14
Plane travel was relatively easy throughout China except right now. I always carry a single blade pocket knife to cut boxes, open packages & envelopes, cut fruit, and whatever. I know what you’re thinking: NO, I did not have it on me or in my carry-on case. I packed in my suitcase that got checked in. Well, I was called back behind the scenes because they saw the knife in the suitcase and wanted to confiscate it. It didn’t matter that it was in the baggage that was checked in for the cargo hold. They didn’t want me to have that knife anywhere in China. I negotiated with 5 employees before giving up. I guess they want to be sure that no one in China is armed in any way except for police and soldiers. Remember, this is a communist country.

We flew to Jason's home town of Xi An, pronounced "she an." I still cannot figure out how these English letters make those different sounds. Xian is the center of Chinese history due to 11 dynasties being in this area for more than 3000 years: From Zhou to the Han, Jin, Tang, and Qing dynasties including the ancient city wall and the terracotta warriors.

The population of the city is about 3.5 million with another 4.5 million in the surrounding area. It is too small to be its own governing area, but it is the capital of its province. We started our tour with a visit to the small Wild Goose pagoda and park.

We then went to the Shaanxi Museum. Read about the museum at http://www.chinamuseums.com/sx_history.htm

Friday October 15, 2010
In Xi’an our hotel was the Golden Flower:
http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/xian/goldenflower It was the first joint venture hotel built in China and was exclusive to foreigners. It was done by the Shangra La hotel company in 1983.

1. Our first stop today was a visit to a jade factory with the typical demonstration of what it takes to go from a rock to amazing jewelry and sculptures. In Chinese, jade is pronounced as 'Yu', and most words related to moral include this word such as 'Unpolished jade never shines,' indicating that one cannot be a useful person if he is not educated. Jade also implied honor and conviction. Many girls in ancient times were also named with jade to reflect the love of their parents. One of the Four Beauties in Chinese history, Yang Yuhuan, the beloved concubine of Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), was their representative. Yang is her surname and her given name Yuhuan means simply 'jade ring'. You can read more about jade from Xi’an here: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/jade.htm. All of the pagodas, temples, and factories have gift shops. I don't know if you can call a 6-12,000 facility a "shop." Perhaps gift warehouse would be more appropriate. We then went to the warehouse sized showroom with sales clerks and bought some jade.

2. Our next stop was the large Wild Goose pagoda.http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/bigwildgoose.htm All the temples and pagodas have appropriate sized gift shops instead of the warehouse sized shops like the factories. After all they were built hundreds of years ago. Anyway, at the Wild Goose Pagoda this was only about 2000 square feet so you could call it a gift shop instead of a warehouse, and I purchased a jade "chop" there. This is what people would use to stamp their name.

If you miss a gift shop anywhere in China at a tourist stop, there are plenty of street vendors selling items like postcards, umbrella hats, and steamed corn to books and fake Rolex watches. I know they were fake because they called them “Lolex” watches. The typical sales pitch goes like this: “Post cawds, one dolla. You want? One dolla, one dolla. Here! One dolla, one dolla. Look, one dolla.”

3. Our third stop of the day was the Xian Shaanxi History Museum tracing the history of China from the stone age through the Zhou (pronounced as "Joe") starting around 2100 BC - 771 BC and the Qin Dynasty 770 - 207 BC, and Han dynasty (pronounced “Hun”) 206 BC - 220 AD. I thought it was amazing they could be so precise with dates 4000 years ago, but that's how strong their recorded language was. To learn more about this museum go to http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/provincial_museum/

4. Our next stop was the ancient city wall. It is one of the few city walls still standing and continues to be protected and repaired. You can rent a bike and peddle around the top of the wall in about an hour. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang dynasty (618 -907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world. Read more at http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/citywall.htm

5. Our final event of the day was a spectacular dinner and colorful show. The Tang Dynasty is regarded as the most progressive and prosperous era in the days of Imperial China and its music and dance symbolize the glory and splendor of Chinese civilization. Read more at http://www.chinaspringtour.com/guide/item.jsp?id=579

I think I forgot to mention the daily big breakfast each of the hotels provided; then a huge lunch at a free standing or factory restaurant; and the large dinner portions served on a lazy Susan. We never finished all the food that was prepared for our group. I thought I’d gain 5 pounds before I got home, but it turns out I got back home at the same weight as I when I left.

Saturday, October 16
Big day - Today we visited the Terra Cotta Warriors built by the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang around 1400 AD. It took about 38 years to build this tomb using 700 - 800,000 slaves. And there were more slaves used to connect the various parts of the Great Wall. In addition to connecting the various city walls to create the Great Wall he standardized the language to small seal characters; standardized the legal codes, and the currency. The man knew how to get things done. Other than all the people he enslaved, burning the books of the past history (except for those on agriculture or superstition); burying alive 460 Confucius scholars; he was a rather progressive and results oriented Emperor.

After Qin Shihuang died and his dynasty was overthrown, the following ruler of the area broke into the tomb and did his best to break and burn as much as he could. So nothing was recorded in the Chinese historical books about the tomb or the location.

The warriors and horses were discovered by accident. On March 29, 1974, five farmers were digging a water well when they broke into a hole and ended up pulling out a terra cotta head. Within one month the news spread to the top level of the communist government and the area became protected by the State Cultural Relics Administration. This was a cover story in a 1978 issue of National Geographic. Two of the farmers are still living and one of them signs books at the Museum to earn his living. To learn more about this amazing site visit http://www.terracottawarriorexhibit.com

We flew out that evening from Xian to Beijing, the capital of China and arrived at 7 pm.

Beijing has a population of 18 million, which is about half the population of the entire state of California and larger than the population of Hartington, Nebraska and Sioux City, Iowa combined. Actually that’s about 4 times larger than the state’s population of Nebraska and Iowa combined. Anyway, it’s a big place and we stay here for 4 days.

Sunday, October 17
Countdown: Only three more days before I get to go home.
Our first stop today is Tiamanmen Square. It’s a rather large area that could hold 1 million people before Mao Tse-Tung’s (or Mao Zedong ) mausoleum was built in the 1970s. The square has several building in it and on one end is the Forbidden City. The crowds here were overwhelming with a 6 hour wait in line to see Mr. Mao lying in state. He was much like Emperor Qin, only he didn’t kill the intellectuals, just “re-educated” them in prisons or on farms.

Jason’s grandfather got to live on a farm for 15 years, in a horse stall with the donkeys, for his re-education. Jason’s mom, who was a doctor before the cultural revolution, got to wear a dunce hat and occasionally stand in the square to get berated by soldiers and workers. A notice was posted on their door that they had family members who were counter revolutionaries. Jason was only 7 years old at the time. Needless to say, Mao was not popular with people who had an education.
The weather in Beijing is colder than in the south were we started in Shanghai. The Royal Palace, which is now called The Forbidden City, was built over 14 years starting in 1406 AD and is twice the size of Tiamanmen Square. The buildings are all wood and burnt down about 5 times from lightening strikes. The last time it was rebuilt was about 200 years ago and it was remodeled about 3 ½ years ago just before the Olympic games. The last Emperor lasted from 1907 to 1911, and when the royal family lived there the family had about 200 people. That probably did not include the 100-150 concubines. The total population of the Forbidden City was about 2000 people, which did include the servants. Although there were more than a few concubines for the Emperors over the 500 year time span, each Emperor only had two wives.

Later that day we saw the ordinary side of Beijing. Many of the small streets have names like Xiuan Hutong. Hutong is a Mongolian word that mean “where people live.” Mongolia conquered China around 1300, but only had Beijing as the capital for 100 years. The Mongolians were then conquered by the Ming Dynasty who established the Royal Palace (Forbidden City). In one of the Hutong’s we got to visit a private home.

The home we visited had three rooms on one side, a courtyard in the center, and a kitchen and one room on the other side. Each room was about 10’x10’. Oh, there was NO bathroom; they had to use the public bathroom and shower about 150 feet down the street. That must make it fun in the winter if you have an upset stomach. And I forgot to mention that sewage is a problem in Beijing. I already told you the Chinese cannot drink their own tap water.

Monday, October 18, 2010
Only two more days until we go home - Yipee
We started the tour a half hour earlier today (8:30) to get a head start on the Monday morning traffic. With 4.5 million cars and 10 million bikes, and 1000 cars per month being added to the streets, the traffic is worse than the Ventura Freeway at rush hour. And remember, street lights and traffic lanes are merely suggestions.

When we arrived at the cloisonné factory I was startled to learn how many steps were involved in making this beautiful stuff. It’s a 7 step process and most of it is done by hand. It starts with copper wire on an object like a plate or vase; an eye dropper is used to drip paint into the copper separated areas; it dries in the air for a couple of hours; it then gets fired in a special kiln; then more color, more firing, polishing, etc. The prices ranged from 80 yuan ($12) to 1,200,000 yuan ($177,000). Again, everything is negotiable and Dianne bought stuff. Find out more at http://www.china-cloisonne.com/aboutus/index.asp

This factory, like many others we visited, is owned by the government. It was built on land previously used by farmers who are compensated for giving up the land. They are also given the choice of becoming a worker in the factory or finding other work in the city.

Monday continued:
Next stop; the Great Wall of China Since most of our group are in their 70s and 80s it was decided that we would not walk all 5,500 miles of the wall. Besides, many parts of it are missing since the construction began 500 years before Christ was born. So we voted to go to the most famous and most visited part of the wall near Beijing; the Ba Da Ling portion.

I found parts of the wall to be very steep to walk up, just like walking up the steep hills and mountains that it was built along. Tourists from all over the world, but mostly Chinese were walking everywhere and taking photos. I took photos of couples so they could both be in the picture, and they would take photos of me.

It would have been nice if I had a photo of me and Dianne together on the wall, but Dianne walked in the opposite direction when she got up to the wall. I had to take a bathroom break before going up there, and Dianne didn’t wait for me. The guide suggested we turn left when we walk up to the wall because it will be less crowded, so Dianne went to the right. I didn’t see her again until I got back to the ticket area. Anyway, everyone was really great about taking photos for other people. And when you get high enough on the wall the views are spectacular. After all, you are on the top of a mountain. To read about this part of the great wall go to http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/badaling.htm. To read general information about the Great Wall from Wikipedia click on this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

We really lucked out too because just as we were getting back on the tour bus it started to rain. If we were up on the wall we would not have been able to see much at all nor take any photos. I purchased a collapsible walking stick from a vendor for $7.50 (50 Yuan)

Our last stop on this day was the Temple of Heaven. It was the only round temple we saw. Kind of looked like the Capitol Records building, only older. It is a Taoist temple where the people would go to pray for a good harvest. To read about this temple go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven

Tuesday, October 19
Countdown, last day before I get to go home.
Today we headed out to the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperor would go after a winter in the Forbidden Palace. It had a man made pond that looked like the size of Lake Erie. We rode from one end to the other on a boat shaped like a dragon. To see a photo and learn more about the Summer Palace go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

On the lake there is a Marble Boat. Of course it can’t float, but it looks pretty cool.

Dianne purchased a funny set of glasses with an attached nose and mustache that expands out to the sides when you blow on the mouthpiece.

Next on the agenda for the day was a visit to the New City Pearl Factory.

Like many of the other factories, this is where we had lunch; got the demonstration, and allowed to buy the product. News: Pearls can come in different colors depending on the minerals in the water that the clams are living in. This way they can manufacture real black pearls. There are fresh water and salt water pearls. The photo of the open fresh water clam is about 5-6 years old and has 34 pearls it was working on. Dianne purchased pearl necklaces and a great face cream made from ground pearls.

We got back to the hotel by 3:30 and walked about 20 minutes to the 100 year old Beijing Hotel. It had artifacts in glass cases in the lobby and was a beautiful Raffels run hotel. Even the fragrance in the lobby was beautiful. We found out they use a smell machine to produce the aroma in the lobby.

Now it is time to pack up for the trip back to Los Angeles. We leave from the hotel Wednesday morning at 6:30 for our 10 am flight back home. After a layover and transfer in Hong Kong it will be about 18 hours of travel and we arrive in L.A. at 2:45 PM. The Resistant Traveler will be so glad to get home.
Rennie

China part 1

2010-10-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

China Part 1
October 3 – 13, 2010
Oh great. Dianne wants to go to the land of chain smokers, smog, and communism, so we went.

Di is of course having a better time than me, but my reward is getting to spend full time with her with no work, phones, or computers (except right now). If it were not for being home without Dianne for 3 weeks, I would not go. I would rather watch a travel-log on China than leave home. I can learn about the people, customs, and places just fine from watching a film without having to be there in person. Just like I can see a wonderful painting in a museum and not feel like I have to own it.

To see the funny 1 1/2 minute cartoon video "Rennie Does Not Want to go to China" click herehttp://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7442923/

Sunday October 3: We leave from LAX at 2 am and change planes in Hong Kong for our first stop: Shanghai. We arrive at 11:20 am on Monday. On the cab ride into town Di and I were struck by the level of construction: 25-30 story apartment/condo buildings were everywhere. In China you can buy your apartment, but not the land. The government gives you a 70 year lease. If you are still alive, you can continue to live there and pay rent on your lease.

Monday, October 4: The hotel was beautiful, definitely built or remodeled for American and European tourists. But the cab driver drove off with our suitcases right after I paid him. Fortunately, I took down his license # that was posted in the cab and the receipt had the company info. Being fluent in Chinese I asked the concierge to call and get the driver to return. The cabby came back about 30 minutes later. The funny part was when he asked me to pay him the 80 Yuan ($12) on the meter for driving back with our luggage. The doorman and I both laughed at him and the doorman chased him away.

That evening we met our guide, Jason (Wang Zhe zhegct@yahoo.com.cn). He has been terrific with his suggestions and attitude. Since we had a free day before the rest of the tour group would arrive, Dianne wanted to visit the Synagogue Museum (there is still one active synagogue in the French Concession and then we'd go to the 2010 World Expo.

Jason gave us the address and direction in Chinese for the cab drivers. All I had to do was show the paper to them and off we went. Cabs are very reasonable. We could cross the whole city for about $3-5.

Tuesday, October 5: We went to the Jewish area which was really important to Di as her Uncle Walter's parents escaped Nazi Germany during WW II and lived in this part of Shanghai. We got to read stories of many Jews that lived there, how they got there, how they lived, and what they did after the war. It was amazing. Read more about the museum at http://gochina.about.com/od/whattoseeinshanghai/p/OhelMoishe.htm>

After our visit to the Synagogue Museum we went to the Expo. What a mob! China was celebrating its National Holiday that week so everyone from China was there at the same time. What a waste. It took 2-3 hours in line to enter any of the country pavilions. We passed on all of them, but the architecture of the buildings was very unique. The Expo was as large as a small city and was built on both sides of the Huangpu River that runs through Shanghai. We had to take a ferry boat from one side to the other. All of this was included in the price of admission: $30 each for all day, or $15 each after 4 pm to closing at about 11 pm. The expo started in March and I think ends this month. Word is that if you don't like someone, send them to the expo. We waited until 4 pm to enter and saved half the ticket price. Thank goodness.

The driving in China is CRAZY. I found out that they actually are required to have a driver's license; it costs about $600 and requires passing 4 tests over 2 months. However, the traffic lights, one way streets, sidewalks, cross walks, and traffic lanes all appear to only be suggestions. People drive in either direction on either side of the street, motorcycles, scooters, bikes, cars and buses all share lanes. Scooters use no headlights at night, riders use no helmets ever, and red lights only mean slow down to see if anyone is coming from the other direction.. But motorcycle riders are required to wear helmets. I guess the pavement is softer on the heads of scooter riders. Vehicles turning left appear to be permitted to cut-off on-coming traffic.

Pedestrians cross any and everywhere, and in crosswalks they have to dodge any type of transportation from bicycles to buses that may be coming through from any direction. Again, at night no headlights are used on the scooters. I guess that’s to make it easier to hit the pedestrians. I can't believe how few accidents there are. It must be because everyone understands that no one has any right of way, and everyone has to watch out for every vehicle coming from any direction. Everyone is honking horns all the time to warn other drivers and pedestrians. I believe it is connected to the gas pedal, and if the horn is broken, the vehicle probably won't work.

We knew our tour group would be small; ten people total. On our first day with the tour group we went to a silk carpet factory. I forgot how tours work: You get on a bus and in addition to Jason, another guide in each city talks about the city and takes you to the tourist factories and restaurants. It reminded me of Morocco where after lunch we were herded into a large Persian rug and souvenir shop with enough time for the sales people to explain how the goods are made and then spend time bargaining with you to get you to buy things. Guess what, everything is negotiable. There is no such thing as a fixed price. Same way in China.

Our lunch was at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant in the same building as the carpet factory. What a surprise! The policy at all the restaurants is that you get one glass (about 6oz size) of soda, beer or bottled water. If you want a second glass you pay for it. Tap water would be free, but there is no way any American should drink it; not even the Chinese can drink their tap water. I think it comes unfiltered from the river shown behind us.
Wednesday, October 6: We went to the Shanghai Museum. To find out what we saw there you can go to www.shanghaimuseum.net

Thursday, October 7, 2010: we took a bus to Suzhou (pronounced like Sue Joe). Don't ask me how the pronunciation of the English translation works. It makes no sense to me. For certain, it has nothing to do with how English is pronounced. Q is pronounced like "ch". And NONE of the translations to English have been done by anyone who speaks real English, nor edited by anyone who is a native English speaker, let alone an editor.
Example: "Beacuse (sic) being under constrction (sic) cause inconvenience to you, invite respectively forgiving." These are not handwritten signs but printed ones in Chinese and something like English at tourist destinations, like the Ghost City of the King of the Underworld in Feng Du. (See Monday Oct. 11 for info on the Ghost City)

In Suzhou we visited the home of an ancient government official Shi Zhengzhi: The Master-of-the-Nets Garden. A Chinese garden is not like a Western garden. To create a Chinese garden requires four elements: Water, rocks, a building, and flora, like trees.

This home built in 1140 AD was originally known as the Fisherman’s Retreat and laid out in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was renamed Master-of-the-Nets Garden in the reign of Quinlong (1711-1799) in the Qing Dynasty. To see more click on http://www.chinatourguide.com/suzhou/master_garden.html

It seems like I lost what happened on Friday, Oct.8 before we got on the boat for a cruise on the Yangtze River. Aren't you glad? Wow, this blog is getting too long.
Saturday, Oct 9, The Three Gorges Dam: Wow, what an engineering marvel and a possible environmental catastrophe. This project is so massive (the dam is about 1 mile across) that you cannot get a photo of it unless you are in an airplane. So, I provided a photo of a model of the dam and the ship locks. You can read more about this amazing project at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

Sunday, Oct 10. Tour on the Shennogxi tributary. We took a small Sampan up the stream, which is now more like a river after the Three Gorges Dam was built. It raised the water level by about 150 meters. During some parts of the year the stream would only be about 1-3 meter deep. To read more go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shen_Nong_Stream

Monday, Oct 11: My daughter’s birthday, Davida. Happy Birthday Sweetie. Tour of the Ghost City in Feng Du which became known as Ghost City in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when two officials from the Imperial court married and settled on Mt. Minshan just outside the city. Their combined surnames, Yin and Wang, sound like King of Hell in Chinese. Read more at http://www.china-travel-tour-guide.com/attractions/fengdu-ghost-city.shtml

Tuesday, Oct 12. End of the tour in Chongqing. Saw the Pandas at the zoo. They are so cute and lazy. I saw a keeper and a Chinese tourist go into the habitat and put an apple in each paw of a Panda who was lying on his back. The Panda put the apples in his mouth and then looked around, still lying on his back, as if to say, "Are you going to give me some more?" I took a video of one eating bamboo that I will share later.

At 5 pm we arrived in Guilin. It has 4 features: 1. Hills, 2, clear water, 3. caves, and 4. spectacular rocks. It also has Osmanthus trees from which the flowers can be used for Osmanthus tea. We had some while we were there. Very good. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin

Wednesday, Oct 13: Guilin still, and a tour on the Li River: 4.5 hours. Just way too long for me, but the scenery was just what you'd expect to see in China based on the paintings and silk prints. We got to learn just how the tourists are ripped off after buying some objects in the bazaar in a city at the end of the river cruise in Yangshuo.

The photo of the carved wood shutters are similar to what Dianne thought she bought at a stall at the bazaar in Yangshuo, that did not get packed with the other items Dianne purchased.
Well that brings you up to date. It's 10 pm here in Guilin (population 30 million) and 7 am Wednesday at home in Los Angeles.

Note: After I got home I made a funny 1 ½ minute cartoon movie about my resistance to go to China. You can see it at http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7442923/

Quasi Retirement

2010-04-16T08:27:00.001-07:00

April 15, 2010

Big things have changed over the last couple of years: I retired from Gabriel Publications the end of 2007; closed my office in Sherman Oaks after 11 years; completed a swap of apartment buildings with my business partner through a real 1031 simultaneous exchange; and moved all my business operations to my home with my assistant. My work week is now down to about 35 hours and I just manage my apartment buildings. I get to sleep in to 7 am, ride my bike in the morning, play with my dogs and see my cat daily.

The office in Sherman Oaks was actually an apartment for my cat, Dogrun. He had to live there because my wife built is allergic to cats. Several years ago she built an art studio in the back yard for her daughter, and now Dogrun lives out there; no longer in my office over the lonely weekends.

Parking Nightmare

2009-12-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

The saga continues. My airfare from Burbank CA to Las Vegas NV was $46.53 plus taxes of $24.68. Total $71.20. When I arrived back two days later my motorcycle was soaking wet from the rain and it would not start and before I could leave, they wanted $80 in parking fees. You can read below the letter I sent to the Manager of Parking Operations for the Burbank Airport. I will post the results on my blog, but do not expect an entry any time soon.

Lot E Burbank Airport December 8, 2009
Entered 12-5-09 Exit 12-8-09
Total Fee Paid $80
Refund requested $80

Based on the information below, I am requesting a refund of my parking fee at the Burbank Airport:
1. Motorcycles used to park for free in the parking structure the last time I was at the Burbank Airport. I have a beautiful Honda Goldwing.
2. I was willing to pay the $20 daily fee, and then found out my motorcycle was prohibited from parking in the structure.
3. I parked where I was told in an open uncovered lot, and DID NOT take away a parking space for a car.
4. When I returned in the morning two days later it was raining. My motorcycle has NEVER before been parked out in the rain. It is always garaged.
5. I spoke to the airport security (Mr. Rickard) to find out what to do. He put me in touch with the parking department. I spoke to Lisa, then Patty, and finally got permission from Raymond Abara to park my bike in the structure until the next day when I could pick it up, hoping when it dried out it would start. If not, I would have to have it towed away. It took an additional 90 minutes before I could leave the airport and have my wife pick me up.
6. I had to push my 900 lb bike about 200 yards in the rain to get into the parking structure.
7. Again, I DID NOT take a parking space from a car but parked next to a storage container in the parking structure..
8. When I came back the next day my bike did start and now I was supposed to pay $80 instead of $40 when I was not my fault it was there another 30 hours.
9. I could have paid $30/day; taken a full parking place; been in the parking structure; returned to a dry motorcycle; and it would have only been $60. But I parked where I was told and now I am being asked to pay an additional $40 and never even took up a parking space. That is just completely unfair and obscene.
10. On the basis of the above 9 points I am requesting a full refund of $80. This fee is outrageous under the circumstances. My parking receipt is enclosed.

Rennie Gabriel, CLU, CFP, UCLA Instructor

F*$k'n air travel

2009-12-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend it was so easy to be reminded why I am a resistant traveler. I think it has more to do with the airport security than anything else. I got a great ticket on Southwest at $50 round trip to Las Vegas to visit my grandsons. I could leave on Saturday morning and be back on Monday morning. Sounds great. Right?

Well, Burbank airport used to allow motorcycles to park for free, and it was in a covered parking structure. I don't know how long ago they stopped that practice, but it's now $20 per day for motorcycle parking and they are prohibited in the parking structure. So, not only did I have to park in an open parking lot, the weather report said that it would start raining Sunday night before my return. Oh great. I will arrive back in Burbank to a wet motorcycle that I get to drive in the rain.

At least I had the foresight to print my boarding pass the day before so I wouldn't have to stand in line at the airport. But now I have to face the dreaded security checkpoints. I also plan ahead for this with my special "airport shoes." They are soft leather loafers, almost like slippers; easy off and easy on. I used to wear my regular hiking shoes until I learned the hassle of getting them on and off with the metal eyelets. Thanks to “Mr. Shoe Bomber" now no one can get on an airplane without first taking off their shoes. When they move to the full body cavity search I will no longer fly anywhere.

However, my shoes were not the problem. I first put my shoes and coat in a bin, and then put my hat upside down on the coat and placed my smart phone in the hat. Next I put my laptop in a separate tub just like I’m supposed to. Well, when the first tub started through the scanner it knocked my hat and cell phone into the tub with my laptop. OH, big no-no. The TSA employee said he had to re-screen the laptop because I did that. So, my computer goes to the back of the line and I’m waiting around for it to come through again.

While waiting I proceed to fill my pockets, put on my shoes, put on my coat and attempt to put on my fanny pack. For some reason the plastic piece will not snap into place, no matter how I line it up. I take a look at it and see the fanny pack I just purchased last month now has a broken buckle/snap. Oh great! Dianne makes fun of me because I wear it everywhere, but now I can’t wear it anywhere. I’ll have to carry it or tie the straps around me. I’ll look like some homeless person holding up his pants with a rope instead of a belt.

Finally I get my laptop back, tie on my fanny pack and head to my gate. While sitting there I glance to my right and notice a carry on suitcase like mine. It then dawns on me that I don’t have my carry on suitcase. Oh great! I hear the constant announcements over the PA system that any bag left unattended will be taken in by the police and blown up. I jump up and hurry back to the screening area.

As I arrive back to the baggage screening area and ask what to do if I left my suitcase here, she points me to a TSA officer who walks up to me with my suitcase and says, “I will have to screen your bag again because you left it unattended and I will have to do a hand search.”

The hand search reveals I didn’t put my itsy bitsy bottles of shampoo and conditioner in a quart sized clear plastic bag. I left them in my toiletries bag which has clear plastic pockets. AND I have this contraband size 6 oz toothpaste tube. I am for sure going to jail. But being a kindly TSA inspector, he says since I’ve already used half the tube, it’s probably only now 3 oz. BUT, he will have to screen my toothpaste tube separately to be sure it isn’t packed with chemical explosives.

Sure, I’m a 61 year old white male planning a trip to visit my grandchildren in Las Vegas and while on the way there I’ll blow up the plane just for the fun of it. At least I got to the airport with enough time to allow for all this and still arrive back at the gate in time for boarding.

At this point you’d think the horror story stops; well it doesn’t. While on the way to the movies with my daughter Davida and grandsons, we get rear ended while waiting to get on the freeway. Auto accidents in Las Vegas are as common as loosing money at blackjack. At least the driver had a valid insurance card, even though he didn’t have his driver’s license with him.

We get to the movies and I enjoyed “Planet 51.” We leave the movies, my daughter drops us off at home, and she continues on to Walgreens to pick up some items needed for the house. While tending my grandsons Davida calls me, “Dad, the car is stuck in ‘park’ and won’t go into ‘reverse’ or ‘drive’ or anything. What should I do?”

I reply, “I guess that smack in the rear end we got on the way to the movies must have done something to the transmission. See if you can reach your mother-in-law and have her bring you home. We’ll pick up the car tomorrow.”

The next day, Sunday, we head over to Walgreens and sure enough, no matter what we do, the car will not get out of ‘park.’ I get behind the car and try to move it forward while Davida tries to get it into gear. No luck. There is also a message on the dashboard that says something about needing to have the transmission serviced. I guess with a Volvo, if you are supposed to get service and don’t, they set the computer to block you from using the car.

I will leave out the details of what it’s like to spend two days with two boys ages 5 and 7, but I will say I am not planning a return visit any time soon. And I have video evidence to make my point.

Monday morning Davida takes me to the airport for the flight home. Things here seem to be going more smoothly. I remember to remove my all my belongings from the screening area and patiently wait to board my flight back to Burbank. I realize my motorcycle has been sitting in an open parking lot in the rain, but I am not concerned. I know I have some rags in the rear trunk to wipe off the seat so I don’t have to sit in water on the way home. Well the joke is on me.

Not only is the whole bike wet from the rain, but it appears water got into something and it won’t start. My Honda Goldwing spends its leisure time in the garage. My bike does not sit out in the rain. My bike does not have to travel in the rain. My bike doesn’t know about the rain. The battery is strong and it’s turning over just fine, but there is no spark, no ignition, no signs that the engine will roar to life. My bike is really angry at me that I left it out in the rain. I’ve never done this before and it’s getting back at me for this transgression.

Even though there are multiple signs that say, “Motorcycles Prohibited from Parking in the Structure” my only hope is to leave it somewhere safe until I can come back the next day. Then I can see if it will start after it dries out, or get it towed away. Knowing this is just as serious as a half tube of toothpaste, I go directly to the Airport Security office.

Officer Rickard tells me the thing to do is contact the parking division, which is separate from the security division and separate from the airport. He helps me find a courtesy phone; I dial 2 and speak with Lisa. I tell her my problem and she refers me to her supervisor Patty. I tell Patty my problem and she says she has to speak with the central parking manager. All I want to do is leave my bike in the parking structure without it being towed away.

The manager tells Patty, who tells me, that she will meet me in the parking structure and show me a place to put the bike. I let her know the bike weighs about 800 pounds and it’s not so easy to move, so I hope it’s not uphill.

Turns out I can park the bike very close to where I placed it in the parking structure. I wrote out a note explaining the situation in case the manager is not available and someone wants to tow it away. It has my name and phone number on the note. I have to be patient and see what tomorrow brings.

Rennie

Stay away from Carnival Cruise Lines

2009-05-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Stay away from Carnival

With the scare of swine flu passing we learn that this is more like an ordinary flu season. However, the fear about going to Mexico had many cruise ships heading south of the border changing direction. While many cruise lines offered customers various credits and coupons for changing the itinerary on them, the Carnival Splendor took a hard line.

Because of my background as a business coach, I have seen what works and doesn’t work when working with the public. Giving away a desert at a restaurant for slow service, or bringing the wrong dish to the table, will make a customer feel valued. That customer will likely forgive the error and come back again.

Making the customer feel like they are nothing more than a part of a cattle call is a poor approach to continued business and good will. Apparently that is the approach that Carnival Cruise Lines prefers. While they guarantee satisfaction, it requires that you get off the ship at the first NON-U.S. port of call and can get a refund of your unused cruise fare. When the ship headed for Mexico, and then turned around due to the swine flu scare, they never hit a non-U.S. port of call. They returned to Long Beach before going up to San Francisco.

They traded warmth and sun for cold and rain. And offered the passengers NOTHING but a poorly worded apology: “We apologize that we were not able to provide the itinerary that people anticipated.” They might as well of added, “And if you don’t like it, tough luck.”

If this is the kind of cruise line you would like to give your money to, that’s your business. I for one would never take a Carnival cruise based on this business approach.

(Information obtained from an article in the Los Angeles Times, “Swine flu sank Mexico cruise” by David Lazarus in the Business Section, Sunday, May 10, 2009)
Rennie

From No Hope to First Place

2009-05-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is such a wonderful race story: This horse is owned by a couple of cowboys, purchased for $9500, and with such poor stud prospects was gelded, had a 4th place finish somewhere in New Mexico, which was just enough wins to "qualify" for the Kentucky Derby. The owners said, "What the heck" and trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. drove Mine That Bird in a trailer pulled by his Ford pick-up to the Kentucky Derby while Co-owner Mark Allen's pick-up truck broke down on the way there. As expected, the horse started in last place in a field of 19, but at least the owners could say he ran in the Kentucky Derby. He was so far back that when you see the video of the pack of horses running you can't even see Mine That Bird. He stayed in last place through 3/4 of the race. Ridden by Calvin Borel, a jockey who couldn't get a better mount and only met the horse 6 days earlier, he comes up on the inside in the last 1/4 of the race and beats the whole field by almost 7 lengths. The announcer doesn’t even mention #8 Mine that Bird until he is already 2 lengths ahead of the pack. It's a 2 minute race that is wonderful to see from NBC news. It's the kind of story with 50-1 odds that Hollywood would make a movie about it.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30538272/
Rennie

Travel and the Swine Flu

2009-04-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Travel and the Swine Flu
By this time most people are concerned about travel to various areas where there has been an outbreak of the swine flu, especially travel to Mexico. I just read an interesting post that connects the swine flu to the Democrats.
From www.huffingtonpost.com 4-28-09
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/michele-bachmann-links-sw_n_192493.html
Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, following Rush Limbaugh's cue, suggested on Tuesday that President Obama was to blame for the swine flu crisis. She went even farther than the talk show host, implying that swine flu epidemics are a Democratic phenomenon that dates back to President Carter:
"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."
Unfortunately, Bachmann's facts are a little off. As Glenn Thrush notes, Republican President Gerald Ford, not Carter, led the country during the last outbreak of the virus.
This whole erroneous coincidence is just so remarkable. It allowed me to draw another unusual coincidence: While airliners were crashing into the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001, Michele Bachmann was shopping at Macy’s. Do you see the connection? Michele Bachmann must have known about the impending attack and fled for the safety of a department store. And, for all we know, Macy’s was behind this horrible attack on our soil.

State of Play the movie

2009-04-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Last year I did travel, but not much. For my birthday in July Dianne took me to Sedona, AZ. We also drove to the "ghosttown" Jerome, which was unique, as well as some of the folks we met there.

However, this post is about a movie shown in the KCET film series class that Dianne and I attend twice per year. State of Play, from Universal, comes out this Friday. It has Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Rachel McAdams and more. It is based on a hit BBC mini-series of the same name about investigative reporters helping solve the murder of a congressman's mistress. It is well written, very tight, suspensful, well acted and I highly recommend seeing it. Originally, Brad Pitt was assigned to play the part Russell Crowe got, and I can't see how anyone else could have done as good a job as Crowe.

Ojai

2008-03-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been three months since my last blog post. I guess that means I have not done much traveling. In a way that is true, although I did take the Megabus (www.megabus.com) to visit my daughter son-in-law and grandsons in Las Vegas. That is just the greatest way for me to travel; $35 round trip. It takes the same amount of time as driving, but I couldn’t even pay for enough gasoline to get there with $35. Plus, I do not have to concentrate on the road, I can read, watch a DVD, sleep or whatever.

Anyway, this entry is about a weekend trip to Ojai. Dianne and I stayed at the Lavender Inn (www.lavenderinn.com). It is one block off the main drag, near all the shops and activities, but it is still in a quiet and beautiful setting. The hosts were wonderful and the breakfasts are great. I highly recommend staying here. “Ray the electrician” retired to Ojai about 30 years ago and knows everyone and everything that goes on in Ojai. He had great restaurant suggestions and we were treated well by anyone he referred us to.

Dianne and I were able to ride our bikes all around the town, and we could even ride all the way to the beach in Ventura on a bike path, about 14 miles, and take the bus back from the beach. So anyone could ride the mild downhill slope to the beach and take a bus back. Most folks ought to be able to ride both ways if they ride often enough.

There was a lovely monastery we just dropped into and had a wonderful conversation with a man who was one of the brothers of the order. When asked why we were going to Ojai, like there was nothing there, I agreed. That is why we went there. Yes, there are stores, art galleries, thrift shops, a theatre, and restaurants, but the point was to get away from Los Angeles and have nothing to do. That’s all there is to say. Ojai is only 1 hour away from L.A., but a world away as well.

Ray Romano Surprise Party

2007-12-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ray Romano
Surprise Party for his 50th birthday

It is time for name-dropping and excuses to post this particular blog. What could attending a surprise birthday party have to do with travel? Not much, other than the difficulty of traveling in the famous Los Angeles traffic, and that was not fun. This is just an excuse to write about the funny events and people I met on Saturday night, December 1st.

It turns out my wife has been friends with Anna Romano for several years. They both have daughters the same age, who attend the same school, and became friends several years ago. Anna is a really neat lady with great values, easy to be with and has her feet grounded in reality, despite the circles she can run in.

With Ray it’s another story. He is far more talkative for his TV show than he is in person, except for people he knows really, really well, and I am not one of those. He seems rather shy, not outgoing. While I have been to dinner at his house, seen him repeatedly, had him at our house, I would bet dollars to donuts that he would not know my name to save his life.

Actually, I am really not much better. There are many people I have met several times and cannot remember their names. One of the reasons I call my children things like Guy, Sweetie, Baby, and Son is because I am terrible with names. I have called my daughter by my son’s name and vise versa. I have confused my grandson’s names with everything from my son’s name to any one of the three grandsons. The only thing I have not done, yet, is call one of the grandsons by a girl’s name, as there are no granddaughters.

Anyway, let’s get back to the Romano party and name-dropping. Anna did a great job of setting up the party; she really had Ray fooled. It took a full year to pull it off. A couple of months ago she had an invitation sent to Ray to attend a toy fundraiser for Christmas sponsored by Clint Eastwood, with special guest Rod Stewart. She got the permission from Clint and Rod to use their names for this surprise. Ray gets piles of invitations all the time, and most go into the trash. However, he knows Anna loves Rod Stewart, and Ray likes Clint Eastwood, so he brought home the invitation and asked Anna if she’d like to go. She said, “Sure, I’d love to go.” and the ball was rolling for the countdown to Ray’s surprise party.

A year earlier Ray said he didn’t want a surprise party for his birthday. He would figure any event near or in December would be an excuse for his party. He suspected a dinner party with writers from his show; a get together at Doris Robert’s house; or an invitation from Brad Garret could all be a ruse for his surprise party. She really got him with this invitation to a Clint Eastwood fundraiser. Ray spoke about how she really had him fooled and it was as funny as any Las Vegas standup routine.

The thrill for me was to meet Clint Eastwood. I am a big fan of his work, both as an actor and as a director. I admire him as a person and for the quality work that he does. I met Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld), Peter Bergman (Emmy winner from a daytime soap opera), played blackjack with Doris Roberts (she did really well), spoke for the first time with our neighbor Fred Willard (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Peter Guest movies and more) and had an encounter with Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Meeting Larry David was a funny experience. My sister-in-law, Lisa, and my daughter are BIG fans of his show. They absolutely love it, but I cannot watch it. It is too over the top and he is just too obnoxious for me. I can take Hugh Laurie as Dr. House, but I cannot take Larry David. I don’t know why, but that’s just how it is. Maybe the difference is that “House” knows he is an asshole and people tell him that to his face. I don’t think Larry David is aware of how obnoxious he is. However, I can’t say this with any authority because I have not been able to get through more than one whole episode, and have tried it on at least four occasions.

Anyway, Larry was sitting at a table next to us, and Lisa said if he was there I should say hello to him for her. I walked over and asked if I could interrupt his conversation. He said, “Sure” and I proceeded to tell him my sister-in-law is a big fan of his. Unfortunately, as many in my family can attest, I am honest in my opinions, and I added that I am not able to watch his show. He asked me why and I said it was too over the top for me. He asked me what I meant and I tried to explain. Then he asked again, “What do you mean ‘over the top’?”

By now I felt like I was on his TV program and explained about the scene I watched where he was having lunch with a young Japanese man who’s father was a Kamikaze pilot and was now in a rest home. Larry was asking the young man how a Kamikaze pilot could be alive. “Did he just glance off a ship instead of killing himself?” His TV wife said his questions were offensive, but Larry said, “I’m just curious. I’m just asking some questions.” No, I say he was being a jerk. Despite the suggestions he was being offensive, he pursued with more rude questions. I couldn’t take it and turned it off. I felt embarrassed explaining this to Larry and said, “Don’t change a thing on account of me. People love your show.” And he said, “Don’t worry, I won’t.” I’m not sure if I am relieved.

All in all, it was a fun evening. Anna brought in a band from New York that Ray loves. He would go to the club next door after his stand up routine and stick around to listen to this band. There were plenty of things to keep the guests busy; three food stations, a beignet stand (like powdered donuts from New Orleans), gelato, candy, practice golf, photo guest book, dancing to the band, roulette and blackjack tables.

Rennie

Travel by Bus

2007-11-28T08:07:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had a plan to visit my daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, all of whom live in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas. I usually dread the drive because I do not know what the traffic could be like. A clear and easy 4-hour drive can turn into a clogged frustrating drive of 5 or 6 hours.

So I planned to take my motorcycle on this visit. It’s more like a two-wheeled car, but I can still get around traffic jams if I need to. I can carry the luggage I need, it has cruise control, am-fm and a cassette player, etc., and the weather report showed conditions would be ideal for a motorcycle ride.

My wife was not happy about this idea. Actually Dianne was quite upset about it. I did not want to drive a car; that was for sure. There are no trains that go to Las Vegas and I do not enjoy airports. Anyway, it was too late to book airfare at any reasonable price the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Someone suggested craigslist about sharing a ride with someone who would be going to Las Vegas. There were about 9 people going there, but the dates and times did not match up with what I wanted. Then I found a post for Megabus posted by someone who paid $8.50 for a ride to Las Vegas. Apparently if you plan well ahead, or on off hours, you can get there very cheaply. That was not my situation, but the regular fare was only $30 each way. That would have been the same as a tank of gas on my motorcycle each way at current prices.

I booked the trip online and got my confirmation. I left out of Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and got dropped off near the airport in Las Vegas where my daughter picked me up. The trip in each direction was great. The buses were really nice and clean. I saw a DVD movie on the way there and two movies on the way back, none of which I had seen before. I could read, work, sleep, or whatever I wanted. I did not have to concentrate on the road. I was grateful to take the bus home because my traffic fears were realized. There were way too many people leaving Las Vegas on Sunday at 1 pm and the road got jammed by Primm. It took an extra hour to get back to L.A., but I didn’t care. I was not driving. Even though there is a bathroom on the bus, we stopped in Barstow each way for a snack and bathroom break.

I highly recommend this bus service. It is new to the U.S. and only has 24 outbound cities and 9 destination routes. But it they are going where you want to go, it is a relaxing trip. Check them out at www.megabus.com
Rennie

Family Camp Vacation

2007-11-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here is my style of travel; a drive from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. And here is my type of vacation; one week at Family Camp on the University of California at Santa Barbara campus.

For several years now I have attended this camp, either with my wife and her daughter or my daughter and her family. This past year it was my daughter, her husband and my two grandsons. Next year I get to add my son, his wife and their two children.

I usually go week 7, which usually falls around the second week of August. They have enough staff to fully care for the children. The children have fun. The adults have fun. The children have their activities and the adults have theirs. And the children and adults can also do things together from arts and crafts and skits to making soap-box cars and racing them.

All the sports facilities of the university are available; racquetball, basketball, softball, tennis, golf, weights, treadmills, etcetera. There is surfing, kayaking, swimming, biking, walking, hiking, movies and more that I cannot remember. One year I spent 3 days sitting around reading a book. I don’t get to do that at home. This year I got a certificate as a tri-athlete; I jogged 3 miles, rode my bike 26 miles and swam in a relay race.

They usually book up 9 months in advance, but if you want to know more you can visit their website at http://www.familyvacationcenter.com/

Rennie

Day 14 - Chicago

2007-07-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Travel day 14 – Chicago
July 12, 2007

It is Thursday, and on Friday Arielle will be in the art show based on the three weeks she spent at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Today the hotel moved our luggage for us to a regular room on the 33rd floor with a view of the lake and I took more photos. We head out for a walk and Dianne heads to the bank to get cash for Arielle.

It was about 11:30 am and time to figure out where to go for lunch. While standing on the street corner a lady walked up to us and asked if we needed some help. If we were in Los Angeles, I would be ready for the come-on, the gun, the con or just a request for money.

But we are in Chicago, and the lady was actually offering to help us for no other reason than we looked like out-of-towners and could be lost. She suggested the old Marshall Fields basement cafeteria (now Macys) for lunch, and it was great. Dianne wants to go where the locals go, not the tourists. The people here are scary nice.

Then a girl in sitting near us in the basement cafeteria noticed that we had our empty tray on the table next to us and asked if she could put it away for us. What the heck?? We told her how nice the people are in Chicago and it was such culture shock for us. Especially after being in Israel where people bump into you and keep on walking. The idea of someone saying, “Excuse me” in Israel would be unheard of. She explained she is a second generation from Chicago and her mom has lived in the same house for over 25 years.

We then purchased some pastries at another counter and the clerk said, “Have a nice day” and it sounded like she really meant it! Oh my gosh! The people in Chicago are so nice. Sure they have their panhandlers too, but so many people we met were just so nice. This is a really unique big American city.

Israel day 13 - horrible travel day

2007-07-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Israel day 13 – Travel to Chicago
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

We got to breakfast at 7 am and we were ready to leave Tel Aviv. A taxi was ordered to be at the hotel by 7:30 am. We arrived at the airport by 8 am for our 10:40 am flight. The taxi cost 120$ ($30 US).

The flight was delayed by an hour and we took off about 11:50 am heading for JFK airport in New York. Dianne was afraid we would miss our connecting flight to Chicago. Arielle was there for a three-week art program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I did want to visit Chicago after reading an article by John Cusack about what a great city it was and how much he loved it. So we planned the trip to spend a few days in Chicago and pick up Arielle before we go home to Los Angeles.

While on the plane I confirmed we would have about a three-hour layover, and Dianne was able to relax. We arrive in New York after an 11.5-hour flight. It was so strange to go from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv in 14 hours, and it would take about 5 hours to get from LA to NY. How come it takes 11.5 hours to get to NY when it should have been 9 hours?

Anyway, we get to New York at 3:50 pm local time and I check in for our flight to Chicago. I thought Dianne booked us on American Airlines, but it showed right on the itinerary that we were booked on Delta and the flight was schedule for 3 hours later at 7 pm.

Dianne cannot stand to wait around in an airport and the first thing she did was to try to get an earlier flight to Chicago. She was told the earliest flight was 7 pm. However, when I used the self-serve check-in, on the boarding pass is printed that the flight time was scheduled for 9 pm. I was confused: Our 7 pm flight is taking off at 9 pm; was our 7 pm flight cancelled? I checked in three hours ahead: Did we check in too late? Were we now on standby? The TV screen shows our flight as 7 pm and on time: What was going on here?

Dianne wanted an earlier flight so she would not have to wait 3 hours. What a laugh. I was hoping that we would actually fly out at 9 pm. Then we go to the Delta terminal and I heard the real horror stories: People who had to sleep overnight in the airport for delayed flights; cancelled flights; 2 days to get from Germany to New York, etc.

Dianne and I both had similar conversations. As we walked around the airport we asked, “Was it worthwhile to go through these types of travel nightmares to visit other lands?” We agreed it was like the labor to deliver a baby: It is hell, but when it’s over you forget about it. Thank goodness that was true, because I don’t want to travel anyway. If I was able to remember this hell, I certainly would not be willing to go again. However, it is always in the background of my mind and I always try to talk Dianne into traveling in the US. Good luck.

We were lucky; our flight only got delayed another hour to 10 pm. We get on the plane and then sit on the ground for another hour. We finally arrived in Chicago just after midnight local time. By the time we got into our hotel room we traveled 30 hours to get from Tel Aviv to Chicago.

And it is now Wednesday, July 11 and Dianne’s birthday. It is 12:30 am and Dianne speaks to the man at the reservations desk, tells them it’s her birthday and asks if she can get an upgraded room. WOW, we got a huge suite on the 45th floor with a rack rate of $1000 per night. I took lots of photos.

Israel day 10, 11 & 12

2007-07-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Israel day 10, 11 & 12
July 7 - 9, 2007 – Tel Aviv

Day 10, July 7 – Saturday

It is Saturday and our first day in Tel Aviv. Ron dropped us off last night and I parked the car in a parking lot across the street from our hotel. The Mediterranean Sea and beach is on the west side of the parking lot and our hotel is on the east side of the parking lot, so we have an uninterrupted view of the beach and sea.

Ron told us ahead of time that there was not much to see in Tel Aviv, it was another new city, only 150 years old, so we didn’t need a guide here. So Dianne and I choose to go to Gordon beach (based on the Frommer’s Guide) that is now called La La Land Beach.

After nine days of touring, visiting museums, archeological sites, and learning about Israel I was full. A day at the beach; sitting still; reading; writing my travel blog was just a treat. Dianne was nice enough to cooperate and sit still for two and a half hours. And, because it was a Saturday in Israel most places are closed. I later found out Dianne wasn’t feeling well. So besides everything being closed that was probably the reason she was able to sit still.

Israel day 11
July 8, 2007 – Sunday

We have not used the Budget rental car in 2 days; I don’t plan to use it; I don’t want to use it to drive to the airport; and I don’t want to drive in this city. So I turned it in a couple of days early. What I save on the car, even after paying the extra for letting Ron drive it, more than makes up for any taxi fare to the airport.

Dianne decides she wants to go to the open air flea market and the Old City of Jaffa which is on the south of Tel Aviv. We start walking to the flea market, and I was a little unsure of finding the flea market, and Dianne was still not feeling well, so half way there we took a cab and it was only $4. We had a good time and it was an easy walk to Jaffa. Unfortunately, Dianne was getting worse so we didn’t have a chance to see much and took a cab back to the hotel.

We knew we were ready to leave Tel Aviv, but we had to wait until Tuesday for our scheduled flight.

Israel day 12
July 9, 2007 – Monday

It’s July 22, and Dianne felt so bad that she just stayed in bed all day. Yesterday she also felt sick, but still had to keep up her tour. Me, I could have gone to the beach for another day. I’ve got plenty of sunscreen and reading materials. For Dianne to not tour, she has to be ready to drop. I used the time to do more writing.

Israel day 9 - Tiberius, Haifa & Tel Aviv

2007-07-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Israel day 9
July 6, 2007 – Tiberius, Haifa & Tel Aviv

We had our last BIG breakfast at Hagoshrim and visited a cemetery that was on the kibbutz. One of the gravesites had two benches around it, a mailbox, and an old video camera set on a tripod with the legs in cement. Ron told us this person’s hobby was photography.

We asked why rocks were placed on the graves. Although some had flowers, that was not a Jewish custom. Rocks are a part of nature, and the body is being returned to nature. Rocks are the acknowledgement of the visit and they are the natural things to bring to the grave.

We drove though Tiberius, named after one of the Roman Emperors, which is on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. While there were sites to see, the city looked like a typical resort town full of tourists and shopping. One third of Israel’s water comes from the Sea of Galilee and 2/3 is pumped from the ground. We just drove through and headed to our next stop, Haifa.

Haifa is a new city, starting about 150 years ago, and the center of the Baha’i religion. The Baha’i Temple and grounds is an amazing site rising from the based of a hill in Haifa and going all the way up to the top with immaculately maintained grounds. The grass is beautiful; the flowers were in bloom; the trees were all trimmed; there were 2” red rocks separating gardens and grass.

From what I understand, when Muhammad founded the Islam religion he said he was the last prophet to announce the coming of the Messiah, and that anyone else who said they were a messenger was a liar and should die. The Baha’i faith grew out of an announcement by Bab (Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, 1819-1850) that he was sent by God to announce that a bigger messenger than himself would be coming. Well, according to Muhammad this was a bad idea and Bab was publicly martyred in 1850. Then came Mirza Husayn-Ali the founder of the Baha’i faith. He was a Persian nobleman and took the title “The Glory of God.” Again, bad idea. The story goes that Mirza was hanged, and the rope broke. This was a sign that he should not be killed, so they imprisoned him in Acre, across the bay from Haifa, until he died 24 years later.

Next on the route to Tel Aviv was Caesarea. If you don’t know for whom this city was named, you need to read more than my blog. This was a port city where the harbor was built from scratch by King Herod and served ships that traveled the Mediterranean Sea. This was a city built to serve the travelers and grew into a major stop with a 4000 seat theatre; an ancient Jewish quarter; an amphitheatre for horse races; luxurious bathhouses; a 30,000 seat hippodrome for chariot races; an aqueduct and temples.

Unfortunately, the city was built above a fault line that runs along the shore and either an earthquake or a gradual shift in the earth’s plates destroyed the harbor around 100 A.D. Over the next 2000 years it was rebuilt and destroyed by various groups like Pagans, Samaritans and Arabs to Jews and Christians. During the Byzantine period, around 500 A.D., the city covered more than 400 acres and was the largest fortified city in the country.

Our next stop was near Latana to visit friends of Dianne’s uncle Walter. Friedlander went to elementary school in Germany just prior to the breakout of WWII. Both Walter and Peter where a part of the Kinder Transport that saved Jewish children and got them out of Germany. Peter went with his parents in 1939 to England and got visas to go to Israel and went to Haifa. Peter still has the certificate from his arrival in 1940 that shows he is a Palestinian. Near Latana he set up a farm. Peter’s father made clothing for children in Breslau, Germany from 1918 to 1937 until the Jews were persecuted and fled to England.

We arrived in Tel Aviv about 4:30.

Israel day 8 - Lebanon border & Tzfat

2007-07-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Israel day 8
July 5, 2007 – Lebanon border & Tzfat

Today we went to Metula, the most northern city in Israel, next to the Lebanon border. We also visited the Bet Ha Shomer cemetery where the origins of the Israeli army began.

Starting around 1880, Jews from other parts of the world, as they were being persecuted and expelled, went to the United States and Israel. With money from wealthy Jewish families, like the Rothchilds, Montefiore, Hirsh and Turra, Jews PURCHASED land around Metula and established kibbutzim. This land was purchased from either the Turkish government or Arab families. Often times, the Arab did not want to sell to a Jew, so a middleman might be used. These early settlers were constantly being robbed by their Arab and Bedouin neighbors and hired other Arabs to guard their homes.

The Turkish government did not allow civilians to have guns, as it was the responsibility of the government to protect the citizens. So the Jews had no protection and the government would not be responsible for it’s duty. The Arab guards would tell their friends when they would have a day off work, so that would be the time to rob the settlers. So much for the fox guarding the chicken coop.

A group of 14 young Jewish men decided to illegally arm themselves and offer the settlers protection from the Arabs. One of the settlers was persuaded to use them instead of his Arab guards and they succeeded in chasing away the next band of thieves. The other kibbutz decided to use them as well. One of the other settlers was a Jew who had been a general in the Russian army, and had lost one arm in the military. He organized the youths and showed them how to train other youths on how to use guns and use military intelligent approaches to security.

The attitude of Jews throughout history has been to bend down and let the storm pass. It was not to stand up and defend oneself. This security force was a radical departure from the cultural tradition of Jews. Over the decades since this early security force was created the current Israeli army has developed.

When we saw the many “birthright” groups of young people touring the country, they were always accompanied by at least two armed soldiers. By the way, the birthright program allows youths, 18 – 26 the opportunity to visit Israel for free to connect to their heritage. The main contributors to this program are wealthy Jewish families like Bronfman, Reichman, and others.

It is now about 1 pm and we are headed to Tzfat. This is the spiritual center of Kabala, and is also spelled as Safed, Tsfet and Zefat. In translating from Hebrew to English, you can spell things almost any way you want to get the sound you need for the Hebrew name, and I saw the name of this city spelled four different ways in English.

When translating from Hebrew to English things changed dramatically, If a Christian saw Jesus, and called him by that name, he probably would not turn around. Why, because he was Jewish and his name would be pronounced Jehudah. If you spoke about Jerusalem, no one would know what city you were talking about because that would be pronounced Yerushalaym.

People come to Tzfat from around Israel, and around the world, to study Kabala, pray at the gravesite of various rabbis to be granted health, wealth, or relationships and more. It appears to be like prayed to the Virgin Mary or Jesus.

Our guide, Ron, showed us how he gains special powers whenever he comes to this area. As an example, he stopped the car on a downhill road and it rolled uphill while in neutral. I was very impressed, but not by that. I was impressed by how the road looked like it was downhill. I stepped out of the car and looked around and it still appeared to be downhill. It wasn’t until I walked the road that I could feel it was actually uphill, regardless of how it looked. It was a very weird feeling. My eyes were lying to me.

We walked in the Old Market of Tzfat and Dianne shopped in a candle store where they also did bible scenes in was. I took a photo of David after he killed Goliath and cut off his head. In one of the booths an orthodox looking man asked if I wanted to put on a “fillin.” I didn’t even know what this was, but I was sure I didn’t want to wear it. I don’t even wear a yarmulke in synagogue, and I only go there to celebrate something with another family. Then Dianne pleaded with me to put on the little box on my head and the leather strap around my arm. Then Ron suggested I do it for my wife. Well, now we have a photo of me looking Jewish with a little black box on the top of my head.

We later walked into two synagogues; Greek Jews established one in the mid 1500s, which is a part of Dianne’s heritage, and the other was a Sephardim synagogue. What I learned was that Sephardic Jews come from Muslim countries, like Spain and Italy, while Ashkenazi Jews come from primarily Christian countries. I cannot confirm this as I did not do the research myself, but this is what I was told. The difference in the synagogues is easy to see. In a Sephardic synagogue the bema is in the center and is up high so the members have to look up, like looking up to heaven. In an Ashkenazi synagogue the bema would be in the front and rows of seats would look like most churches.

Dianne talked about how great it was to visit these temples and Ron corrected our language. I wrote about this in my Day 1 blog: A temple and a synagogue are two different things. The Jews have not had a temple for 2000 years after the Romans destroyed the last one. A temple is where Jews brought offerings that were sacrificed to God and only priests were allowed inside. We no longer have a temple or priests. We have synagogues and rabbis. A synagogue is a meeting place and rabbis study the torah and the Talmud instead of sacrificing animals to God.

Synagogues existed prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., but they were only for gathering, events, community conversations and things like that. They were not for religious purposes, until the Second Temple was destroyed.

Israel Day 7 - Golan Heights

2007-07-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

Israel blog July 4, 2007
Day 7 – Golan Heights

Today we left the Hagroshim Kibbutz and drove to the Golan Heights where this part of Israel was under constant bombardment from Syrian forces situated in a maze of underground bunkers. The Syrian troops, with the support of Russia, were entrenched in 50 miles of bunkers along the mountains of the Golan Heights and shelled many of the Kibbutz below the mountains that were in the Hula, Galilee and Jordan Valley for 19 years, from 1949 to the 1967. In the Six Days War Israeli troops fought an uphill battle to defeat the Syrians

Throughout Israel, and here as well, it was demonstrated through archeological excavations that Jews had settled this land over 3000 years ago. The village of Gamla dates back to the time of the first temple in Jerusalem. If Israel were to abandon this area, not only would Syria continue to threaten the communities in the area, but all the agriculture, commerce, and history that dates back 3000 years would be destroyed. While the Jews made the desert bloom, the other Arab countries did nothing with this land, other than bomb the progress that Israel made.

The story of how the maze of bunkers was discovered is a fascinating one. However, even though it was discovered how the Syrians were able to bomb sites in northern Israel undetected for so many years, it was almost impossible to get a map of this crazy maze. A spy was sent to Argentina to set up an alibi as a wealthy businessman with Syrian roots who wanted to return to his homeland after the death of his grandfather. He became a part of the Damascus society circles and became friends with the general who was in charge of the Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.

While no one was allowed to live in this area, as it was a military zone for Syria, no one was even allowed to visit, except the spy from Israel. Eventually his deception was discovered and he was hanged in a public square. He gave up his family and his life to help Israel survive and ultimately kick the Syrians off the Golan Heights. From the 1967 Six Days War it shifted from Syrian soldiers overlooking Israel to Israeli soldiers overlooking Syria. It was easy for Israel to settle the Golan Heights area after the Six Days War because Syria had this 50 by 15 mile area as a military base and no civilians were allowed there.

Seven years later, in 1973, Syria invaded the northern area in a surprise attack on Yom Kipur, while Egypt invaded the south of Israel. I purchased a 12 minute DVD based on a 24 minute film that I saw at the Elrona Kibbutz. The film shows actual footage of the tank invasion in the battle of the Golan Heights and interviews with the survivors and the families of those who died.

Since 1973 there has been a cease fire with Syria, but no peace treaty. We then went to Mt. Bental where we had a 350 degree view of Israel and Syria. This used to be a Syrian base, then and Israeli base, and now a tourist stop. The UN is stationed in the valley to monitor the cease fire and while there is no formal peace treaty, at least there is a degree of peace.

Israel day 6 - Bet She'an, Bet Alpha & 1500-year-old synagogue

2007-07-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Israel day 6
July 3, 2007, Tuesday
Bet She’an National Park; then Bet Alpha National Park and the site of a Synagogue dating back to 517 C.E.

Today we leave Jerusalem and head east to the Jordan River Valley and then north to stay a few days on a Kibbutz. Our first stop was Bet She’an National Park, a settlement that can be traced back 6,000 years and went through various populations and rulers including Philistine, Egyptian, Assyrian, Roman, Jewish, Christian and Ottoman.

This was a major stop for travelers going or coming from Babylon, Damascus, Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and Jericho so it was quite the place. The park of Bet She’an extends over more than 400 acres and excavations started here in the 1920s. During the Byzantine period (around 300 C.E.) the city was largely Christian and had a population of 30,000-40,000. The remains of a 7000 seat theatre built around 100 C.E. still exists as well as a public bathroom that could “seat” more than 24 people at one time. It was interesting to sit on a 1900-year-old toilet.

Our next stop was the Bet-Alpha Synagogue that had a mosaic floor from 1500 years ago. The synagogue was discovered in 1928 by the settlers of the Bet-Alpha kibbutz and excavated in 1929 by Professor Sukenik of the Hebrew University. As a reminder, many of the kibbutzim were created on property PURCHASED by Jews. This floor is one of the most beautiful and complete discovered in Israel. One of the transcriptions near the main entrance describes the artist who created the floor, the date, and the price of one hundred measures of grain that was paid.

We continued toward our destination in northern Israel and stopped at the Peace Garden. This was named for the seven high school girls that died on this site. A Jordanian soldier decided from his guard outpost across the border that he would gun down a group of school children standing in Israel because he could. Israeli soldiers returned fire and killed the guard. As a gesture of reconciliation, King Hussein visited each family of a slain child during Shiva, knelt and kissed the hand of a parent. The symbolism of the King of Jordan kneeling at the foot of a Jew went a long way toward created a measure of peace at the time.

As we continued north we could see the highest peak in Israel, Mt. Hermon at 6600 feet and we arrived at Hagroshrim kibbutz and resort hotel about 5:30 pm.

Israel Day 5 - Bar Mitzvahs & Holocaust Museum

2007-07-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Day 5
July 2, 2007, Monday:
Bar Mitzvahs at the Wailing Wall and then Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

Ron wanted to be sure we could see the joy of families celebrating the rite of passage for young Jewish boys. While I was standing in the shade of the Western Wall Tunnel, a man walked up to me, placed a bible on my head and started reciting something in Hebrew. He then began to tie a red string around my left wrist. I declined the string and he asked me for a handout/donation. I declined that too, and he said he gave me a wonderful blessing and again asked my what I would contribute. I replied, “Thank you.” I later found out from Ron that since it was not appropriate to ask for handouts in this area, they gave blessings and sold red strings instead.

There were 6-12 Bar mitzvahs going on at the same time, and parades of families entering the square to perform the next ceremony. For 1500 years Jews were banned from Israel and prohibited from performing this ceremony in Jerusalem.

It appears to be mass confusion; lines of worshipers with several people blowing the shofar at the same time; women crowded around behind the fence, standing on chairs, and huge crowds. Dianne had the good luck of standing next to one lady whose son was performing his Bar mitzvah and could share her joy.

We then left the Old City for Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. While Yad means, “hand” and Vashem means “name” this is more than a memorial to the 6 million plus Jews murdered and enslaved during the Holocaust. It was established in 1950 for three reasons: First, to help families re-unite and find the names of those who died.
Second, to get the facts on the Nazis who could be brought to justice.
Third, to bring respect and remember those who perished.

At the time of this writing, only about 3 million people have been documented and the help of survivors is crucial to find the names of others who perished. They have a room that houses book after book with one page devoted to each name they have been able to document and a computer database for the public to use in the search for more names.

The structure of this building that houses the main museum is an amazing piece of architecture. I have seen some amazing buildings around the world from office buildings to apartments, from great cathedrals to interesting homes, but I have never before seen a building that so clearly tells the story of its contents and so vividly connects to its message from the building of anti Semitism in Germany to the horrors, liberation and view to the future as this structure does. It is the clearly the most dramatic example to me of architecture being both the vessel of the story and the message itself.

I was doing fine while traveling from room to room as the story unfolded. It was disturbingly and sickly brilliant how Hitler built his “Final Solution.” His first step was to blame post war Germany’s ills on the Jews. In this way he turned the population against them and created an easy scapegoat. It was easy because this had been done before in other countries around the world for centuries. Then he set it up so it was okay for anyone to persecute them and identify them. Then mark them with arm bands and stars so they could be more easily be ostracized. Next, the Jews themselves were moved out of the general population into the ghettos where the public no longer saw them. If anyone even had sympathy for the Jews, they no longer saw them. Now Hitler could easily move them onto trains from a central location to the labor camps and then the extermination camps and no one would even notice. The man was brilliant and disgusting beyond belief.

The building is cantilevered on both ends with two walkways above. As people walk in the museum they can look up and see people walking across the museum pathways above, completely unaware of the museum below, just like what Hitler created with the Jews. The end of the museum opens up looking west into the light with a view of Jerusalem and the walls splitting open, and looking the bows of two ships carrying Jews to a new world. It is an amazing piece of architecture.

During all of World War II ----- soldiers lost their lives. At the same time, Hitler and his extermination plan were murdering ---- people per day. And still the Jews are here, and we were able to see them celebrate, thrive and sing joyously at the Wailing Wall.

Israel day 4 - Western Wall Tunnels, Chirst walk & more

2007-07-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

Israel Day 4
Sunday, July 1, 2007

Ron was able to arrange a tour on short notice of the tunnels that go under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and hug the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. They are only available by reservation, and due to his connections we were able to go.

From the time the of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, generations of inhabitants would build homes and shops over the homes and shops of previous generations and eventually the ground rose up dozens of meters against the Western Wall covering over 2000 years of history. Tons of dirt and refuse we painstakingly removed by hand to expose the amazing underground structures that go back to the Hasmonean era. And the excavations continue to this day.

Rooms and public halls were discovered as well as a Second Temple road that Jews and Romans walked on 2000 years earlier. The base of the wall was exposed showing the size of the huge foundation stones at the base of the wall. One stone alone was the size of a bus and how these stones could have been moved into place so precisely is amazing. It's like the building of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

After we came out of the tunnels, we were in the Muslim Quarter and walked the path (Via Dolorosa) that Jesus took from his condemnation to his place of crucifixion and saw many of the churches that were built at various points along his path; where he fell, got help, had his brow wiped, fell again, etc. Each location is marked by another church. It reminded me of the “George Washington slept here” attitude; only this is far more holy.

Please don’t think I am making fun of Christianity, this just seems to be a universal human trait; build shrines to people and events that impact people’s lives, like shrines to places where Elvis was, where Lincoln was shot, where battles took place, etcetera.

We visited the stone where the body of Christ was cleaned and wrapped for burial. Because he was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, he also died as a Jew. This meant his body could not sit around for days before it was buried. He died on a Friday, and because no work can be done on the Sabbath Saturday, he was buried the same day. His gravesite is now in a huge church built by Queen Helena: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Golgotha. Helena was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who converted to Christianity in 326 A.D.

We then went to the Wohl Museum of Archeology where we were able to see some of the largest and most important sites of the Second Temple era in the Jewish Quarter. After that we visited the Burnt Houses from the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans that occurred in 70 A.D.

One of those houses belonged to the Kathros family. Kathros was mentioned in the Talmud, but not in a complementary way. He was one of the High Priests of the Second Temple and like the quote, “Power corrupts” he could ruin the life of someone through his “poison quill.” The importance of this find provided answers to what life was like for the Jewish aristocracy 2000 years ago in the Old City. And none of this could have been discovered until the 1967 Six Days War when Israel fought back against Jordan, Egypt and Syria to capture the West Bank. While this area was in the hands of Jordan, the Jewish Quarter remained rubble for hundreds of years.

Israel Day 3 - attitude change - Dead Sea Scrolls & Masada

2007-07-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Israel Day 3
June 30, 2007, Saturday

Since it is the Sabbath today, there is no one cooking fresh eggs or pancakes for breakfast at the hotel, but there is still plenty of food and still a great variety. Dianne and I end up eating so much for breakfast that we are not even hungry again until dinner. Ron picks us up around 10 am each morning because we are not willing to get up and go any earlier.

Today we head to Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. In the summer of 1947 a couple of Bedouin herders with nothing better to do, which is no surprise when look at how they live, were throwing rocks into holes and caves in the mountains while they tended their goats. On one toss of a rock they hear a funny sound; it hits a vase made of pottery. When they investigate they find sealed urns holding scrolls. Well it looks like junk to the kids, they can’t read, but they do recognize it was written on lambskin, and they could maybe sell the leather to a sandal maker in a nearby village.

The sandal-maker says the lambskin it too old to make a decent sandal and offers the herders 10 cents. The sandal-maker, while he cannot read Hebrew, realizes he does have something old and makes a few phone calls to the University in Jerusalem and reaches a professor Sukenik. The professor drives a couple of hours and arrives in the town and meets the sandal-maker, and being the world’s most lousy poker player, exclaims, “Oh my god! Do you realize what you have here? This scroll must be over a thousand years old.”

Well, that’s all it took for the sandal-maker to sell the scroll to the professor for $10,000 and convince the Bedouin shepherds to find some more, which they did. Seven more scrolls were found and between 1951 and 1956, Father R. de Vaux and a team of French archaeologists excavated the area and found more scrolls and early living structures. This demonstrated that Qumran was the center of the Essenes who lived and studied the torah for 200 years before the birth of Christ.

The Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and systematically moved south to exterminate or enslave any other Jews they could find. Aware of the impending arrival of the Romans in Qumran the Essenes hid their scrolls in clay pottery in the caves and fled. They scattered and any that were found were either killed or enslaved, and the scrolls sat for the next 2000 years. In the very dry heat of the desert they withstood the ravages of time and were very well preserved. One scroll that was sold to a wealthy private collector in New York was placed in a safe deposit box and forgotten about for 40 years and almost disintegrated in that short time before it was retrieved.

With the capture of the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Days War, Qumran was put in the care of the National Parks Authority, which built an access road and facilities for visitors.

Our next stop is Masada. After the Romans had killed or enslaved all the rest of the Jews in Israel (then called Palestine) they set their sites on getting a bunch more slaves from Masada. This is an area of the desert that gets rain about once every three years, but this was a very clever compound for the Jews. They used an aqueduct system to capture the rainfall that fell on an entire mountain and divert it to enormous cisterns they dug in the side of the mountain. They had their goats, huge grain storage rooms and could survive for years.

They held off the Romans for 3 years, until some architects from Rome were dispatched to figure out how to break into Masada. They came up with the idea to build a huge ramp that would lead right up the western wall of Masada, and then they could use a battering ram to break down the wall.

This didn’t go so well at first because the Jews would roll large rocks toward the Romans and knock them into the valley below like bowling pins. Next idea by the Romans; use Jewish slaves to build the ramp. Surely they wouldn’t go bowling with their own people, and they didn’t, and the Romans finished their ramp.

Seeing what would happen next, the males of Masada met to determine what to do. Either they allow their wives and children to become slaves of the Romans, get raped, tortured and whatever, and be helpless to do anything about it, or commit suicide. It was a Friday and they held a traditional Shabbat dinner and then destroyed all their food supplies, gold and silver. Then each male head of the family killed his own family and then committed suicide. Ten men were left to be sure the 900+ members of Masada were dead and then they would kill each other. When the Romans broke in the next day they found everyone dead and nothing to plunder.

The only way these events could be passed on was by a mother who hid with her two children to escape the murder-suicide pact. I hate to think of what happened to that poor woman and her children. These were the last significant number of Jews to live in Israel for 1500 years. There were always one or two here and there, but no more communities.

I started this trip with the attitude that I didn’t even want to go to Israel. Now I am in the home of my ancestors, their blood flowing through my veins, their strength and courage is my heritage, and their language and customs still survive after 3000 years of persecution. Maybe I should learn to read Hebrew?

Israel Day 2 - Tank Museum & Caves at Tel Maresha

2007-07-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Israel day 2
June 29, 2007, Friday

Ron Beer, our guide, picked Dianne and I up at 10 am and we went to Elliot the moneychanger. This is cool; a guy from New Jersey that moved to Israel and converts currency from his apartment. I did not plan far enough in advance to trade dollars for shekels. When I went to the bank at home to get shekels I was told they are available, but a 5-day advance notice is required to order shekels. Euros are always on hand at home, but Elliot was able to trade easily at a fair rate, and we got about $800 of shekels. (By the end of the trip I still had over $300 worth of shekels.)

We left Jerusalem for Yad La’Shiryon Latrun, a memorial site for the Armored Corps with a museum in Latrun. The site vividly displays the work, commitment, and inadequate equipment the Israelis had available to secure their freedom against far superior equipment supplied by the Russians to the Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians and Lebanese.

In 1948 when the U.N. offered the Jews a country, and Israel had to fight for its independence, British troops left in the middle of the night. They figured the Arab countries would just cut up the land that Jews had been purchasing for decades and drive out the Jews. And, no country was willing to sell arms to Israel because they wanted it to disappear. Israel was using these itty-bitty tanks that looked like toys compared to what the Russians were supplying other Arab countries.

Still, Israel survived. The Jews survived 400 years of slavery under the Pharaoh in Egypt; the attempted extermination by the Romans; centuries of pogroms in Spain, Russia, and other countries around the globe; the Holocaust in Germany; the abandonment of the British troops when statehood was granted; and the continual onslaught of its Arab neighbors for the last 60 years. There must be something to the Jewish people I did not understand; how the Jews survived for 3000 years under continual persecution and maintained the same religion, culture and language with no leadership, country or government of their own.

After Yad La’Shiryon we went to Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park with the caves of Tel Maresha. Here we could see how Jews were able to live in the desert by building caves into the hills. The caves created a constant livable temperature, stored water and housed commerce like making olive oil. We saw ancient burial tombs that we not discovered until the 1920s.

There were also Carob trees at the site. The interesting thing about this is that the seeds are very uniform. So much so that they were used as weights to measure precious stones which are weighed as carats, based on the weight of the number of carob seeds.

We ended the day at an open-air food market back in Jerusalem on a Friday afternoon. Shoppers were buying for the Sabbath, merchants were yelling out what they had to sell. It was a glorious madhouse.

Dianne and I purchased some pre-cooked food that was being cooked in huge pots out by the street. All I could picture was the aftermath of eating this food. I pictured myself being chained to the porcelain throne after getting dysentery or something else from the lack of sanitary conditions. Dianne prevailed and we purchased plenty of food for 30$ (shekels), which was about $7.50 US. And darn it, it tasted great and I was fit as a fiddle.

Israel Day 1, 6-28-07 Jerusalem Old City & Temple Mount

2007-07-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Israel trip day 1
Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Dan Panorama hotel provided a mind-blowing breakfast. I understand that is typical of the hotels in Israel. There were omelets cooked to order, three types of fish, two yogurts with fresh fruit, piles of fresh fruit, cereals, rolls, three other types of hot food, fresh squeezed orange or grapefruit juice, eight different deserts, salads, fresh cooked omelets and pancakes, and I forget what else.

We met our tour guide, Ron Beer, and he explained that the hotel is your home away from home, and on that basis they make sure you are well fed. He spoke a little about himself; he asked about us; how we travel; what we expect to see and learn; and more. He reviewed our schedule for the next 9 days and we took off in our rental car for the first stop: Haas Promenade where we could see all of Jerusalem from the west to the west bank and from the Old City to the Mount of Olives.

Ron is a great fit for us, even though he did not carry a gun. He would tell us a little, and then ask some questions to make us think. In that way, we really retained much more information about the culture, heritage, and history of Israel. Just like everyone else in Israel, boys and girls alike, he served in the military from age 18 to 20. He fought in wars on the Lebanon and Jordan borders and personally knows how hard it is for Israel and the Jewish people to continue to survive. His parents fought here in 1948 for Israel’s independence so he has a direct connection to the creation of this country.

It was clear through Ron, and what we saw, that the following statement I read last year is true: “If the Muslim world would lay down their guns, there would be peace. If Israelis laid down their guns, there would be no Israel.” Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Russia and more would like to see Israel and the Jewish people wiped out. Israel has 7 million people and the only democracy in the Middle East surrounded by 100 million Arabs and Muslims and no other democracy. Through all of this, and 3000 years of persecution the Jews continue to exist. There is something to be proud of here.

Our next stop was the Old City and the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Center and the Temple Mount Excavations.

Day One was like a highlights tour ending at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall. You might ask, “What’s the difference between the Western and Wailing walls?”

To start with, it is the same support wall that created the Temple Mount that was built by King Herod about 2000 years ago where the Second Temple was built for the Jews. The first temple was built around 500 years earlier and lasted for about 400 years until is was destroyed by the Babylonians. King Solomon built the original first temple. He is the son of King David who united the 12 tribes of Israel 3000 years ago. King David was told he could not build the Temple because he had the blood on his hands from war.

In 586 B.C. when this first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians Jews were driven out of Israel. About 70 years later, Queen Esther allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and they rebuilt that first temple, but nowhere near the beauty of what King Solomon had built. Still, it lasted for 400 years until King Herod built the second temple around 30-40 B.C. Around 70 A.D. this second temple was then destroyed by the Romans.

Also, a temple and a synagogue are two different things. The Jews have not had a temple for 2000 years after the Romans destroyed the last one. A temple is where Jews brought offerings that were sacrificed to God and only priests were allowed inside. We no longer have a temple or priests. We have synagogues and rabbis. A synagogue is a meeting place and rabbis study the torah and the Talmud instead of sacrificing animals to God.

Back in the time of the Second Temple the country was called Palestine, not Israel. Jews, Arabs, Drews, and anyone else who lived in Palestine at that time were called Palestinians, except for the Romans. They were always Romans.

In 705 A.D. a mosque was built on the Temple Mount on the site where the Second Temple used to stand by Arabs from Saudi, Mecca, Medina, etc. Mohamed is responsible for the creation of the Islamic religion practiced by hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.

The Wailing Wall is the part of the Western Wall that is the closest point to the location of where the holiest of holy parts of the Second Temple used to stand 2000 years ago and is the closest that a Jew can get to that point. That is the reason for volume of prayers and bar mitzvahs that take place at this site.

Israel first night

2007-07-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Israel trip first night; June 27, 2007

I got a rental car at the airport from Budget and it was a great deal. Instead of paying $125 per day for the guide to rent a car that he would use, he suggested that we could rent the car and save some money, as it will only be the three of us. It was only $150 per week for the car from Budget, and I was able to drive us from the airport in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and got us to the hotel by only asking for directions one time. We arrived at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem. I am so impressed with myself.

Not only did I get us to Jerusalem based on signs written in Hebrew, I drove in the public transportation lane (reserved for taxis and buses) found the hotel, made an illegal turn onto a 1 way street, going the wrong way, with a police car behind us, and didn’t get a ticket. Boy, they are generous here. In Mexico I would have probably been hauled off to jail. In Syria I would have probably been shot dead in the street. Okay, all the signs were also written in English and Arabic too.

Anyway, we got settled into our hotel room, took a nap to recover from the 14-hour flight on El Al (a great airline). When we woke up we walked south where we ate at Caffit, 35 Emek Rafa’im Street. They were primarily vegetarian plus fish. I thought I would get a mushroom burger, but the waitress said it had no meat. So I got a salmon burger and it was really good. Dianne got a salad, and between the two of us, it was too much food. We could have split one dish just like we do at home when we eat out.

We walked back to our hotel and went to sleep. Tomorrow will be our first day with our guide, Ron Beer. (Beer is German and pronounced Bear)

Summary of the 14 day Israel trip

2007-07-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

Israel Summary - You can read more about each day on separate additional posts

Day 1, June 28, 2007, Thursday: Highlights tour:
Old City of Jerusalem, Western & Wailing Wall

Day 2, June 29, 2007, Friday: Yad La’Shiryon, Latrun, Memorial site and the Armored Corps museum in Latrun and the Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park with the caves of Tel Maresha showing houses, commerce and burial

Day 3, June 30, 2007, Saturday: Qumran, site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and then Masada National Park

Day 4, July 1, 2007, Sunday: The Western Wall Tunnels, under the Arab Quarter; the Herodian Quarter, The Wohl Museum of Archeology; and the Burnt House of Kathros

Day 5, July 2, 2007, Monday: Bar Mitzvahs at the Wailing Wall and then Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

Day 6, July 3, 2007, Tuesday: Bet She’an National Park, a settlement that started 7,000 years ago and went through various populations including Egyptian, Roman, Jewish and Christian; then Bet Alpha National Park and the site of a Synagogue dating back to 517 B.C.

Day 7, July 4, 2007, Wednesday: The Golan Heights; Syrian border; Drews village; Mount Mental; the Elroma Kibbutz where we saw actual footage of the tank battle that took place there in 1973 when Syria invaded Israel on Yom Kippur

Day 8, July 5, 2007, Thursday: Metula, the most northern city in Israel and next to the Lebanon border; the Bet Ha Shomer cemetery; Tzfat, the center for Kabala studies; and Synagogues established by Greek Jews

Day 9, July 6, 2007, Friday: Haifa; the Baha’I Temple; Caesarea National Park; Latania to visit Susie and Emanuel Friedlander; and arrived in Tel Aviv

Day 10, July 7, 2007, Saturday: Tel Aviv; Gordon Beach for the day

Day 11, July 8, 2007, Sunday: Tel Aviv; Want go to home now, no guide for 2 days; turned in the rental car; flea market; Old City of Yaffo

Day 12, July 9, 2007, Monday: Carmel open-air flea and food market; rest before leaving on Tuesday for Chicago.

Day 13, July 10, 2007, Tuesday: travel day bad dream (versus nightmare); 30+ hours from Tel Aviv to Chicago to arrive by midnight on the same day

Day 14, July 11, 2007, Wednesday: Arrive in Chicago around 10 minutes after midnight and head to the Marriott in Downtown

Plane trip to Israel

2007-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Israel plane trip
June 26, 2007

Oh joy. Happy, happy, joy, joy. I get to go to the airport and be degraded so that I can travel to a country I don’t want to visit. I guarantee that when they start the full cavity searches I will stay home. I don’t care where Dianne wants to go.

At least I feel safe flying on El Al. You are quizzed before you get to the counter. You are quizzed at the counter. You cannot send you bag ahead and duck out of the airport; you have to stay with your suitcase while they screen it. You can see the guards posted all over the place with machine guns. Each step of the way you or your bag gets another color dot confirming the check in process. You are checked before you get on the bus to go to the airplane. You can see 2 - 3 security personnel on the bus with you. You go through checkpoint after checkpoint before you get on the plane. I can’t see a terrorist getting this far without sweating blood. Maybe that’s why El Al has the fewest problems of any airliner. And I hear it is even harder to board in Israel. When I find out, I will write about that too.

It was strange to get on the plane and watch many of the passengers pick up an Israeli newspaper written in Hebrew as they boarded. There were lots of folks with beanies, beards and tassels; children with little curly things by their ears; women dressed so frumpy you could cry; and I get to travel with them all. Here I was complaining about being with a bunch of religious people, and I know God has a sense of humor; I get seated next to a Rabbi. His name is Jacob Benzaquen from Congregation Temple Emanu-El in Reno, Nevada. Thank goodness he was not talkative. That’s all I needed was a 14 hour plane trip with someone trying to tell me how I need to be more Jewish, or go to temple, or donate a kidney to a synagogue or something. Although he said his congregation was conservative, he looked normal. Oh, I was thinking of the orthodox. They are the ones who say I am not even Jewish because I don’t do religion their way.

As I write this, we have been in the air for five hours, and we only have nine more hours before I get out of this flying metal tube with the seatback in front of me resting on my nose. Dianne said I look like a chipmunk trying to type this, and she’s right. Oh joy.

Israel trip before leaving

2007-07-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,
Here is it, July 12, and although I have been writing, I have not been able to post to my blog since I left for Israel on June 26. My connection would not work from Israel, and it was even a problem when I got back into the US, and I am in Chicago now. I finally got around the problem, and can start posting. This first post will be what was going on before we left on our trip.
Israel trip before we leave
June 25, 2007
Well, the Resistant Traveler is on the way to Israel. I am looking forward to meeting some Hamas fighters, Fatah soldiers and some suicide bombers.

Before our trip even began, I was having a problem. Dianne is not the type to choose a hotel and then stop her shopping for rooms. She will book a room in two or three hotels and then cancel them until she finds the one she is most comfortable with; the one people in the know have recommended; the one that has a good write up in Fromers and a few websites; the one that ends up costing more than we planned. This will be by far our most expensive trip. The airfare alone was over $4000 and she has hired a guide at $250 per day plus car rental and hotel for the guide.

I think that is a fair price to stay alive in a country that I don’t even want to visit. I mean I hear Israel is beautiful and the people are wonderful, but the Middle East is not my idea of a destination location. Hawaii yes. The Middle East in summer, no. If the IRS ever questions how this could possibly be a vacation instead of a business trip for my travel book, they have another thing coming. I would much prefer to vacation in the US, but that holds no interest to Dianne. I wouldn’t even take any deductions on traveling in the US if Dianne was willing to stay in this country. But nooo, that’s not how it works.

Anyway, getting back to the problem. You may have guessed it had something to do with a hotel room before I got off the topic, and you would be right. One of the places she booked a room was the Jerusalem Inn. A quaint 23-room hotel that looked nice on the Internet. Two weeks before we were to arrive she made a reservation, no specific room yet as she wasn’t sure what she wanted. Well 5 days later she found what she wanted at another hotel and booked that. The task to cancel with the Jerusalem Inn fell to me because she used my credit card. The first shock was the reply email when I said I wanted to cancel. I was told they had a two-week cancellation policy and I should stay with them and cancel the other hotel Dianne booked.

I find out later each hotel in Israel can set whatever policy they want regarding cancellations. Even though the major hotels, like Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, etc only require no more than 24 hours the Jerusalem Inn was digging inn their heels on their two week policy even though the room was only booked two weeks in advance. We must have had a half dozen emails back and forth over this. They finally stopped responding to me when I pressed for verification they would not charge my credit card. At least I have the following fall back points if this does show up on my credit card statement:
They do not have any mention of a two week cancellation policy on their website.
They never mentioned in the confirmation email.
No specific room was ever reserved.
No specific cancellation fee was ever communicated
I can dispute the charge if it shows up and I have all the documentation from emails to provide to the credit card company which can refuse payment to them.

What a great start on travel to a country that I didn’t want to visit in the first place.

Philadelphia bound

2007-05-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 On to Philadelphia

I am starting to come down with a sore throat so I head over to Target at 8 am to buy aspirin and start taking that every four hours.

Toni has another culinary treat for our breakfast; some sort of French toast thing with chopped almonds. It was great. Yesterday’s breakfast held us over for six hours before we were hungry again.

After getting driving directions to Philly from Mapquest, I review them with Toni. He suggests a better, faster route based on the time of day we would be getting into the city. It was a southern route instead of a northern route on the Interstate. Based on the traffic, that would have taken longer than the highway.

It was an easy drive to get to Philly and Toni’s directions were right on the mark. Only one adjustment, he was thinking I would take the 322 south as one of the turns, but that highway goes east. It was easy to figure out, as I knew I had to go east to get to Philadelphia from Lancaster.

Here is the way to get from Lancaster to Philadelphia, PA:

Highway 30 east about 12 miles

Hwy 41 south about 15 miles

Hwy 1 north about 10 miles

Hwy 322 east about 15 miles and then

Interstate 95 north to Philadelphia, passing the airport on the way into town

Rennie

Lancaster, PA & the Amish

2007-05-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 30, 2007

Today we woke up in Lancaster, PA. It’s a beautiful place; the weather is great at 65-70 degrees, some clouds, scenic farmland, horse drawn carriages and plows. This is a place where I can relax and unwind. Live here moves at a slower pace, but it is not standing still, except for the Old Order Amish. Their technology clock stopped around 1901.

We stayed at the Silverstone Inn, an awesome bed and breakfast farmhouse owned by Toni and Lorin Wortel (http://www.silverstoneinn.com 877-290-6987). It was a completely run down 10.5 acre farm built around 1750. The Wortel’s absolutely and completely remodeled it with beautiful materials and attention to detail. It has private baths, hairdryers, Jacuzzi’s, fireplaces, individual A/C, TV, DVD, phone with data port and free Wireless internet access. It is luxury in the middle of farmland and even the toilet roll holders were upscale design fixtures.

The cost of remodeling was obviously more than they paid for the farm, and they are still close to the city, right off Highway 30. Dianne and I walked to dinner and the nearby Target store the previous night. This morning our master chef, Toni, made some sort of crepes for our breakfast.

This is the second B&B for Toni and Lorin after retiring from regular business occupations. Lorin is from the Lancaster area and met Toni when he was working as an engineer on a cruise ship. I don’t usually enjoy engineers; you know the type – you ask what time it is and they tell you how the watch was made, but you never find out what time it is. Toni was not only our chef, but a very knowledgeable and personable host as well. I wouldn’t think of staying anywhere else if I were within 100 miles of the Silverstone Inn.

While touring the area I learned there are over 22 different Amish sects from the Plain to the Mennonites. The Old Order Amish do not permit electricity or phones in their homes and also speak a Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. I was told the Mennonites use electricity. Toni gave us great suggestions on where to go to see the real Amish life, not some tourist re-creation.

We went to a general store run by an Amish family and where the Amish shop. I found it fascinating and purchased all sorts of little sewing items I needed. I probably could have purchased them at any fabric store, but I didn’t realize I needed them until I saw them there. All the supplies for the Amish were here from lantern wicks to plain dishware and spiritual books. God comes first and everything else comes after that. That is one of the reasons for the simple, plain life. They believe the worldly things can prevent them from being close to God.

I also purchased some toys I had not seen since I was a child; black and white Scottie dogs with magnets on the bottom. They dogs will attract and repel each other, or follow each other around when separated by a piece of glass or paper. These will be gifts for my children until my grandchildren can play with them without eating them.

Our next stop was an antique shop that was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It had all sorts of farm implements and items that might be 100 years old, but still in use today by the Amish. (Strasburg Antique Market, 717-687-5624)

We continue our tour through the Amish farmland, visit an Amish farm and check on one of the tourist traps. The easy way to tell if the Amish are willing to have tourists is to see if they have a sign out on the road like: “Homemade root beer. Turn here.” Well, we did that and got some other treats as well.

By now it’s 3 pm and we’re ready for lunch. The crepes for breakfast held us for 6 hours before we got hungry again. Toni suggested we try Dienner’s for real Amish food. It was plain, hearty food; chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, very well steamed vegetables and plain tasting. I loved it and Dianne hated it. We both agreed the variety of deserts were plentiful and great tasting.

Rennie

A New Jersey event

2007-05-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 26, 2007
Well, the Resistant Traveler is on the road again. Dianne and I are on our way to Kenylon, NJ for the bat mitzvah of her niece. This is the last event of this type for this generation. Emily is the youngest of the nieces, nephews and cousins. The next string of event will be their weddings and then the start of a new generation. Shoot, this reminds me that I’m getting old. Shucks, in another 8 years my own grandson could have a bar mitzvah. I better stop this now before I give myself a heart attack.

Friday, April 27, 2007
We arrived in NJ late last night, near midnight. It was awful weather; thunder, lightning, and plenty of rain. It was tough to find the hotel and we got to bed about 3 am NJ time.
I accomplished a major success. Dianne and I were supposed to go into Manhattan with other visiting family and leave at 10 a.m. Wow, just what I need after going to bed at 3 a.m.; a relaxing day in Manhattan traffic, stores and tourist traps.
Normally, I get up between 6 and 7 a.m. without an alarm clock, and I did this morning as well. Dianne on the other hand has the ability to sleep in late. I find that very difficult. And this morning I didn’t want to get up or wake Dianne to get ready to go to Manhattan. Well, we slept in to 12:30 p.m. That was one success for me, sleeping late. The second success is the greater one; we didn’t go to Manhattan. Maybe that’s not a legitimate success, like I convinced Dianne to stay back and relax, but I am going to count it anyway as a success.

Friday evening
About 35 members of the family that came in from out of town had dinner with Dianne’s brother, Gary, and his family at a restaurant near his home in Smokerise. Unfortunately, Dianne’s sister, Lisa, had been sick before we went to NJ, and was feeling awful and needed to leave early. Fortunately for me, I was the navigator to get her to the restaurant and had to leave early with her so she could get back to the hotel, and we took Dianne’s daughter and two cousins with us. Dianne could stay and visit and come back later with other cousins. That worked for everyone.

Saturday, April 28, 2007
Bad start; Dianne’s mom trips stepping out of the tub, falls and hurts her shoulder. Dianne and Lisa gave her mom an ice pack, helped her get dressed, etcetera, and we left about 30 minutes late. The bat mitzvah was to start at 9:30 a.m. but we got there more like 10 a.m. Emily waited for her grandma with the sore shoulder.
Following the service, a school bus took Emily’s young friends to the luncheon at a country club. I don’t know if what followed is how Gary puts on an event, or if it is just how they do it on the east coast or NJ. The O’derves were great and plentiful; three types of pasta, steak, tuna, Peking duck rolls, fresh fruit, Chinese chicken, couscous, calamari, champagne, make your own sandwiches, and that’s just what I had.
Oh yea, and then there were the servers bringing meatballs, shrimp and asparagus dipped in shrimp.
I probably missed one of the food stations, but by the time I was done with the food I had taken, I couldn’t eat more anyway. Since I don’t drink, I didn’t care about the two bars that had enough liquor to serve the Navy on leave.
Since this was the third event Gary had hosted I fully knew what to expect and didn’t hold back on the O’derves. I ate beyond being full, knowing full well there would be a sit-down lunch with a choice of filet mignon, fish, or chicken. When the waitress came by I told her that I would not be having lunch. I don’t know what happens to all the leftover O’derves, but I was not willing to add to the possible waste of food by ordering lunch and taking two bites and have the rest thrown out. I was so full from the O’derves I didn’t even have dinner that night.

Sunday, April 29, 2007
As the weekend continued it was time for the Sunday brunch at Gary’s. With east coast families it seems that if you can still walk, they haven’t fed you enough. I won’t go into the menu here, but with quiche, bagels, lox and pastries, I’m sure you realize I don’t need to list the foods.
By 2 p.m. it was time to mosey on. Dianne arranged for us to do some touring worthy of writing about. Finally the Resistant Traveler gets to actually go somewhere in the U.S. and see our culture and be where I can speak and hear English, or so I thought.
We are heading to Lancaster, PA; the heartland of the Amish. I found out these are also known at the Pennsylvania Dutch, and they still speak Dutch. More on this in the next blog installment.

The Resistant Traveler Defined

2007-05-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

This blog is a different approach to travel commentaries. I do not want to travel. I like to stay home in my own environment. Many people, maybe even most, find foreign travel to be exciting, enlightening and they have a desire to see the world. I call myself the “Resistant Traveler” and I write for those individuals who don’t care about traveling, but who maybe in a relationship, or married, to a person with either wanderlust, or a need to travel.

First, we need to define a couple of terms; vacation and travel. When my wife, Dianne, first told me that she likes to travel I heard the word vacation. She wanted to be sure that I also wanted, or would at least be willing, to tour the world and travel, but she used the word vacation. While I love my work, and really don’t care whether or not I leave home, I am willing to take a vacation. Dianne told me how she had been to France, India, Yugoslavia and more. While I had no desire to travel to these places, I agreed early in our relationship that I was willing to do so. As a reminder, she used the word vacation, but what she meant was travel.

The first hint of the difference between travel and vacation was evident on our honeymoon to Hawaii. For most people a trip to Hawaii involves relaxation, bathing suits and sunscreen. For me it was maps and road trips. Please realize that Hawaii is just a few islands with a limited amount of streets and highways. I must have driven every mile of every street and highway visiting viewpoints, shopping centers, and housing developments and comparing each hotel to the one where we were staying. My wife has a requirement to see if she can find shoes that she would like while on “vacation.” Did you know that Hawaii has 197 different shoe stores? Even though I don’t drink coffee, I did find the tour of a coffee plantation to be fascinating. I learned how coffee was grown, selected, graded and dried and it’s all done by hand. People all over the world love that drink made from hot water poured over dried out and ground-up plant parts.

We both now agree that my wife likes to tour and travel and that does not mean vacation. She has a desire to see everything that she has not yet seen before and will continue to be on the move from sun-up to sundown, or until she drops. On the other hand, I like to vacation. That means I arrive somewhere to read, relax, nap and pay no attention to a clock. Sometimes Dianne will accidentally use the word vacation when she means travel. I never accidentally use the word vacation to mean travel.

In this blog I will cover travel from the perspective of someone who does not want to travel. I will cover situations, funny events, what we did, where you may want to stay, what to see, where you may want to eat, and hopefully stay away from tourist traps.