Forget Haifa and Tel Aviv, PUZZLE PARTY

 11 April

We opted out of all tours for our 2 day stay in Haifa.  Instead, we messaged friends in Israel and asked for a visit.  At 8:00 we left the ship and headed to the train station.  We went through no less than 3 passport controls before getting out of the port.  We boarded a train and headed to Tel Aviv to meet our friends.  The countryside was beautiful to watch go by.  I was surprised to see that we were near the sea for most of the ride.  I was surprised to see the number of orange groves and banana fields.

At 9:30 or so, we arrived at the University Station in Tel Aviv to be met by our friends Yael and Dor.  I want to say first, they were fantastic hosts!  We loved every minute we spent in their company.  

After giving greetings and hugs all around, we headed off for the old Tel Aviv port area where we had tickets to see the Museum of Illusions.  We were fortunate to have arrived when it opened because 1/2 an hour later the place was overrun by children.  But back to the museum.  When we enter there were plenty of puzzles around to purchase.  (All of which we already have)

Many of the illusions were the bog-standard illusions you find in any science museum anywhere in the world.  We did enjoy a few though.  George’s favorite was the tunnel. I can say it was not mine.  

It was a small but lovely museum.  Well worth the visit.  From here we walked along the old pier in search of some lunch.  We had a typical Israeli breakfast of bread and dips and shackshuka, an egg and tomato sauce dish.  Both were very good.  Of course we also had a local beer. 

Our next stop was a wine shop to pick up a few bottles of local wine and a local liqueur.  George was thrilled to see his first Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles of wine in one). They also had a Jeroboam (4 bottles in one)  and a Rehoboam (6 bottles in one).  Of course we have all had a magnum (2 bottles in one) so that was no big deal to us.  Dor also bought one bottle of wine for the party we were to have that night.

From here we went to another area of town where we visited the Gaya Puzzle Store.  I had been told by the ladies in the club that I needed to go to this shop.  It didn’t disappoint.  We left with around 10 or so puzzles that were new to us.  The owner of the shop was a nice gent who spent a bit of time with us. 

We next went to our hotel where we dropped off our purchases and picked up a few puzzles we brought along to give away to the other participants in the puzzle party.  We then went to Dor’s home where he very graciously allowed me access to his entire puzzle collection.  

We had some good chats and I really enjoyed being able to go through his puzzles and photographing them.  This is helpful to me when I’m searching for puzzles we don’t have.  I did promise not to hunt a series of puzzles that he is looking for as well. Honor among puzzlers and all of that.

After a while some of the puzzlers began to show up.  I don’t remember all of their names, but I’m thrilled to finally have met Yael Friedman.  I’ve purchased many puzzle rings from her in the past and was eager to meet her.  This night she brought along quite a few puzzles and as expected, I purchased them all.  

She gave one ring to each family to assemble.  Sadly, I've been close 3 times, but still don't have it.  

We began talking about the variety of rings I have at home, and we ended up inviting her to come and stay for an extended period of time to do research.  Needless to say, she took us up on it.  We expect to have a visitor in Early 2023! 

Dor put on quite the party.  He called in a wonderful sushi platter which had more food on it than all of us could eat.  

I finally met Puzzle Wanderer and was reunited with Boaz and David.  I haven’t seen them in more than a couple of years.  I apologize to all who were there that I haven’t mentioned.  It was so overwhelming to me.  There was puzzling until 1 am.  By this time George and I were exhausted.  Yael and Martin returned us to our hotel and we drifted off into puzzling dreams.

The next morning Dor picked us up at around 9:45 or so and we headed off to an open air artists market where we purchased a few more puzzles.  I like matchbox puzzles and we have quite the collection of them now.  If you are ever in Tel Aviv, do look for her products.  Or better yet, go online to www.thinkingames.com and take a look at what she has available. While there we also looked at some puzzles by a guy with an Etsy shop "puzzles.etsy.com" His puzzles were more for children or simple jigsaws so we passed. 

I really love the art in the area.  There were some amazing graffiti images on the buildings. I also found a bit of yarn art. 

We thought all aboard was 5 pm so we went for lunch in a local place.  The meat was delicious and so was the fresh hot bread. 

While sitting there I got a text from a fellow passenger telling me all aboard was at 4.  This caused some alarm for us as we still had an hour long train ride and that would leave us very little room for mistakes.  After lunch, Dor took us to the train station where we boarded with ease.  The ride back was uneventful, but we did almost get off at the wrong stop.  We jumped up and exited the train and headed for the ship.  

We arrived with about an hour to spare and were greatly relieved.  And then we waited.  As it turned out, for whatever unknown reason we didn’t leave port until well after 7 pm.  Had they told us this we would have gladly spent more time with our friends.  Ah well, one more reason to go back next year!

Needless to say, we didn’t see  any of Haifa and our Tel Aviv touring was limited, but it was a wonderful change from the usual tourist things that we do.  We absolutely loved every minute of it and were thrilled our friends all took the time to spend with us.

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Seas.