Jaffa and Tel Aviv

We start our tour by driving to Jaffa, one of the oldest ports in the world. We may start by the Clock Tower square, at the northern entrance to the city. Here we introduce the whereabouts of Jaffa in the last 200 years or so, under the Ottomans, British and now in Israel. We walk through the alleys of the old city of Jaffa, the galleries and the old port, telling the history of that important city, going back to more than 3,000 years ago.

We drive back to Tel Aviv and park the car close to Neve Tzedek ("…The LORD bless thee, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness". Jeremiah 31, 22), the first Jewish neighborhood out of Jaffa, to stroll through the narrow streets and alleys of the renovated old neighborhood and tell the stories of those pioneering Jews from Jaffa who dared to come out from the old and undeveloped city, looking for "a nice house in the suburb" for their families.

The next neighborhood we walk into is Achuzat Bayit, actually the beginning of Tel Aviv, built and inhabited since 1909, to be developed and become the largest metropolitan and main business city in Israel. We stroll through Rothschild Avenue where many up to date Cafés and restaurants live together with Tel Aviv's first kiosk and fast food places. We may pay a visit toIndependence Hall, were the State of Israel was officially declared on May 14, 1948. Further north we see few buildings that were built in the 1930's by a special architecture style called Bauhaus, most of them painted white. That is why UNESCO granted Tel Aviv to be a World Heritage Site called "The White City".

Next will be another old street, Nachalat Benyamin, a commercial "Shmateh Business" street that part of it was turned to a pedestrian moll where on Tuesdays and Fridays craftsmen present their works.

We end our tour in Tel Aviv by walking through "Shook Hacarmel", the famous and popular marketplace, where you can buy almost anything and in a much lower price.