Paris with Micah and Jonah

From London, we took a train to Paris. There was some stress around the strikes and which trains were cancelled on which days. This took up a lot of our brain power leading up to the travel. Luckily, our train was not cancelled and we got to Paris as expected. I even had some tomato soup for lunch on the train. 

When we got to the Paris Metro, we had the same problem with the suitcases and the stairs. Micah was amazing and carried his AND mine up and down all of those stairs!

We were lucky not to be affected by the strikes in Paris. Yes, some neighborhoods had piles of trash that had not been collected, but everything else seemed to run smoothly.

We stayed at a huge Air BNB in the Marais. We were lucky to be the very first guests at that apartment. They even had to hang some curtains after we arrived! There was a master bedroom for Mark and me that included the shower and sink part of the bathroom. There was a separate toilet room at the front of the apartment. Micah got the room that used to be a closet; all that fit in that room near the front door was the bed, diagonally. Jonah got the sofa bed which was in the large living room/dining room area. The kitchen was also nice and well stocked with supplies but the only thing we used was the coffee maker with pods. And I guess the refrigerator a little bit.

There were so many wonderful things to eat and see in Paris. Mark especially loved getting a coffee eclair at every shop we passed. But his favorite were the coffee merveilleux which had meringue and cream and flakes of chocolate drizzled on top. I tried a variety of different things in the pastry shops. Macarons still come out on top for me but I didn't have anything that I didn't like!

On the first day we visited MAHJ - the Jewish Museum, followed by pastries and chocolates. the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. We ended with the supposed best falafel and shwarma in the world at L'As du Fallafel. It was really good and really crowded and we went back a second time. But it's not better than what we can get in Israel every corner in Israel, IMHO.

On Thursday the 16th, we were excited to see some of the trash collected. But were warned that this did not mean the strike was over! We spent time with Eliza Kaufman today which was wonderful. We got pastries and walked to a park. She then joined us again Saturday morning for services. This was also our Louvre day. I could not get over how huge and overwhelming it was. SHE (the Mona Lisa of course) was beautiful and smiled at me as I walked away. We had some amazing kosher meat sandwiches at Alfi for dinner.

We had a big Disneyland Paris day in honor of Jonah. It was easy to take the train there and back. We enjoyed the Lion King show. Jonah stayed later than the rest of us so he could go to the other park. Back in Paris proper we had our second visit to La Glacerie where we enjoyed the most delicious hot butterscotch/caramel drink. The coffee and hot chocolate were good too. We also enjoyed an amazing Crepe dinner at Breizh Cafe as recommended by our friend Elizabeth Simms.

Cute crepe takeaway box!

On Shabbat, we attended a Bat Mitzvah at the Liberal Values Congregation. We ended up leaving early so we didn't get to connect with anyone. We enjoyed the Monet museum which was fabulous and much more manageable than the Louvre. this was also our fancy dinner day at a place called Bourguignon. Later, after dinner, Jonah met his friends from Piedmont, Seb and Claire. Sebastian lives in France and Claire was visiting from her studies in Scotland. They came to our Air BnB, and I was so excited that I called Gina McKuen to say hello to all of them. It was amazing.

We only scratched the surface of Paris. There were so many more things we wanted to see, places we wanted to eat, and pastries we wanted to try. Perhaps someday we will return.

Pride on the crosswalk

Me at the Arc

Base of the Tower

The boys plotting something

The Tower at night

My three men

Random horseback patrol

Bordeaux

 Saying goodbye to Micah and Jonah was definitely not a highlight. It was so wonderful to be able to travel with them, spend time with them, and be together. I hope we get more opportunities to do this throughout our lives. I especially enjoyed when they played Space Team. It brought back such pleasant memories.

Getting from Paris to Bordeaux involved the regular metro to the big train station, taking the train, and then wandering around near the Bordeaux train station figuring out whether and what to eat and how we wanted to get to our hotel that was the most Bed and Breakfast place in which we stayed. There were many stairs and three different Parisians helped me lug my large suitcase either up or down those stairs. People are good!

We took a taxi to our hotel where we stored our bags behind the breakfast area and went out for a walk. After grabbing a healthy snack of soup, I felt a little ill so I returned to the hotel and sat comfortably in the breakfast area to wait for check in while Mark kept walking around the town. I checked in without Mark and was able to rest there instead. And the room was fantastic! It was large and even had a second room with two beds where Micah and Jonah could have slept had they still been with us for this portion of the trip. Plus the breakfast was extensive and generous and delicious: there were two types of cereal available with milk, hot or cold coffee, tea, croissants and bread with jam and caramel (yum!) and butter, fruit plate over ham and cheese (yes, we skipped the ham), and a house made yogurt. I put the raspberry jam into the yogurt with some honey to make it work for me! Very satisfying.

On our first full day in Bordeaux, Mark went to the morning minyan at the synagogue. Unfortunately, he arrived too late to pray and only saw their after minyan breakfast. I tried to join him but it took me too long to get there so we went back at 7 pm for the evening minyan. The service was very short and the members were super friendly! They let us see the sanctuary and inside was the largest menorah I have even seen in my life. Yes, even bigger than those Chabad menorahs displayed outdoors in the US. We ended our day with a Middle Eastern street food restaurant called Rimon where I had hummus and mushrooms with pita and Mark had Israeli salad, lemonade, and an orange chocolate mousse.

That scrumptious meal at the chateau

In between those two meals just described, we had an absolutely wonderful day with Bertran, Mark's friend from Crocker Middle School. He lives in France and had some work to do in Bordeaux and we were lucky that he could have the day off to show us around. He picked us up at the hotel, gifting us with the famous Bordeaux canneles. We drove to a chateau for some beautiful scenery, interesting architecture, and an absolutely amazing lunch at the fancy restaurant. After the lunch, we drove to a family owned winery at another chateau where he had arranged for us a wine tasting and tour. Again, fantastic! Bertran was a gracious and loquacious host who showed his knowledge of food and wine! It was a definite highlight of our trip. and would have been much more difficult for us to accomplish without his assistance.

A beautiful view in Bordeaux

Stones resembling the wine grapes ready for crushing

At the wine tasting

 

First stop, London with Micah and Jonah!

The travel from Oakland to London was uneventful. We left on March 7th and arrived to Heathrow on March 8th. We took the train to Kings Cross/Pancras Station, walked 3 blocks to our hotel, Angus Hotel, and Mark lugged our huge suitcases up the two flights of stairs to our room. I found it to be a bit larger than the last time we were in London, but Mark claimed it was the same tiny size. We went out walking to find some food and ended up eating dinner at The Market Stalls right outside the train station. They are only open Wednesdays through Sundays. I had a delicious oat milk chai, an amazing caramel vanilla dessert, and dinner was a veggie tart for Mark accompanied by a loaf of seeded sourdough bread while I enjoyed a Moroccan wrap. We ate on a bench in the shopping area of the train station. It was a bit cold and rainy but we managed.

Photo of illustrated train map

What looks to me like a bird cage but is actually an art element near Kings Cross:

On Thursday, we walked to the Jewish Museum which was quite small but enjoyable. We shared the space with a couple of uniformed school groups who were quite boisterous, so much so that their teacher apologized for them. Favorite learning: Licoricia of Winchester of the early 12th century. Coincidentally, our friend Deb Hoffman Wade dressed up as her for Purim this year right after we learned about her! Another favorite moment: a wine/grape juice tasting! Fun fact: the Touro synagogue in Rhode Island is older than the UK's oldest synagogue in London. Though there was an even earlier one called The Great Synagogue that is no longer standing.

We visited the 9 3/4 platform at the Kings Cross station but didn't want to wait in line to take a photo.

For dinner we went to a Monopoly themed restaurant (which also features a bar and an escape room) which was better in theory than in practice. I did enjoy my fish 'n' chips with the malt vinegar though! I imagine the theming of the escape room is stronger than this:

Here are the photos we took on the Escape Room side:

On Friday, Micah and Jonah arrived! Hooray! I was so excited to get to spend this time with them in London and Paris. The three men walked around Kings Cross, had coffee, and a bad breakfast at an Italian place near our hotel. The four of us then walked a whole hour to the Tower of London and saw the Tower Bridge. There were many interesting parts of the Tower of London; it is a large museum now and there were LOTS of stairs and a lot of walking. We enjoyed a very English lunch at Byward Restaurant and Bar that Micah found for us. Because we had done so much walking already, we Ubered back to the hotel and everyone took a nap. 

    

For Shabbat services, Mark, Micah, and I (Jonah stayed back to rest) went to the oldest Sephardic synagogue in London called Bevis Marks. The men leading the service still wear top hats! A woman who sat next to me named Anna was attending her second service of her life. I tried to help her feel welcome and comfortable. And Laura Jones met us there! We tried to go out to dinner afterward near the synagogue but it didn't work out so just Laura and I ended up eating out together near our hotel. It was wonderful to reconnect but we forgot to take a picture except for this one of her with Micah and Mark that I grabbed while walking. :-( It was great to hear about her studies in theatre: stage management specifically, her boyfriend Nathan who is in the same program, and how much she loves living in London.

On Saturday, we enjoyed attending the Tottenham Hotspurs game. They won 3-1, Micah and Jonah both purchased scarves, and good time was had by all. Special moment: we were standing at a second floor window looking out and saw the opposing team getting dropped off and walking into the stadium. Then we saw the home team (Come On You Spurs!) bus pulling in and we thought we would see them too. Alas, the bus drove into the building so we didn't get to see our players before the game. 

Final Score!

 

Saturday night we met Liam Gordon at Kings Cross station! The 4 men went to a bar for pints, but I went home to bed. It was wonderful to see Liam, and Mark has the photos on his Facebook page. 

Sunday we went to Buckingham Palace for the pre-purchased tour. I highly recommend this! It was really interesting, and there were so many beautiful things to see and so much history to learn. Non-highlight: we didn't get to see the ballroom because it is being used as a practice coronation site. It is the largest indoor room in all of Europe! Before the tour, we scheduled our meeting with Betsy Weingarten, my college friend, and her friend Ingrid to watch the changing of the guard. But the changing of the guard ceremonies were canceled all day. It was wonderful to reconnect in person with Betsy. I had not seen her since the last Goucher reunion I attended a few years ago. Her friend Ingrid's son Markus goes to Northeastern University and is doing Tamid this summer in Tel Aviv! We took friend photos for Facebook; here are some outside of Buckingham Palace photos.

    

After the tour, we decided to go see Harrods. Just wow. Huge and not at all like a department store in the US. Long waits for the restrooms; that part was not too fun.

We got to see Justin Siberell and his son Ben at their apartment and they took us to the kosher restaurant Rubens. It was really delicious. It's always great to have good kosher meat out.

Monday we had an experience at SoHo house where we were hosted for lunch by congregant Andrew Gordon. It was amazing! That night, I went with Jonah to see the Back the the Future musical and Mark and Micah saw the Lehman Brothers play. We all enjoyed our shows and were happy with our choices! Seeing this musical made me want to watch all the Back to the Future movies again. Micah and Mark kept quoting the show for the rest of our trip.

Tuesday was our last day in London.  We jam packed it with two tours and a show. We took the Beatles tour (good, but not as good as the one Mark and I took last time we were in London), then we took a Jewish tour (excellent and some things we had already seen and learned), and then we saw Six! It was fantastic. Everyone liked it but some of us enjoyed it more than others of us.

There's so much more we wanted to do in London, we look forward to traveling there again sometime.

                

Settled in Jerusalem, Israel for our 4 month stay

 A special message to my dear family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else reading this:

We are happily ensconced in our rental apartment on HaRav Berlin Street in Jerusalem. It is officially in a neighborhood called Kiryat Shmuel, but it is also sometimes considered part of Rechavia or Katamon (which are more familiar to people than Kiryat Shmuel).

It is a large two bedroom apartment, and we are feeling comfortable here. It is very peaceful. Especially since we have already enjoyed two Shabbats and a Chag in between. On these days, everything stops for a breath. Just like the great pause that happened at the beginning of Covid. We get to enjoy that every Friday sundown through Saturday sundown.

We are safe here. Jerusalem has been spared rocket attacks and successful terrorist attacks. We are not afraid and life seems pretty normal. We are taking any precautions necessary in order to come home safely at the end of July.

But I promised you the stories of our travels so I'm going to go back to early March and share with you how we spent our time for the past month.

I'll publish each day, sharing a week or so's worth of travel reflections and of course keep you updated on how we are currently doing.

Until then, enjoy these photos of the view off our balcony. See if you can spot the Knesset.

                                                   

It's 2023. But this story is from 2022. Enjoy!

There is so much to tell since September of 2020 when I made my last blog post. Pandemic wise, Mark and I have still never tested positive for Covid. (Update: Mark has had Covid but I have not yet.) We didn't get the Delta variant, we didn't get the Omicron variant (or haven't gotten it yet).

In February 2021, I returned in person to school in a hybrid model (worst of both worlds, will post about that separately). Half of the students at home, half at school to maintain social distancing. No vaccines yet. Double masking, plastic shields separating us. It was extremely challenging.

Then the vaccines came and things began to open up in the summer of 2021. We were able to take a short driving vacation to Portland, Ashland, and Crater Lake. We were able to host a dinner with congregants at our house. Then more Covid.

The 2021-2022 school year started with fully in person classes, with masks, without social distance, but with virtually all of the adults vaccinated and then our students even were able to get vaccinated. Now, in February of 2022, mask mandates are being removed and prevention of infection seems to have gone away. The unvaccinated are the ones who are dying of Covid and the immunocompromised are going to be in danger when we let the virus run through us.

But my reason for this post was not to talk about the pandemic. I wanted to share some thoughts about being a pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, Zionist warrior for racial justice. I'm on the regional board for Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America AND I'm a member of the Youth and Families Committee of East Bay SURJ (Standing Up For Racial Justice). (Update: I was a member but resigned last month after our East Bay Chapter passed a resolution on Palestine, details to come in another post.) I believe in and fight for human rights AND I believe in the fact and fight for the idea that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. There is so much to discuss here. I will be sharing my story in future posts. For today, I want to tell you the story about my Lyft driver to the SF airport.

Yaser picked me at my doorstep at 6 am on Saturday morning. He was chatty right away. We made the chit-chat small talk about our lives, our families. He has 5 kids; three are grown ups in their 20s working and getting educated, and two are younger, one in high school and one in 4th grade. He works for the city of Oakland in the kitchen at a Head Start program during the week and drives for Lyft on the weekends. He lives in El Cerrito with his wife. I dove in by asking him what other languages he speaks. He told me Arabic. I asked where he was from and he said Palestine. When I asked for more details he told me the name of his village near Hebron. I'm sorry I didn't catch the specific village name. We began talking about his family there and how he enjoys vacationing in Israel. We did not talk about the settlers who make life difficult for the Palestinian residents of Hebron. By the end of our ride together, he was inviting me to his village near Hebron and offering to come visit me in Israel. He also stated his fervent desire for a one state solution for all the people of the region. I didn't respond to that except to share my hope for true and lasting peace. I don't know if he knows that a one state solution means that Israel is no longer a Jewish state. My dream is two states side by side where anyone who wants to can live in either state. Right now, Jews are not welcome to live in Gaza, nor many areas of the Palestinian Authority. Until we can live together without hatred and violence, there can be no peace. I was so grateful to make a new friend on this car ride. I look forward to many more conversations with Israelis and Palestinians.

Update from today March 6, 2023

We leave tomorrow for the start of our 5 month sabbatical. We start with three weeks in Europe followed by 4 months in Jerusalem, Israel. I look forward to sharing photos, video clips, and stories with you along the way. Now, back to work preparing the house for our renters!