anniversary in jaffa

Our anniversary is not a day for working, but for celebrating. So we headed out early in the morning and rented two bikes. It was our first experience with the Tel Aviv bike rental system, and it looked similar to the others we'd used (like Velibs in Paris), but as we found out later in the day, not so.
Like many things in Tel Aviv, the bike rental was a little more expensive than in other cities, so we planed on making half an hour hops from place to place, and return the bikes while we hung out. Our first hop was to breakfast closer to the beach on Ben Yehuda St. We ate on the patio of a nice little cafe and had a traditional Israeli breakfast, which involves many little things (which ended up being a food theme for the day, without us even planing it).

Our Anniversary Breakfast

After breakfast, we rented two more bikes and rode to Jaffa. We hadn't gone there yet and even though it's a different city, Tel Aviv and Jaffa are as close as conjoined twins. Jaffa is actually a much older city than Tel Aviv, with a history stretching back three millennia, and is mentioned in both the old and new testaments.

They have a rustic shopping district that we decided to find ourselves an anniversary present in. We had been talking about getting a Mezuzah as a souvenir from Israel and realized there was no better time. So we spent a while perusing the selections and made a decision. From there we made our way to the Jaffa Port to met up with Andrew's friend at his work.

When we got to Jaffa Port, the difference between all other cities' rental bikes and Tel Aviv's rental bikes became apparent to us. There is a special lock you must fully engage to return the bike. Well, one of the first bikes we returned before we went to breakfast must not have been 'fully' engaged, because we received an email telling us that it still hadn't been returned and we've been getting charged since. We didn't have phones, only wifi. We searched Jaffa Port for a wifi connection and finding one, went to the rental bike's website and began a labored process that ended with us finding out that it was a mixup on their side, and we would not be charged.

With that settled, we met up with Andrew's friend and got a tour of the news station he works at.

Jaffa Port

Jaffa's Lighthouse

Bird Buddy

Andrew and his friend at his friend's work in Tel Aviv

After the tour we went back to Jaffa Port for some drinks and dinner. While there, we were consumed by a orange stick wielding mob. It was some new Tae Bo thing were you could do dances and workouts with the orange sticks. There were enthusiastic instructors teaching everyone how to use them--how could we resist?

After some exercise, it was on to dinner at The Old Man and The Sea, a famous Jaffa restaurant. Like breakfast, it was many small things they piled onto your table until there was no room for anything else. And as soon as you finished something, they would take it and fill that gap on the table with something new. It's a place to come to hungry to, because you could eat yourself silly.

Orange Stick Workout

Hanging at the Port

Eating at The Old Man and the Sea

 

Maggie being angelic as always