Wednesday-transition day

This was a day of transition... Early this morning we had breakfast with Dov, who is an Israeli Film distributor and who provided the films for the Israeli Film Festival.  We had brought with us some Mary Meyer stuffed moose with Vermont sewn in and gave him two when we learned that he had two young daughters.  We discussed the impact the  Israeli Films had on the Brattleboro area community and the continuation of this as well as possibly developing monthly showings of films at the Hooker Dunham Theatre (he couldn't get over the name).

After leaving him we went over to say goodby to Erika, who today was wearing one of her new blouses.  (I left some spending money for her as well.)  It was sad to say goodbye, but we had a wonderful visit and I look forward to seeing her again next year.

We returned to our hotel, checked out and took a taxi to the Central Train Station in Tel Aviv, where we got the train to Haifa.  We both enjoyed the train ride immensely and it was much more pleasant and cheaper than the taxi.  We arrived at the train station, took a taxi to the hotel where the Haifa Rotary Club would be meeting and left our luggage so that we could walk around a bit.  My goal was to take Marty to the Louis Promenade (behind the HOF Hotel I stayed at last trip).  This is the location for the most beautiful and vast view of Haifa and the coast.  Despite the very smoggy day, we had a wonderful view of Haifa and the Bahia Temple.

From there we took a taxi back to Har HaCarmel hotel to be guests at the Haifa Rotary.  We were welcomed by members and had a liaison for the afternoon, Zvi.  He introduced us to the buffet, which was loaded with abundant varieties of salads, meats and dessert.  After some announcements, Marty exchanged flags with the president before the main speakers were presented.  The club has an extensive membership including the Mayor of Haifa who spoke about a recent film festival.  The main speaker was a former admiral of the Israeli Navy and while we did not get most of what he was talking about, we understood it to be about the division of Israel for the Palestinians and the pros and cons about certain boundaries.  I think it would have been very interesting, but our host did not seem inclined to share much about it.

Following the meeting we took a taxi back to the train station to catch a train for the airport where we would be meeting up with our tour group.  All of our connections went well and eventually we found our group at the airport.  After introductions and finding the tour guide, we headed off for the bus to the Dead See.  

We boarded the bus and road about 1 1/2 hours until we reached our hotel Hod Hamidbar (place in the desert) was located.  We left the bus quickly, labeled our luggage and then headed to the dining room where the buffet dinner had been held for us.  After dinner, some went off for a study session, but Marty and I wanted to write our blogs and to to sleep.  Unfortunately, the internet was not at its best in this hotel, but we checked our mail and then went to bed.