18) Barbara Shaw, designer and Bauhaus Tel Aviv

 The two Sues and I head to the post office in Emek Refaim, an upmarket suburban street in Jerusalem. We aim to offload from our baggage excess clothes and souvenirs. We first stop at the shop of Barbara Shaw, a designer Sue knows who does humorous though practical gifts with Jewish themes. Aprons, trivets, cushion covers, mugs and coasters. I buy several coin purses that are painted as felafel envelopes, watermelons, oranges and other typical Israeli symbols. I stock up with gifts.

The post office doesn't have any boxes. They send us to the local shops in search of boxes but nobody has any! We're worn out, still unwell from fighting off colds and weary from dragging our stuff around, not being able to offload it through the postal service. Sue B and I are sent to the recycling enclosure at the end of a suburban street. The boxes are wet from the rain. A shoe shop owner  gives me a boots' box and I fill it with half of my gifts for home. It costs 250 shekels/$70 for it to arrive in Australia in 5 days.

 Sue B, Sue L and I stop for lunch in a trendy cafe and have salads and rolls - the first meal in ten days that's not part of a buffet.

My next home away from home is at the Center Chic Hotel, 2 Zamenhoff St. Tel Aviv right on the corner of Dizengoff Street. Very groovy. I've already spotted rows and rows of Bauhaus architecture.

      My hotel room, cosy and kool.

Artist: Avi A. Katz

      Dogs are allowed at La Shook cafe where I stop for a light dinner of kosher calamari salad.

לה שוק

You see cats roaming around everywhere in Israel.

                  Recycling

At the Cinema Hotel Esther, vintage film cameras are dedicated to Israeli cinema history.

            The Fire and Water Fountain right near where I'm staying, once passé now retro-chic.

"The "Fire and Water Fountain", also commonly referred to as the "Dizengoff Square Fountain", is a Tel Aviv landmark in the center of the Dizengoff Square. Dedicated in 1986, the fountain is a kinetic sculpture, the work of the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam.

The fountain was developed by Agam for ten years and is one of Agam's most famous creations. Agam has gained international recognition as one of the founders of the kinetic art movement. The fountain consists of an illusory dimension and a movement dimension, both typical to works of Kinetic art and Op art, which is achieved by the use of technology and by the observer's movement. The fountain is composed of several big jagged wheels, which were designed in the kinetic style (colored geometric shapes, which are perceived as different images from different angles). A technological mechanism is automatically activated at different times of the day and the night, turning the wheels on their hinges, injecting water upwards in various forms, spitting fire upwards and playing music."

en.m.wikipedia.org

            Dizengoff Street never sleeps.

        Bauhaus is big. You can take a 2 hr tour to see it.

Artist: Gerstein at the Bauhaus Centre.

         Juice or smoothie anyone? My favourite is pomegranate juice - tasty, not too sweet and rich in vitamin C.