Ben Ami Chardonnay Review

While on a champagne buying trip at Total Wine & More in Laurel, Maryland, I stumbled upon some Ben Ami Chardonnay. I tend to prefer white wines to red though I've heard the reds are better for you health wise. Another thing that appealed to me about this wine is it's made in Israel. I haven't forgotten the Globus tour I did of Israel and some of my incredible adventures there then like looking down from Masada or floating in the Dead Sea. So, I bought a 750 milliliter bottle of the wine to try it.

I found it a nice chardonnay. I can't tell you what flavors it might hint of or what it might rate to a wine connoisseur. I'm definitely not a wine connoisseur myself. I just know if I like a wine or not. In this case, I did like it. Also, I felt it was reasonably priced at $14.99. Total Wine offers the wine through Winery Direct which means you get an extra 5 reward points per dollar i.e. 15 reward points per dollar spent on this wine vice the normal 10 point per dollar.

In regards to finding the wine in the Total Wine stores, you may have to look in the Kosher section (they have one) to find it. The wine is certified Kosher (it has the circle with a K in it on the bottle).

Overall, I was very pleased with this wine and would buy it again. If you want to try a nice Israeli chardonnay, you might want to try this one. It's a nice wine at a good price. Happy drinking all!

Crossing from Israel to Jordan on Allenby Bridge

Yesterday, the moment I dreaded finally happened. I left the Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv with 6 others, we drove to Jerusalem where we picked 10 more people then, our bus driver to us to the Israeli checkpoint you hit before the bridge and then on to the Israeli border crossing station. The station is where you pay the Israeli departure tax and get your departure stamp from Israeli customs in your passport. I found out you pay the departure tax at a currency exchange window which means they accept a lot of currencies in payment. It isn't critical you have Israeli shekels. After you pay the tax, the lady gives you a receipt and a small bar code stamp. Then, you get in line for Israeli customs who check your passport and make sure you paid the tax. Next up, you give the bar code stamp thing to another Israeli official who scans it in. Then, you're done with the Israeli side.

At the point, you would catch a bus shuttle to take you across the bridge. I don't know if there's a charge or not for the shuttle. In my case, Globus to my extreme delight had their Jordanian branch send a bus for us. I was so delighted to see that bus. The bridge itself was nothing to get excited about though it is historic in that the great British General Allenby who defeated the Turks in World War I around Megiddo had a bridge built there. You go over the bridge and, you're in Jordan. You drive to the Jordanian customs office where you have to get your passport checked by them. There isn't any entry fee to get into Jordan. I guess the passport is enough. Once you clear there, you're good to go. You can make your way to some Jordanian Dead Sea resorts and head for Petra like we did. Jordan is something with stark desolate lands and surprisingly nice people. I just wish I could a little Arabic. Not everyone speaks English here. Thankfully, my tour director speaks it superbly. Stay tuned for more posts.

Israeli ATMs

By all accounts, the place to get the best exchange rate in a foreign country is from an automatic teller machine (ATM). Thankfully, Israel doesn't lack for these though they do have some peculiarities that I thought I'd mention. First, I've found there will be usually 2 of the machines at the various banks. I don't know why they have 2 of them. Second, for some reason, my ATM card won't work in 1 of the machines. Thankfully, it always works in the other so if the first ATM you use doesn't work, try the second. Third, ATM fees in Israel are pretty reasonable. My first ATM withdrawal was for 200 shekels (approximately $50 U.S.) which cost me $1.42 U.S. Fourth, one drawback to the Israeli ATMs is the receipt you'll get back if you ask for one which I would recommend (makes it easier to keep track of your withdrawals). The receipt is entirely in Hebrew. Hebrew is a language that isn't remotely close to English. You can't remotely guess what the words mean and, it's written right to left vice left to right in English. This means you won't be able to figure out what your receipt says barring the amount you withdrew and the date/time of the transaction.

Overall, I'd recommend if you're traveling to Israel to use ATMs to get shekels vice foreign exchange service. The ATM fees are reasonable, ATMs are widely available in Israel as far as I know and, they offer very good exchange rates. Happy travels all!

Further Observations on Israel

These comments are various observations on things I've seen and experienced on my tour of Israel so far.

In the United States, you'll see lots of critters that are called squirrels. Israel's squirrels are cats apparently. They're every where. I've never seen so many. I suppose they are helpful in that they undoubtedly keep the rodent population down. Still, it is a trip to see so many.

Local country beers can be little better than piss water at times. One country I didn't expect to have a good beer was Israel. It isn't known for making a good brew. So, it was to my great surprise when I tried a large glass of Goldstar at the Kibbutz Lavi Hotel that it is a pretty good lager. I've had it 3 times now and, I wish I could get the stuff in the U.S. It is good beer.

For reasons I don't understand, Israelis won't serve meet with dairy products like cheese (fish is apparently not considered meat and is available in abundance) for breakfast. I've had 5 or 6 breakfasts in Israel and haven't seen hide or hair of a sausage or some bacon for breakfast. It made me wondered if they ate much meat here then, I had dinner at the Dan Carmel hotel in Haifa and, I found out Israelis do eat meat. There was chicken, stuffed eggplant and lamb. So, I guess there's something about breakfast.

In Jerusalem, they put on a great sound and light show at the Tower of David (hope that's the right place). It tells of the history of Jerusalem from David's time to modern times. I went to the show last night and, it was very good. I'd highly recommend it.

That's all for now. Happy travels all!

Tour Report on Israel

My tour of Israel continues. Yesterday, my tour group started in Galilee, visited the Shrine of the Beatitudes, the nine blessings Jesus preached of to people on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. After that, we drove to the close by Church of Peter's Primacy where Jesus commanded Peter to feed his sheep. It was also the site of his feeding 5,000 miracle. Then, to the ruins of Capernaum and the church that is built over the ruins of Peter and Andrew's home. Supposedly, it is the only church with a glass floor. The Jordan River is very famous though to honest, it isn't a very impressive river. It isn't terribly wide or deep. Still, it is the river John the Baptist baptized Jesus in. We visited a site that specializes in baptisms and makes it easy to get to the river. Supposedly mega-churches have baptized huge groups of people there. I wasn't super wiped out with the place though I did touch the water and my friend Harvey took a small bottle of it to take home. Bet She'an was next with a very interesting visit to the former Roman city. The city was the third largest Roman city in its time (Jerusalem was 1st and Caesarea was 2nd). Our group walked down the main street in town which showed the superb Roman engineering. The Roman's built the street with sloping sides that sloped up to a row of stones in the center of road. This helped carry water away when it rained. The city also hold some neat mosaics including one of the Goddess Tyche, the goddess of luck in a prostitution house. One last thing of note about Bet She'an is the tel located right next to the ruins of the city. The tel is over 7,000 years old and may hold all kinds on interesting archaeological finds but, apparently lack of funds has prevented any excavation though there has been funding for excavating the Roman city. Every thing our group saw was uncovered in the last 2 decades.

Our final destination of the day was the holy city of Jerusalem. For me, it'll be something to say I've been there. I wish the city still had a Hard Rock Cafe so I could buy a t-shirt and brag about to folks back home. We stopped at a place on the Mount of Olives that overlooked the old city. The views were awesome. It was something to see the walls built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Al Aqsa Mosque (from a distance) and other points of interest. My tour director Jacob pointed many places we would visit today during a walk through the old city.

After our photo op, Asher our driver drove us to our hotel the Leonardo Plaza. It's a very nice hotel in a good location. We'll spend a total of 5 nights here. Stay tuned for more updates on my Israel tour.

Kibbutz

Yesterday, I got to find out what a kibbutz is. As of this post, I'm staying at the Kibbutz Lavi Hotel which is run by a kibbutz. Globus, the company I'm touring Israel and Jordan with, booked our group in this hotel so we could learn about kibbutz which is a uniquely Israeli institution. The hotel kindly had a member named Esther (last name unknown) who spoke very fine English to tell those in our group who were interested what kibbutz is and how it works. As I understand it, kibbutz in a nutshell is socialism at the village level. Every one contributes to the kibbutz financial well being through various jobs in the kibbutz. The kibbutz in turn provides for all its members basic needs such as food, clothing, medical, housing, utilities etc. All who take part in kibbutz in Israel are Jewish and Zionist. There a very few non Jewish members. The kibbutz that runs the hotel is a bit unique among kibbutz in that it is orthodox (more devout). Approximately, 20 out of over 250 kibbutz's are orthodox. According to Esther, the Jewish religion is very family oriented and, this makes kibbutz very attractive to Jewish (there are Arab) Israelis as a kibbutz is basically one very big (there are 190 families involved in the hotel's kibbutz) family. The kibbutz is very democratic. The kibbutz is run by various committees (there isn't 1 set leader) whose members are elected by the entire kibbutz membership. I think Esther said there are 32 different committees running the different aspects of their kibbutz. Some of the committees are surprising such as one that decides if a new committee is needed to cover a particular issue or if a present committee can handle the issue. Another handles relationships and can give money to a member so they can court a future wife or husband. In my opinion, the biggest advantage of a kibbutz is the security you have. You have a huge extended family who watches out for you and, it takes care of your basic needs at all stages of your life. A downside I can see is that you wouldn't make enough money to do some expensive things you might really enjoy such as travel in my case. According to my tour director Jacob, the kibbutz may be dying out in Israel. Esther confirmed that there haven't been any new kibbutz's created in quite a while. So, this uniquely Israeli institution may be slowly dying out. It was interesting to learn of it during my tour.

First Impressions of Israel

I arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport today for the first time. A Globus rep met my travel friend and I there and arranged to have a taxi take us to our hotel. I looked out the taxi window the whole time to see what Israel looked like. Some parts look fertile while others are dirty and graffiti laden. I was surprised by how many scooters there are in this country. Later this evening, I had dinner at a restaurant within the former Jaffa train station complex. It was neat. Outside the complex there was a good size parking lot AND at least 15 scooters. I've seen someone zipping by on one repeatedly. Price wise, the country isn't cheap. I had a large Tuborg draft beer at the hotel bar and, it cost over $7. I was surprised that the local brews Maccabee and Goldstar were just as expensive as the imported brands.

That's all of my first impressions for now. Tomorrow, I get to meet my tour director and the other members of my tour group. I'm curious how many there'll be. The tour as far as I know is fully booked. Also, plan to try out the  hotel swimming pool. It looks really nice. And, I need to find out where I can buy postage stamps to mail postcards back to the U.S. Stay tuned for more observations on Israel. Happy travels all!!!!!

Israel Trip Update

All looked good to go for my May trip to Israel and Jordan until the beginning of this week. That's why I found out I need a visa to get into Jordan. Like Egypt, Jordan makes it really easy to get a tourist visa. You arrive at the Amman Airport, pay $20 (I believe) and, you get your single entry visa. However, that's where Globus mucked things up. Israel and Jordan were involved what I believe was the 6 Day War where Jordan lost the West Bank. Jordan apparently maintains that the West Bank still belongs to them. There is a crossing from Israel to Jordan called the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge. As far as I was able to learn, at all other entry points into Jordan, you can buy a visa to enter Jordan. The exception is the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge because of the West Bank issue. As luck would have it, that is the entry point that Globus uses for my Jordan tour extension. :-( Why they have to enter Jordan there, I don't know. But, I do know I was very miffed when I found out. However, I am glad I found out NOW vice going to Israel, doing the tour, leaving to go to Jordan and finding out I couldn't get a visa to enter the country. Then, Jordan's visa rules made things more complicated. You can get an on-line visa with Jordan HOWEVER, you can't get that until you're within 30 days of your trip to Jordan. Sorry, I'm not going to wait till 30 days or less to get my visa. I want it now in my hands so I know there isn't going to be a problem getting in when I leave in May. This tour costs too much (over $6,000!) to take any chances on last minute screw ups. The alternative is to get a 6 month multiple entry visa which costs $97! OUCH!!!!! Keep in mind, that doesn't include the cost of using a visa service to get the thing unless I want to travel to Washington D.C. and visit the Jordanian embassy myself (not thrilled with that idea). So, I'm looking into cancelling my May trip to Israel and Jordan. As luck would have it, I'd discussed future travel plans for next year around the same months and, my friend Harvey and I had agreed that he would do his Russia tour (no thanks) and, I would do my Bermuda and Boston (no thanks on Harvey's part) Royal Caribbean cruise. We'll just move these up a year. This has the added advantage for me in that I'll go Emerald with Royal Caribbean's frequent cruiser program (Crown & Anchor Society) and, I'll go Diamond in November with the back-to-back Greek Islands cruises. Also, I'd like to visit my Dad after the May cruise. I vowed I would try to make it home more often after the unexpected death of my step-mom Kay. I still haven't forgotten that. We'll see what works out. Stay tuned.