Travel

You Got Chocolate in My Wine! No, You Got Wine in My Chocolate!

January 19, 2012

I’m a big fan of wine tastings. And an even bigger fan of chocolate. So when I had the opportunity to visit the new Tishbi tasting center, which combines both wine and gourmet imported French chocolate, my interest was piqued. Moreover, my palette was proud of yet another Israeli innovation, not so much hi-tech this [...]

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Train Construction Ahead

November 8, 2011

When our kids were young, we had a videotape they used to love called “Road Construction Ahead” which was all about, well, road construction. It featured hard hats, tractors and lots of concrete. The truth is, I loved it too – I’m a nut when it comes to anything in the stages of being built [...]

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Aviv’s Nepal Blog Part 2 Now Online

August 1, 2011

Just a quick announcement that the second part of Aviv’s amazing online diary of our trip to Nepal and India is now available for your reading pleasure. Please take a peek and be sure to leave a comment – it’s great feedback for Aviv as he nurtures his budding writing career! Here’s the link.

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Aviv’s Bar Mitzvah Blog Chronicles our Trip to Nepal

July 28, 2011

This week, instead of my usual post, I’d like to point your attention to Aviv’s bar mitvah blog. You may have already been reading it – in the year leading up to his bar mitzvah, we undertook 12 tiyulim (hikes) all over Israel and Aviv blogged about each one. Aviv’s blogs are both a straightforward [...]

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The Blum Family Trek to Nepal

May 3, 2011

Over a year in the planning, our 3-week trip to Nepal and India – conceived as a way to celebrate my 50th birthday and Aviv’s bar mitzvah – went off without nary a hitch. Other than some unseasonably bad weather and a few dashed expectations, the trip was so unbelievably beautiful (as well as physically [...]

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Spotting the Wild Israeli

May 1, 2011

With all the Israelis who head off for the Far East on extended post-army trips, we were pretty sure we’d meet tens, if not hundreds, of our fellow countrymen and women during our recent trek in Nepal. On the first six days of the trek, though, we met Brits, Canadians, lots of Germans, Japanese, Korean [...]

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Sniffing for Chametz in India

April 28, 2011

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted – that’s because we just got back from our long-planned family trek to Nepal and India. We all arrived home safe and sound on Friday. Our luggage was less fortunate. As I write, it’s still sitting in the Mumbai airport. Normally this wouldn’t be so unusual [...]

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Trek of the Month: Park Rabin

March 9, 2011

This month’s recommendation for a great hike in Israel is the lovely Park Rabin area, just outside of Beit Shemesh. It was also Aviv’s tiyul #11 of his 12 pre-bar mitzvah hikes in Israel – you can read his blog about it here. The Park Rabin tiyul kicks off along the western segment of the [...]

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Dreaming of Bahrain

March 2, 2011

We have just over a month to go until we leave for our long-planned trek to Nepal to celebrate my 50th birthday and Aviv’s bar mitzvah. There’s only one problem standing in our way: Bahrain. The cheapest way to get to Asia for Israelis is via the Gulf – the price can be as low [...]

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Goats on a Hill

December 30, 2010

A couple of months back, on our trip to Nagal Og near the Dead Sea, we picked up a friend of our youngest son. Aviv’s classmate Nesya lives in what is known as an illegal outpost deep in the West Bank. It is so tiny we couldn’t find it on any map until I set [...]

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