Dear All:
We had a very long but wonderful day today.
Waking up at 4 AM to be in the airport by 5 AM for a 7:50 AM departure was no fun, but at the end of the day it was all worthwhile.
We met the entire group at the airport and we have spent the day getting to know one another. Most of the people are from Jerusalem, Raanana and Netanya; one is from the north near Rosh Hanikra and one from Zfat. Two are from Beer Sheva, one couple from Australia and us from Canada/Hashmonaim. All are english speakers.
The vast majority are people who have made aliyah and have been in Israel for many years. And the majority are brits. Most if not all are dati and therefore there is minyan three times a day.
Our flight arrived in Zagreb at about 10 AM and we were on our way at 11 AM on a very nice bus. We stopped after about an hour and a half driving to eat lunch at a beautiful spot overlooking many waterfalls and then continued on our way to the main stop of the day, the Plitvice National Park. You have to google it to see it for yourself, tho I will be sending pictures soon.
It is a national park that is over 115 square miles with many lakes, terraced one above the other, feeding into one another by myriads of waterfalls. It is truly one of the most beautiful sights that we have ever seen. We hiked thru the well laid trails and saw most of the waterfalls, which took a couple of hours, ending up at a boat dock, where we took a boat ride which dropped us back at our bus. It is magnificent and the 2 and a half hours that we spent here did not do it any justice; you need to spend more time here to take it all in.
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| Guide Michael Tuchfeld |
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| AACI Liaison Miriam Green |
Our guide/mashgiach/cook Michael Tuchfeld, had arranged with this restaurant to kasher and use their facilities, turn on the oven and cook fish and soup for us by triple wrapping everything and baking it all. So our dinner tonight was bread, salad, soup, trout with baked potato, cauliflower and broccolli and watermelon. And it was very fresh,....the trout was caught this afternoon and freshly baked for us. The owner of the restaurant was a local Croat who had worked on a cruise line (the Celebrity Millenium,,,the same ship that we will be on iyh in AUgust to Alaska). As a result he knew alot about Kashrut and also gave me some tips on what to do aboard the Millenium as far as kashrut is concerned.
Back on the bus for a two hour ride to our hotel in the south of the country near the old city of Split. The Hotel is relatively new and is a beautiful 5 star facility.
We have made friends with a number of the participants and we have played Jewish geography to the hilt! One couple that we met, Harry and Sarah Prais (pronounced "Price"), is from Birmingham, England (with a home in Raanana). When I said my name was Woolf, and that my parents had at one time (about 65 years ago!) lived in Birmingham, Harry said "are you IG Woolf's grandson?" (btw, IG stands for Yitzchak Gershon). I replied yes and he went on to say that his family was friends in the old days with ours and that they regularly attended a SHabbat afternoon shiur in my uncle Myer Lebovic's (a"h) home and that after my Uncle Myer and Auntie Minnie (a"h) had moved to Canada, they had bought that very home, which was at 125 Russell Road.
He also said that if he remembers correctly, his brother Sigbert was a close friend of one of the Woolf sons, possibly Sidney (ie; my father). He said that IG Woolf's involvement in the Central Shul in Birmingham back then, helped to strengthen the yiddishkeit in that city. Those are memories that are 6 to seven decades old!!!
Will try to post some more tomorrow and hopefully include an album of pictures.
Hope all are well....all the best
Fran and David
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