SARONA

Historical place turned into a recreational spot. Nothing  wrong with that , especially that there's due respect given to history here. It's just the trend of things nowadays  that needs to be mentioned - every available space turns into a complex of food, recreation and real estate.

Sarona is such a complex. It's new and attractive, in the city of Tel Aviv, close to main roads, with lots of parking places. It used to be an army base, and long before that a  templar  colony. (The templars were pios german christians who established an agricultural settlement on the west bank of the Ayalon river in 1871. They were exiled to Germany and Australia in 1930 by the british forces who controlled the land at that time).

main street

Visitor's Center and Info Center in the background

The complex  (see the header - guide map to visitors-  to get an idea), comprises  an indoor food market (rather crowded and stuffy for my taste) placed under several residential towers - and a fairly big open space with  little streets named after army generals , an urban park with grass lawns and flower beds, spots for picnics, for public events, and of course, children's playgrounds.

residential towers

entrance to indoor market

indoor cake stand and vegetable stand

indoor bakery products

eating indoors

 There are of course, designer shops, art galleries, resto- bars and cafeterias - housed in the  templar homes scattered around the open area.

There's also a visitor's center , an information center,  an olive oil press, an underground cave built by the templars as a wine press,  a nice W.C. structure. (I haven't seen though any cool water facilities which in summer are a must).

book store "Tzomet Sefarim"

olive oil press

"Caffeneto"

childrens' playground

picnic spot

It was a bit cloudy outside when I visited  there, and yet things around looked bright and colorful.

What I liked mostly about the place was the music diffused through some small , flat round devices in certain areas of the park. You can sit on a bench and listen to original hebrew songs on various themes. As always, music takes things to a higher level.

resting and listening to music

see the round devices on the soil , difussing music

outside the cafeteria with flowers and music

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite

The bombings, shootings and killings in Paris,  the City of Light, have shattered many people's belief in humanity, and  in the ideals of the French Revolution.

The french have a lot of thinking to do now. Years  of liberal policies (both on the internal and the external front) and incompetent politicians, have turned France into an easy target for terrorists.

As a journalist has recently put it:" You shouldn't try to understand or explain terrorism. You should just extirpate it". Indeed, a lot of time has been wasted on understanding and explaining - and now it seems things are completely out of control.

There's a sense of urgency in the atmosphere  but so far nothing serious has been done against Daesh, except air strikes, which are not very efficient. 

The members of Daesh, Al-Quaeda,and the like, don't seem to think much of life, so I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get hold of nuclear "toys" to make it even easier to destroy  life wherever and whenever they fancy.

Sad, very sad.    
May the souls of those innocent victims of the massacre in Paris rest in peace! May God strengthen their families and alleviate their pain!