Israel. Day 7. Into the Banana Room.

We got up early and went down to our last breakfast at the Ritz.  Everything was delicious and the big egg/pancake man surprised Hallie with Mickey Mouse pancakes. She was quite happy with that.

After breakfast we finished packing up, Hallie had a dance party on the balcony, and then we said goodbye to the Ritz and headed to Tel Aviv.

We drove straight to the Sarona Market, a food hall with over 90 food stands/stores/restaurants. There were also a bunch of rooms branching off from the main corridor with seating, each themed differently. One was the banana room. It was interesting.

We first walked the whole thing to see what was on offer. I got a slushy coffee and some cookies from a place that I think was called Soft Cookies. The coffee was really good - they pulled it from a machine and then blended it more, which I’ve never seen before. We passed a juice place that was making orange juice and Hallie saw an orange and said she wanted one. Tzvi asked how much to buy an orange and the woman working there kind of angrily said, “just take it, we don’t sell oranges.” It was kind of nice, even if she wasn’t.

For our lunch we started with pizza. We got two massive pieces of square pizza, one cheese and one mushroom. Hallie didn’t really eat it, but it was pretty good. 

Next we had ramen with tofu. I’ve never really had ramen before but I plan to have it again. It was really good. 

Hallie was crapping out so we got back in the car and started driving. We made a quick stop at Lechemim, which is the original Breads Bakery. Unlike the one in NYC, everything at this one was kosher. We got a bunch of pastries and babka. Then we drove about an hour back to Jerusalem.

We got to the King David Hotel around 330, unloaded and checked in. At check in we were informed that we had been upgraded to a family room.  We then met Ron, the guest relations manager who welcomed us to the hotel and took us to our room. I think because we’ve always stayed here on my parents reservations they thought it was our first time here so they treated us nicer. After showing us our room, Ron offered us complementary welcome drinks. We asked for soda, seltzer and juice, but realized later we probably could’ve asked for coffee or a cocktail. Oh well. 

Tzvi returned the rental car to Avis down the block after filling it up with gas ($61!) and then we unpacked. We haven’t really unpacked on this trip since we’ve been everywhere for only 3 nights, but since we’re here 4 nights we fully unpacked and then had a bellhop take our empty suitcases down to storage so they’re out of the way.  

Our room is pretty large - a short hallway leads into a sitting room with a desk, a couple of chairs, and a toddler bed for Hallie. There’s a separate room with a king sized bed that’s separated by folding doors. The bathroom is pretty big with a tub and a shower, but it’s kind of awkwardly set up - the toilet is just kind of there (as opposed to being in its own little room). They also gave us a nice basket of snacks (I guess because it’s a family room).

My parents came back and Hallie was excited to see them (we have connecting rooms). Their room is a regular room. We looked into their room and then Tzvi asked how their bathroom was, so my mother told him to go look. So he did, except when he opened the bathroom door he was met by the surprise of my father sitting on the toilet.

Once we were all settled we showered and got ready for dinner, then we, my parents and Avery and Gabs went for dinner.  Dinner was at Anna, the Italian restaurant at the Ticoh House. The restaurant is fairly small but nice. We started with focaccia - two very large pieces of bread served with olive oil. My father was disappointed because he expected bruschetta, which was confusing, because he ordered foccacia, not bruschetta. 

We ordered a few appetizers for the table, but it was all cheese so I didn’t partake. They shared a gnocchi with tomatoes and cream and a caprese salad. We also got Hallie a margarita pizza.  For mains I had salmon and Tzvi had linguine with mushrooms and truffle oil. For dessert Tzvi and Hallie shared a tiramisu and I had a lemon pie thing. It was decent.

We told them it was my fathers birthday (it actually was) and Hallie’s birthday, so they both got sparklers in their desserts, which was cool, but I think Hallie was sad when it went out on its own. 

After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel, got Hallie ready for bed and then went to sleep.  

Good day. Long day.