Wednesday, October 29, 2014

KLM: Toronto to Tel-Aviv. Stopover in Amsterdam

KLM wing view
With all of the changes to Air Canada's Aeroplan program (the "altitude program" for frequent flyers), it has become much less attractive for many people to fly Air Canada regularly.  For starters, Air Canada now awards Aeroplan points at a greatly reduced rate for most flights.  With some partners, no Aeroplan miles are earned at all.  And the price for an Air Canada flight is often several hundred dollars more than a flight on one of the other airlines.

So I decided to take a cheaper flight on a different system.  I flew KLM this time from Toronto to Tel-Aviv with a lengthy stopover in Amsterdam.  The price was significantly lower than any available Star Alliance flight.  Only flights with Turkish Air or Alitalia were close in price.  Since I was traveling with someone this time - and he was changing through Amsterdam, I decided to join him.  I should note that he purchased a KLM flight, round trip, Toronto to Tel-Aviv, for just over $700 Cdn including all taxes.  That was at least $500 less than the lowest priced Air Canada or El Al flight.  These are my notes about the flight and about the stopover in Amsterdam.

Overall, I would say that it was quite fun to stop and spend the day in Amsterdam.  But to do so, you have to get through the KLM flight, which was brutal, compared to just about any other airline that I have used in the past 5 years (and reviewed on this site).

The main advantage of KLM was the price.  It was quite a bit cheaper than just about any other carriers - other than Turkish or Alitalia.  I was considering trying one of those but opted for a day in Amsterdam.

KLM leaves Toronto from Pearson International's Terminal 3, which is the older terminal.  There was little difficulty in the boarding process.  We were offered lounge access for about $30 Cdn (I had no special status on KLM so I would not have been able to get into the lounge otherwise).  My flying companion decided that this was a good idea so we spent a couple of hours in the lounge.  It was not nearly as nice as the Air Canada lounge in Terminal 1.  The food and drink selections were more limited.  Even the seats were less comfortable.  But even with the additional cost of paying for the lounge, flying KLM was still far less expensive than Air Canada.

Boarding was quite a jungle.  It was fairly disorganized, although the ground staff did their best to board passengers by row number.  They tried to stick to that but it was all taking place in such a crowded space that it seemed like a far lengthier and more disorganized process than many other airlines.

The biggest problem with KLM was the seats.  While I may have gained a couple of pounds since my last flight, this clearly felt like the narrowest seat I have sat in over the course of my five years traveling back and forth between Toronto and Israel.  I could barely get into the seat, let alone move in any direction once I was in it.  I was sitting at window seat and there were two people in the other seats next to me (the plane configuration was 3-4-3).  I was so uncomfortable, I just didn't know what to do.  I couldn't concentrate on the book I had, so I wound up watching a really dumb movie.

The plane did have personal entertainment systems, though they were the old-style systems, like those used on many Austrian Air planes.  The screen was low resolution and was not a touch-screen.  The selection was quite limited.  The sound was terrible.  While this was still a step up over El-Al (the planes between Toronto and Israel have no personal screens), it was nowhere close to the systems used by other airlines like Air Canada, United, US Air, Lufthansa, etc.,.

I had ordered an Asian vegetarian meal.  It was one of the smallest meals I have seen on a transatlantic flight.  It was served more than 2 hours into the flight (which was only 6 1/2 hours in total to begin with).  The meal included lentils, white rice, tofu and salad but I was still quite hungry.  The "house" wine was a South African Cabernet-Shiraz.  It was tasty.  The flight attendants also offered a variety of after dinner drinks including cognac.  So the drink service was comparable to most of the other European airlines or Air Canada.  (The American airlines all charge $7 for a bottle of lousy wine).  The flight attendants were cheerful and friendly and came around often.  I have no complaints about the beverage service or the flight attendants themselves.  But it is difficult to get past the tremendous discomfort of sitting in such a tiny, cramped seat on an overnight flight.

For all of my complaints about flying on KLM from Toronto to Amsterdam, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed being in Amsterdam.  It was my first time.  We had approximately 13 hours from the time our flight arrived in Amsterdam until the next flight to Tel-Aviv.  We decided to try and make the most of it.

Getting to the centre of Amsterdam is quite easy and convenient.  I should note that we first found a locker in the Amsterdam airport to store our carry on bags.  This was a great idea and made our trip that much easier.  Locker locations are clearly marked, easy to find and reasonably priced.  We then took the "inter-city" train from Schipol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal Station.  The cost was about 18 Euros for two of us, round-trip.  The train ride itself was about 15 minutes.  It was smooth and comfortable.

Anne Frank House Line-Up
Our first stop was the Anne Frank House.  I had read that it would have been better to buy tickets in advance to avoid the long line-ups.  But when I had visited the on-line site, about a week before the trip, the advance tickets were already sold out.  Since the attraction is so highly rated, we decided to wait to see it despite the line up.  But I have to say, it was a 2 1/2 hour wait to get into the museum.  It was cold and windy outside, perhaps 10 or 12C.  Not pleasant at all. 

The Museum itself was definitely worth visiting, though ideally without the lengthy wait.  Centred around the life story of Anne Frank and her famous diary, the museum is, essentially, a Holocaust museum, using the story of Anne Frank as the vehicle.  The museum is housed in a reconstructed version of the Frank house and involves climbing up some very steep and narrow staircases and traveling from room to room in the house in which Anne Frank hid from the Nazis for more than two years.  There were some very moving exhibits including the actual Anne Frank diary, the exhibit with information about Auschwitz-Birkenau and a video montage at the end with comments from a range of personalities about the story of Anne Frank.  The museum is apparently one of Amsterdam's most visited tourist sites.  It is a fascinating place and it is heartening to see so many people, from so many different countries, visiting the site.

After our museum visit, we took a short walk over to the Pancake Bakery, a well known and highly recommended pancake house.  Since we had planned this in advance, we had a Google map route.  It was a short walk and very convenient.  I had a veggie pancake - a giant pancake with a melange of stir fried veggies including broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, onions and some feta cheese.  It was quite
Cinnamon Ice Cream Dessert - Pancake Bakery
good.  My dining companion had a salmon cream cheese pancake which was somewhat less tasty.  We both had coffee which was okay but nothing more.  Overall, it was a neat place, moderately priced and reasonably filling.  We shared a dessert - cinnamon flavoured ice cream with fruit compote, Belgian chocolate shavings and whipped cream.  Neither of us ate the whipped cream and we couldn't finish the whole dessert.  But it was quite tasty.

From there, we headed off the old Jewish Quarter.  We had a Google map for this route as well.  We took a short walk, got on a tram car and we were dropped off right next to our destination in less than 10 minutes.  We had purchased an all day pass for the Amsterdam transportation system so, again, this was quite easy and convenient.  Once you buy these passes, you simply swipe the pass as you get on the tram car and then again once you get off.  No cash is used anywhere on this system.

Portuguese Synagogue Amsterdam - Entrance
Our main destination was the Portuguese Synagogue.  This is a wonderful place, originally completed in 1675.  It is a beautiful synagogue with ornate detailing.  When used, it is lit up entirely by candle light with no electricity or heating.  It is currently used on Yom Kippur and on selected special Shabbat services during the year.  It is also used for concerts and some holidays.  Visitors can pay an admission fee and take a tour of the entire synagogue complex with an audio device that provides pre-recorded information about various spots in the complex.  The cavernous synagogue includes rows of original wooden benches, and huge candelabras.

Portuguese Synagogue - "Esnoga" - Amsterdam
Esnoga Respository - Judaica
Esnoga Library
The synagogue complex also includes a basement repository of religious articles - Torah breastplates, crowns, pointers, Etrog boxes and many other items, hand crafted in silver and gold and often studded with ornamental precious or semi-precious stones.  The repository also includes a massive library, that is still in use.

We spent more time than we had planned in this complex and wound up skipping the nearby Amsterdam Jewish museum and the old Ashkenazi synagogue.  But this synagogue (known as the "Esnoga") alone easily justified the lengthy stopover in Amsterdam.

Traveling through Amsterdam, I couldn't help but feel that I was in a special place.  The architectural style of the buildings is attractive, the canals running through the city are enticing and there are so many cafes, museums, interesting stores and other places that I felt that I would need at least another week in Amsterdam - or perhaps several more lengthy stopovers.  We wound up missing the Van Gogh museum, the Rembrandt museum and the other great museums that Amsterdam is known for housing.  We didn't even make it to Amsterdam's unique Sex Museum, though we passed by the entrance.  We also ran out of time to hit the red light district, the famous coffee houses (and hash bars) and the Heineken beer factory.  From what I could see, I think it would be quite a bit of fun to just wander around or bike through the city without any set list of places to visit.

Overall, even though the KLM flight from Toronto to Amsterdam was cramped and uncomfortable, the stopover made it all worthwhile.

We took a train back from Amsterdam to the airport and even had time to wander around the duty free shops for a bit.  Our flight was uneventful.  The plane was very modest with no entertainment screens or other amenities.  Fortunately, it is only a 4 1/2 hour flight to Tel-Aviv, though it arrives at 2:20 a.m., which is also brutal.

Would I do it again?  Well, despite the discomfort of KLM, the price was right and Amsterdam was great.  There is lots more to see there.  So if I have another opportunity to save lots of money on an airline ticket and spend the day in Amsterdam, I will probably do it again, despite the various drawbacks, which, in particular, include the awful flight times and the super-cramped seating. But as you probably know from reading previous blogs, I tend to choose experience over luxury...





Thursday, October 23, 2014

Maccabi Haifa in Toronto to play the Raptors

From: Raptors.com
It was a fun night in Toronto for fans of Israeli basketball.  The Maccabi Haifa basketball team was in town to play the Toronto Raptors.  Led by point guard Brody Angley, Maccabi put up a spirited fight.  After having been lambasted in Sacramento 91-59 a few days earlier, Maccabi almost beat Toronto.  Although Toronto had a 16 point lead at one point in the game, Maccabi fought back and built up its own 5 point lead with less than 10 minutes to play.  In the end, the Raptors prevailed, winning 92-85.

This was a sparsely attended exhibition game but since I was in town, I couldn't resist supporting this type of event.  There were several Israeli flags being waved around, quite a few kippahs and lots of Hebrew being spoken in the stands.  There were pockets of enthusiastic supporters of both teams though probably more Raptors' fans than fans of Haifa.  The game began with the singing of two national anthems -  Hatikvah (Israel's national anthem) and the Canadian national anthem.  It was quite fun hearing the Israeli national anthem at the Air Canada Centre.

For the Baldwin Street Kosher hot dog stand (with one location on the lower level only), this was the Super Bowl of Toronto sports events.  Hundreds of day school students, observant Jews and others lined up to buy strictly Kosher hot dogs and french fries.  Unfortunately, the vendors were ill-prepared for the onslaught and poorly organized.  The line-up barely moved.  We waited on line for about twenty minutes, trying to support  the Kosher kiosk.  But the line-up only inched forward. There were still at least 20 or 30 people ahead of us, even after all that time.  We gave up and went back to watch the game hungry.

The Toronto Raptors have hosted other Israeli basketball teams in the past.  Maccabi Tel-Aviv has played in Toronto twice, beating the Raptors in one of those appearances.  For Maccabi Haifa, the 2014 Toronto appearance was the last game of a four game NBA tour which has included stops in Washington, Sacramento, Portland and Toronto.   

This was not a thrilling basketball game, especially for those of us who are not really big basketball fans.  But it was fun watching Maccabi draw close and keep the result in doubt until the end of the game  (or close to it).

Many of those in attendance enjoyed some photo opportunities - including these friends of ours, who are seen here posing with the Raptor mascot.

The day was somewhat marred by the news of a terrorist shooting incident in Ottawa earlier in the afternoon.  But the basketball game proceeded with a special appeal for remembrance of the victims of the earlier incident.

Overall, it was a fun evening and a much closer game than anyone might have expected.




Saturday, October 18, 2014

Mahane Yehuda Market - Cooking Tour (Sukkot Activities)

Over the holiday season in Israel (September/October), there are many things to do all over Israel.  Although many Israelis go on vacations outside the country, many families have visitors during this time period.  In our circle of friends, a few families had parents and siblings visiting this year.  Some of the families were looking for activities that would make a suitable outing for a whole family with a wide range of ages.

Inside Mahane Yehuda
One of our friends suggested a walking/cooking tour of the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.  This sounded like fun to us, so we agreed.  We wound up with four families participating, a total of 19 people on a beautiful October day during Hol Hamoed Sukkot.

There are several different companies that offer these types of tours but our organizer chose Abraham Tours, a group that operates its tours and its kitchen out of a hostel that adjoins the Mahane Yehuda market.  The company website offers a regular cooking tour on Tuesdays for 80 N.I.S. per person.  Since our tour was a private tour, the cost was somewhat higher - 130 N.I.S. (or about $42).

Mahane Yehuda is a bustling market that includes outdoor, partially covered areas as well as parts that are indoors.  Vendors sell fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, fish and many other items.  It can be quite crowded but it is almost always very lively.  Walking through the market anytime is a multi-sensory experience.  There are food aromas of many different types, the sounds of people haggling in different languages (though mostly Hebrew, with an array of different accents) and a wide-ranging mix of Israelis and tourists, religious and non-religious alike from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Our tour was set up as a guided tour through the market with stops to purchase a preset list of ingredients.  We would then take the ingredients back to the hostel kitchen and whip up a fresh, quintessentially Mideastern meal guided by an experienced chef/ tour leader and her colleague.

We had arranged to start at 9:30 a.m.  This meant leaving Ra'anana at about 7:45 a.m.  In heavy traffic, this drive can take longer than 1.5 hours but, for some reason, during Hol Hamoed Sukkot there was less traffic than usual.  We were at the market by 9 a.m. and even had time to grab a morning coffee before starting.

Our tour guide, an outgoing and friendly young woman, had grown up in the U.S. before moving to Israel.  Our group had opted to take the tour in English so there were no language issues.  We were provided with a fairly short introduction to the market and a bit of history about it.  We were then off on our shopping expedition.

For the next hour or so, we made our way through different parts of the market, stopping at various stalls to collect ingredients.  It was fairly early in the morning so it was not too crowded when we first started.  But it is a bit challenging to keep a group of 19 together, particularly when the group includes some younger children.  Mainly, this was a shopping trip rather than a guided tour of the market.  We picked up a few pointers along the way (like how to buy the perfect eggplant - look for one that is very light, we were told) and we stopped at some out of the way vendors who we may not have otherwise found (like the vendor whose booth consists mainly of products made with etrogs).  I confess that I sampled an etrog-qat-triple berry fruit concoction and it was quite good.

Along the way we picked up some really nice produce.  The fruits and vegetables were wonderfully fresh - much more tasty than many of the fruits and veggies that are available in Canada or the U.S. most of the year.  We were preparing an all vegetarian meal.  Along the way, we collected tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, kohlrabi,  kale, coriander leaves and many other items.  Our guide purchased all of the items and we all shared the schlepping back to the hostel.

By about 11:00 a.m. we made our way over to the hostel kitchen.  This was not a kitchen that would be confused with the film studio set for the Emeril cooking show.  Rather we were in the midst of an operating hostel, with hostel guests coming in and out of the kitchen.  There was a reasonably well equipped kitchen  and a decent amount of counter space.  There were a range of heavily used, cooking implements, pots and pans from many different backgrounds (much like the market itself).  But the emphasis here was on functionality rather than luxury or even convenience.  I also note that the kitchen is not kosher certified which is one of the main reasons that our group had opted for the vegetarian option.  There are probably a number of different groups that operate tours like this in strictly kosher kitchens but we compromised with this setup.

Putting together a full meal for twenty people in an hour and a half can be reasonably challenging.  Certainly it is something that my wife does regularly (with the assistance of her trusty sous-chef) but here we had lots of helpers.  The key is organization and our tour leader was quite organized.  She delegated tasks in an orderly fashion and in no time the kitchen was filled with the sounds of greens being washed, onions and garlic being chopped and other veggies sizzling on the stove.

Tomato Arugula Bryndza Cheese
The food was absolutely delicious.  All of the ingredients were very fresh.  The emphasis was on the Middle Eastern kitchen so we prepared a fairly healthy selection of aromatic culinary delights.

I'm not going to give away all of the tour secrets (we were provided with a full list of recipes at the end of the tour) but I think a bit of a look the menu should be fine.

This salad was quite tasty.  It featured cherry tomatoes, arugula and bryndza cheese (a feta-type cheese).  Fairly easy to put together.

Roasted Eggplant with Lemon Juice and Tehini
One of my personal favourites was the roasted eggplant dish.  Once again, the preparation was not particularly complicated.  It involved roasting a bunch of whole medium-sized eggplants and then peeling them and adding lemon juice, tahini, spices, feta cheese and olive oil.  The combination of the tastiness of these well chosen eggplants as well as the perfectly matched blend of spices made this a mouth-watering delicacy. 

We also prepared a roasted cauliflower dish, a middle eastern rice mixture, cooked with pre-mixed spices that we had picked up in the market and a fennel-kohlrabi-kale salad with mint leaves.  For dessert we prepared dates with walnuts, which was also a fairly healthy way to end the meal.

Green Shakshuka
One other main dish that we prepared was a green shakshuka featuring a mixture of pan cooked green vegetables that was then baked with strategically placed eggs and feta cheese.  The dish was a success both from an aesthetic point of view and for its taste.  It was also reasonably easy to make and seems like it would be a great dish to serve at a brunch (though brunches seem to be somewhat less common in Israel because of the six day work week).

Overall, I think all of the adults on the tour had more than enough food to eat and enjoyed most of the different dishes.  If some of the people were not thrilled with certain ingredients, for example coriander leaves or fennel (with its distinctive anise taste), there were enough other choices to still provide for a decent meal.

It probably would have been nice to have had an appropriately paired Israeli wine with the meal and maybe a nice fruit salad to go with the dates for dessert.  We could have also enjoyed a sampling of the Iraqi/Yemenite or other distinctive breads to accompany the tehini (instead of plain pita) and maybe we should have put together a big bowl of humus.  A fish dish of some sort might have also been interesting using one of the local fish.  We added in a couple of jars of green and red hot pepper sauce (Zhoug) that were not part of the menu and that we purchased separately to go with the tehini.  I personally enjoyed all of the dishes, other the fennel salad, which is just not my thing.  But some humus or fish would have added in a bit more protein.

Of course, some obscenely decadent chocolate souffle could have interested the kids but that would not have fit the Mideastern motif.  Not that my waistline would have necessarily benefited from that type of dish...

Unfortunately, for many of the kids that were with us, this was not a dream meal.  Some of them had a felafel or a shwarma after the meal in the market area.  Some were wondering when we were going to bring out the burgers and french fries during the meal.  But the kids still had fun on this trip, especially since there was a piano in the room, a billiards table and a few other activities to keep them busy (when they weren't helping with the cooking or cleaning up).  They enjoyed the socializing and sampling some of the items that we tasted as we walked through the market.

Overall, it was a fun activity and a great way to spend a day with some friends and family while the weather was still nice and just before the chaggim came to an end.  It also added some interesting dishes to our cooking repertoire which we hope to try at home soon.







Monday, October 13, 2014

Sukkot 2014 and Tulip Winery

There is little doubt that the holiday of Sukkot is about the best time to be in Israel, whether as a visitor or a resident Israeli.  Known in Hebrew is "z'man simchateinu" - "the time of our happiness," Sukkot is really quite a special holiday.

There are festivals across the country geared to a whole range of different demographic groups, from children's music to wine and beer festivals.  A quick glance at the newspaper shows a Yemenite Culture festival in one city (B'nei Ayish), a wine and beer festival in Ashdod, an Uzi Hittman sing-a-long event in Tel-Aviv and many other events in towns and cities all over Israel.  Many are free, city sponsored events.  For example, Israeli singer Eli Botner performed a free concert at the city centre stage (Yad L'Banim) in Ra'anana last night.  We dropped in to watch some of it.

Students of all ages have lengthy school breaks.  Many go on camping or hiking trips with different youth movements.  Two of our children participate in Noam (the youth movement affiliated with Conservative Judaism - "Masorti" in Israel).  This year, they are on a two day trip to the Negev - camping, hiking along or through rivers and enjoying the outdoors - in terrific weather conditions.

Before the tiyulim began, we managed to squeeze in a five family sukkah hop starting on shabbat afternoon, which was quite fun.  Each family was charged with preparing one course of the meal.  All of the sukkot were located in Ra'anana though in some cases the walk from one sukkah to the next was more than a half hour.  While many families try to put these events together in other countries, the conditions are often less than ideal.  (We once spent the night in our Sukkah in Toronto when it was close to 0 C).  Here in Israel, the weather was perfect for this type of event. The families were close enough to each other to allow for walking from one place to the next and the atmosphere all over Ra'anana was quite conducive to this type of celebration.  As we walked from stop to stop, we passed by hundreds of sukkot all over the city.

During Sukkot, many people also travel to other places around the country for visits to all kinds of different attractions, including national parks, wineries, nature reserves and other tourist spots.  We decided to visit the Tulip Winery yesterday.  Tulip is in Kiryat Tivon, about an hour north of Ra'anana.

Tulip is one of my favourite Israeli wine producers.  It was founded in 2003 by the Yitzhaki family. The winery was built in Kfar Tikvah ( the "village of hope"), a community for special needs adults.  The winery employs many residents of Kfar Tikvah and helps integrate them into the community.  Tulip has an annual production of approximately 220,000 bottles.   The Tulip visitor centre also features a range of products that were made by Kfar Tikvah residents. 

Tulip Winery
The visitor centre staff were knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.  They were also quite generous with tasting samples of a whole range of Tulip wines.  Almost all of the wines we tasted were delicious.  Starting with a white wine, White Franc, we worked our way through a tasting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve Cabernet, Reserve Shiraz, Mostly Cabernet Franc and two of the winery's finest blended wines including a special anniversary edition called "DNA 2011."  All of the wines were quite good.  The visitor centre was featuring a "buy three get one free" promotion, so we picked out four interesting bottles.  The prices ranged from 60 N.I.S.-100 N.I.S. for most of the wines (about $20 to $30) to 210 N.I.S. for the DNA 2011 (about $65).  We were tempted, but decided not to take a bottle of the DNA.

Tulip does not offer a daily tour though arrangements can be made in advance for groups.  But the winery really does offer a unique mix of social responsibility and excellent wine, which makes it a very highly regarded and popular institution and one that seems to me to deserve support.  The wine is certified kosher by the circle K organization as well as several Israeli kashruth authorities.  (The story of the process the winery underwent to receive kosher certification in a fascinating story by itself but one for another time). 

The holiday of Sukkot continues for two more days in Israel before culminating with the joyous festival of Simchat Torah.  That will bring the holiday season to a close as well as the annual cycle of Torah reading.  Sukkot marks the official start of rainy season in Israel (in theory, at least), just after harvest season ends. 

So we have two more days to enjoy eating meals in the Sukkah, waving the lulav and etrog and, of course, sharing the appropriate mid-Sukkot greeting - "mo'adim l'simchah" -  (Times of happiness), to which the little known but proper response is "chaggim u'zmanim l'sasson" (Festivals and times of joy). 

A happy and healthy new year to all and - "moadim l'simcha"...