Latroun
Back to the vacation:
After spending a day getting acclimated to the time change and the exceedingly pleasant weather, Natan's mother Julia took us north to the French Trappist abbey at Latroun (warning - this site plays hymns!). Perhaps it is indicative of the history of Israel that it was also the site of a major battle during the 1948 war. The abbey itself was astoundingly peaceful and serene. The monks grow olives and grapes and sell olive oil and wine to support the monastery. The different wines that are produced at this single location in Israel is extensive. I bought a bottle of 2003 Sept Monts Reserve, which I enjoyed with my family during our Christmas Eve dinner.
The church at the abbey was closed when we first arrived, so we came back in a couple of hours. It looked very old, but when we asked the age of the abbey we were told, "Oh, it's not old at all. It was built in 1890." In a place like Israel, age is relative. Here's the view of the surrounding landscape from the abbey steps.
In keeping with the duality of the Israeli Thing, to paraphrase one of my favorite bands, we also visited the Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum across the street from the monastery. They've got a whole lot of tanks on display there. Julia wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of the place, but I told her that all boys like tanks so she'd just have to indulge us. Here's a picture of Julia standing atop a tank at the museum.
One thing that really resonated with me at the museum was the vastly different provenance of the tanks utilized by the IDF. There were obviously American and British tanks that were likely supplied directly to the IDF, but there were also many French, British, Soviet and even Nazi German tanks that had been captured during the 1948 and 1967 wars that had been brought into service by the IDF. It was a bit sobering to see how the wars may end, but the weapons seem to move on to another fight. However, I've got a pretty good hunch that some of these tanks won't be going anywhere:
After spending a day getting acclimated to the time change and the exceedingly pleasant weather, Natan's mother Julia took us north to the French Trappist abbey at Latroun (warning - this site plays hymns!). Perhaps it is indicative of the history of Israel that it was also the site of a major battle during the 1948 war. The abbey itself was astoundingly peaceful and serene. The monks grow olives and grapes and sell olive oil and wine to support the monastery. The different wines that are produced at this single location in Israel is extensive. I bought a bottle of 2003 Sept Monts Reserve, which I enjoyed with my family during our Christmas Eve dinner.
The church at the abbey was closed when we first arrived, so we came back in a couple of hours. It looked very old, but when we asked the age of the abbey we were told, "Oh, it's not old at all. It was built in 1890." In a place like Israel, age is relative. Here's the view of the surrounding landscape from the abbey steps.
In keeping with the duality of the Israeli Thing, to paraphrase one of my favorite bands, we also visited the Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum across the street from the monastery. They've got a whole lot of tanks on display there. Julia wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of the place, but I told her that all boys like tanks so she'd just have to indulge us. Here's a picture of Julia standing atop a tank at the museum.
One thing that really resonated with me at the museum was the vastly different provenance of the tanks utilized by the IDF. There were obviously American and British tanks that were likely supplied directly to the IDF, but there were also many French, British, Soviet and even Nazi German tanks that had been captured during the 1948 and 1967 wars that had been brought into service by the IDF. It was a bit sobering to see how the wars may end, but the weapons seem to move on to another fight. However, I've got a pretty good hunch that some of these tanks won't be going anywhere:
posted by wallrock at 4:31 PM
5 Comments:
Cool! The view from the steps of the abbey is gorgeous!
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This comment has been removed by the author.
Sorry for leaving that 3 times...slow computer.
I never realized how pretty it was over there.
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