Excuse me there are crumbs on my holiday photographs

As the crows flies:
Melbourne - Amsterdam 16,435km
Amsterdam - Krakow 1,219 kms
Krakow Heathrow 1,438km
Heathrow Tel Aviv 4,950 kms
Tel Aviv Newcastle 5,296kms

Amsterdam 20 June - 26 June 
Cheese
Beers
Jewish quarter
A city built for bikes
Gig in a bar 
Rode at night and came upon a windmill, thought it was a darlek.
Small hotel - friendly staff
Anne Frank house so many people waiting to go in and look - where were they all 1939 -1945?
Dope smoke everywhere - made me panic
Everyone so polite and friendly 
Great markets
Went to more supermarkets than museums
Watched : Punchline, Trainspotters 2.
Read Shrill Lindy West

Amsterdam canal - near Anne Frank House 

Krakow 
26- 30  June The drive in was grim.
The Jewish quarter was nice
Food truck parks everywhere
The festival had great posters and promotion
Gig in old part of krakow in a bar was great
They worked hard to get an audience
Paid 300 zlotys!
Festival gig tough crowd
Visited Auschwitz - the scale of it - the sheer bloody scale of it - the rooms full of hair, shoes and spectacles
9,000 people go there every day
Hotel very spacious
Beers amazing
Food good and very cheap
Festival was an earnest crowd -
Sam and Gina Rosenberg from Melbourne
Holocaust over load - so much reflection and tourism related activities

Jewish Cultural Festival Krakow

Israel 1 - 9 July
Met by cousin and Aunt at Airport - big smiles all round
Hotel in Jerusalem 3 Arches 
Visited the Old Town which leads onto the Wailing Wall
Went to the men's bit instead of the women's bit - oops
Soon got ushered out
Masada the house the Herrod built 
The dead sea sinking fast 
It's not easy to navigate if you don't speak Hebrew
The market vast and so much halva..
Got kicked out of a taxi and a bus ..
Tel Aviv
YadVashem
Israel Museum
Family - 
Family trees sitting next to cousins for the first time - the holocaust then and now changing the landscape for Jews everywhere

The state of Israel exists as a safe guard agains the holocaust
The country is only 78 years old 
But has achieved so much
It is a city built on sand - can it survive?

Peering over the precipice of the replica of the wagon that took people to Birkenau.
Never again the whole of Yad Vashem in its architectural grandeur screams
Never ever again


What matters now is never again any where ..
Never again for humanity ..


Tel aviv - used materials that were incompatible with the climate.
Steel and sandstone grate
So the city is being rebuilt and patched up 
 Shabby chique - is the look

Family in Tel Aviv
Walking to Jaffa
Falafel 
A city being built 
The west bank
Palestine Arab Settlements
The bus to Tel Aviv

West Bank warnings on DEFAT websites -
But I never felt unsafe.

Masada - the house that Herod built

Excuse me there are crumbs on my travel map

Traveling on my own 

I look up from my book

And there is no one to ignore.

Travelling on my own

There is no one to get lost with 

And yet there is everything to find.

Excuse me there are crumbs on board this trip

Amsterdam

You had me

At Central Station.

Bike through the city

A city made for bicycle destinations

Jewish Quarters

And house loads

Visting Anne Frank.

Tulips as tchotchkes

Cheese and beers on tap

Dope smoke in clouds

Avoided inhalation.

A gig in a bar

Anti Semitism and sexism

Travel through comedy rooms

Near and far.

Amsterdam to Krakow

A festival of Jews

Despite and inspite of history.

Gig in a bar

Laughter

All the way to the punchline.

Auschwitz and Birkenau

9,000 visitors every day

No words to describe.

Make Humus not War

Said a café to the diner

Drink beer and some more

Said the diner to the cafe.

Krakow to Tel Aviv

A quick stop in Heathrow

Daughter and sister 

Swing by just to say hello.

Tel Aviv 

Hotel a YMCA 

Built by a Mench.

Walk to the Old Town

Leading all the way to the wall

We weep and we wail

And then we weep even more.

For the past is always there

Israel in a state

78 years young

Ancient in its repose.

A family tree connects

Post war Jews in Jerusalem

Cousins connect at dinner

Eat, smile, then weep
For what could have been.

Masada the house that Herod Built

A cliff top retreat

Resplendent in its power

Defenceless in its splendour.

The Dead Sea 

Is dying

The splash of death crashes to the shore

Another gig in bar

Not many giggles to be had

Maybe next year in Jerusalem
The jokes will take flight.

More cousins and an aunt
A fleeting moment in Jerusalem 

A life time in the heart.

For Israel to exist

There is pain 

Despite the fact that

Yad Vashem screams

Never, ever, ever again.