In The Eyes of a Tourist

I can’t believe I’m back from 2 weeks of traveling around Europe with my wife. Although I’m constantly traveling helping Chabad houses, this is my first experience traveling as a tourist. I have so much to say and so much to tell, that I decided it would be best to do so with pictures.

Our first stop in Europe was London. We went to the Buckingham Palace where we saw about 10,000 people waiting outside the gates to get into a garden party hosted by the Queen of England, including a Chabad Rabbi who was invited as a part of the delegation from Canada by the Canadian prime minister. It was incredible to watch them going in to the Palace and seeing how everybody dressed. The Men were garbed with old-fashioned tuxedoes and top hats and the women were decked in gowns and big hats with feathers.

After watching the London guards and soldiers march, we caught an English taxi and went to see the London eye and the big Ben. We spent a few hours downtown with all the bustling English natives and tourists and then headed to the train station for Paris.

Paris was amazing! My brother in law, Yisrolik was in Yeshiva there and was leaving town the very day we arrived. So before heading back to New York that evening, he met up with us and showed us all the hot spots around town. We were supposed to spend just two days there so we quickly made our way visiting the Eiffel Tower, Arch D’Triumph and the Parisian streets. We then went to the old Jewish quarter, known as the “Pletsel”, which was flooded with Jewish tourists and falafel stands. We found a good Kosher place to have dinner and strolled about the old cobblestone streets.

That night, we went to the main street in Paris called, Champs Elysee, where we saw the Arch d’Triumph all lit up and were amazed by the busy nightlife around us!

The next day we had a flight to Venice, Italy with RyanAir, an airline that I have never used before. I did not know that getting to the airport would be a taxi, train and bus ride away from the city, taking us about 2 hours to get there. When we finally arrived to the tiny cramped airport, we waited on line to check in all of our stuff and were then told that our flight and many other flights were delayed.

The diminutive airport was flooded with people sitting everywhere, so when the big announcement came that there was an air strike in France and all flights were cancelled, the hectic area went into an uproar, everyone scrambling trying to retrieve their luggage and find some other way out of the country. When we finally did get back to Paris it was about 11:00 pm. We went straight to the train station, in a desperate attempt to catch a train to Venice. But we quickly learned that there was not only an air strike, but a train strike in France as well! With no choice, but to stay in Paris, we began searching for a place to sleep for the night. We spent an hour walking from hotel to hotel, with our entire luggage, looking for a place to stay but every place was booked due to the strike. At 1:30 am, exhausted and hungry, we where officially stranded!

I could not find wifi so I used my American cell phone at $2 a minute to call my father in law, who then found an old friend in Brunoy, a suburb of Paris, to host us for the night. At 3:00 am we finally got there.

Subsequently, we had to change all of our Venice reservations and made plans to stay in a hotel just outside the Eiffel tower for Shabbos, as we did not have any time to get to Venice before then.

Shabbos was remarkable. We went to the Chabad House, which is right near the Arch D’Triumph. The warm Shluchim invited us for the meal after services and there we met many other Jewish tourists visiting and shared in their adventures as well. It was a wonderful experience.

Venice was my most incredible experience of this trip. The rivers flow through all the blocks with every kind of boat, ship or Gondola rushing by coming and going from one place to another. Over there one can meet every kind of visitor from all over the world. Of course we went to the Jewish ghetto, which is the oldest Jewish ghetto in the world and visited the amazing Chabad Center right there on the main street. They have four locations in Venice, the famous Gam Gam restaurant, a pizza shop, a synagogue and a yeshiva.

Our last stop was Barcelona, Spain. This city has almost no kosher food so I called the Chabad Rabbi before and they arranged to deliver meals to my hotel for the next 3 days. It was wonderful to have those Kosher meals, they literally saved us. We did not go around much as we wanted to relax and enjoy the era. We did, however, explore the Goudi architecture all around the Barcelona and visited a beautiful palace at night that had a magnificent Water and Light show. It was a sight to see!

Our Shabbat experience in Spain was fascinating! We had no idea what to expect. I thought the Chabad Center was a very small place and maybe a handful of people would come for Shabbos. To our surprise when we arrived for Friday night services the place was packed with over 120 people almost all locals and a dozen or so tourists. Most of the Jews there are Spanish Safardik Jews, so the services took very long and they sang every song in the book with warmth and enthusiasm.

After services, we walked with the Rabbi and about another ten guests to his house for the Shabbos meal. The meal was very nice, and it was amazing to speak to other people traveling just like us. As we were leaving, the Rabbi’s wife told us to go down one at a time, not to speak and to be absolutely quiet. I listened, walked down the 6 flights of stairs and then walked back with my wife to our hotel.

The next day I asked them why we had to walk out of their house like that. They told us that all the neighbors do not like the activities of the Chabad Rabbi and want to somehow force them out. In addition, they don’t like the fact that they have so many guests, singing and chattering every Friday night and Shabbos day. The Rabbi’s wife tells us that up to a few months ago, she would have about 60 or 70 guests at her Shabbos table every Shabbos meal. She said that over the past 12 years since they’ve come to Barcelona, close to 20,000 people ate a Shabbos meal by them and that is without counting the 5000 meals she cooks and prepares for people to go every year. They also just opened a new location in the downtown area to service tourist with free internet and phones, a kosher Judaica store and Chabad House. I was amazed to see what they do there in a city with almost nothing Kosher!!

As our trip came to a close, we made our way back home with a stop over in London for a night and the long flight back to NY.

Now, I’m back to reality working in the Chabad.org offices at Lubavich world headquarters here in New York.

For a complete photo gallery please check out my facebook.

Looking forward for my Detroit natives to come to town so I can give you the Jewish/Chabad tour here in NY.