One of my favorite movies is 'Clean Sweep', an Israeli film. When I went to the Israeli Film Festival I was in line with everyone else to see the movie 'Time of Favor' ( a classic), it sold out, I was ticked, had to go see the remaining(leftover) movie called Clean Sweep. It is a police/detective type that takes place in and around Tel Aviv. I loved it.
It became one of my favorites. They have good shots ot T/A. Toward the end they do a wonderful motorcycle chase through the streets. I enjoyed that. Now I was where that chase was taking place. Oh that was a good movie. FYI, I have it on DVD, with English subtitles. I will sometimes do the Hebrew subtitles as I know the plot inside and out
and can actually learn a few words by watching the Hebrew letters., but mostly do it in English. Love the theme song.
KADOSH! I would love to get that theme song on cd if anyone knows where and how, etc? toda

So we did the drive through the city routine. It is older, more run down than I had thought. Every city has its good and bad areas, I guess I was expecting more of a Zion, if you will. All of a sudden we emerge from the mass of low apartment buildings and come out to Ha'Yarkon st. This is the Tel Aviv Promenade where most of the T/A's hotels lie, and on the beach. You take the highway up, Hilton is on the right, the others on the left, and go into a small, congested street where you literally drive through the front area of the: Sheraton Moriah, Crowne Plaza, and then my new home, for the night, the Rennaissance. I can't follow their Hebrew spelling, it doesn't seem to match!? xoxo
Oh well.

I had done alot of homework on the hotels. Went to the Marriott and Sheraton websites, where I have elite status, (Hilton is too expensive), reserved, canceled, reserved. Make up your mind! LOL After I had canceled the night in Jerusalem I finally settled on the Rennaissance here.

I had e-mailed them asking for an early check in, upgrade, etc. We actually e-mailed a few times and they were nice.

The taxi fare came to 80 shekels, which I had been told to expect. About $20 US, divide by 4 something, being bad in math, I divide by 4. I then gave him the 100 NIS note (New Israeli Sheckel), he said no, I said YES. Take it. The fare is very generous. As you will see later I paid 9 pounds, plus a pound tip, to go from one hotel at Heathrow to another, there is an 8 pound minimun. That is about $20 US, almost. We drove half way across Israel. I can live with their prices. England(the Motherland, if you will) would bankrupt me in a week. I also wanted to give a good tip to my fellow Jew. Toda rabah. I take care of my own. I give very generous tips in France,among other places. One tip to the porter at the Orly Hilton just pissed my dad off saying way too much. So sue me, smile.

He helped me with my bags and the porter showed up out of nowhere. I think he was escaping the cold in one of the cars. It was freezing. There was a fierce wind off the Mediterranean and it was just not what I had expected.

I finally am at a point where I can porter my own bags but said hey, let's live it up, and gave him the bag. I want to be pampered here. No security check. Their security is very inconsistent and that bothers me dearly.

Thanking the driver we went inside. There were cars everywhere, what a mess. Also a security risk, fyi.If I I saw this in Jerusalem I would be nervous.

Finally in front of the reception desk were 2 plastic/paper Israeli flags stood. I kissed my hand and put it on the flag, long overdue in finally kissing an Israeli flag. The staff behind the desk were impressed. Gee, first time to Israel? LOL
They knew that from the e-mails.

A lovely Turkish immigrant checked me in. Countering my Israel/USA lapel pin, which I wore everywhere, she had a Turkish flag, Israel flag lapel pin, we laughed.

I had some Marriott certificates that I wanted to use, she said go up and get some sleep and talk to the manager later, fair enough. Can I get upgraded? Well, you have to pay more, which they told me in an e-mail. Most Marriott/Rennaissance hotels upgrade me based on my Silver card, not here.

Ah, I thought go to the room and talk to the manager later when I have my witts(Brian, no comment!) LOL.
It is the lounge access that I want. We wished each other our respective pleasantries. Very friendly staff, just slow to upgrade. Oh well. I didn't want to give in and pay more. Hard when you get it just about everywhere else. The Marriott at Vancouver Airport fought me on it and we did battle, then the last time I went with a girl from Spokane, they upgraded us. Ok..................

You could see through the big windows the fierce waves right in front of us, it was a beautiful sight.

The lifts have the English chimes that I like and up we went to the 7th floor. ding ding