In a week full of tours and activities, Francois Feihl and Christian Sinobas of Coexistences Switzerland were hosted by several members of Breaking the Ice 2010 group. The visit started in Jerusalem where we joined early on a cold friday morning to run the 1st international Jerusalem (half) marathon.
Francois, Christian, Olfat & Tomer just a few kilometers before finishing the 21.1 km of climbs, turns and narrow streets of the ancient city. A beautiful course and also a refreshing opportunity to flex one's joints! Thanks to Shiri for taking care of all the formalities, and also for selecting a great restaurant in the busy market in order to return all the lost energy :-)
more photos form the event, by Francois, here.
For the next 2 days, Saturday and Sunday, the "swiss foxes" were guided in Jerusalem (photos) and Acco ("Acre" or "Saint-Jean d'Acre") by the inexhaustible tour guide Golan who also hosted them at his home in Osafiya. Many tales from the bustling markets and from alleys of the old cities were told at a group dinner in a Haifa restaurant with breath-taking view of the bay (photos). this album also includes photos from a nice hike in Nahal Yagur followed by a short tour of Osafiya and dinner at Tomer's house together with Olfat and Shakufi (Ori).
On Tuesday, Malek hosted Francois, Olfat and Tomer for a magnificent dinner (photos) at his family's home in Nazareth. The "shooal" was taken on tour in nazareth on wednesday (photos) and later was greeted at Herzliya by Lobna.
Thursday included an interesting trip to the west bank including Hebron, and then a special dinner at Lobna's family home in Be'er-sheva.
Friday and Saturday were spent again as a group, in our on-going project with more and more young Arabs and Israelis hiking in their country. We were very proud to have Francois as part of us, around the camp fire at night and while hiking in the Ein-Gedi reserve in the day (photos). this was an important chance for me to enable Coexistences' Francois to witness the continuation of Mont-Blanc project. As the mixed group of Arabs and Jews were enjoying the fire, dinner, nargilah and music, I felt happy and content, knowing also that Francois, who gave so much together with the others in-order to build this project, is witnessing the same.
Malek's album from the Ein-Gedi Breaking the Ice trip:
Francois returned to Switzerland yesterday, leaving me with a feeling that our own little continuing project, is ever more important for the Coexistences' legacy, for us as a group, and of course for the never-ending process of bringing people together.
