news from ottawa

Dear mum and dad,
We had a great time in Israel, we went north to the Golan Heights and stayed in a kibbutz there for 2 nights, took a jeep ride through the mountains looking at the mine fields of the area left over the various wars.
It was very warm but still green after the spring rains, our guide was excellent and we loved our time visiting with Jenny and her family. Even though the kids had never met her, she seemed very familiar to them and we ended up spending a day with her family at the begiining of the holiday and then she came with the kids to Jeruaslem for an evening. The 6 kids got on great. Jenny may be in the UK when we are there in summer and will come and see us at Kilham.
Jerusalem was lovely, we stayed in a new hotel overlooking the old city , Joe Biden was staying there as well so there was a ton of security. It is a tense city though and we were lucky that we left when we did as the situation is very tense right now. We went to BEthlehem which is in the PA area, our guide was a muslim palestinian who lives in Jerusalem and speaks hebrew, arabic and english. We saw the wall which is very imposing and makes life very difficult for palestinians. we got a taste of that as the isrealis wouldn't let us back into Israel through the normal check point, our guide without us could get back in but in the end we had to go to another check point. It was a case of pure harrasment of any visitor to the PA areas. Israel does seem much more prosporous now, we drove past St johns, the area has been completely developed and has a major highway in front.
Issie liked the holocaust museum best and the other 2, the day at the dead sea.
We enjoyed Tel Aviv as after Jerusalem it is a relief not to be in such a religious area with all the dietary/dress restrictions/ We were very lucky to miss the BA strike, I don't know about what is happening in the summer as they are threatening to strike again after April 14th, I don't know how they imagine that the airline will survive.
London was really fun, Michael had to go to DC and the kids and I stayed in a new Youth hostel near Great Portland street. The facility was new, clean and secure and for 100 pounds we had a 5 bunk room with our own shower and toilet. Phil stayed with us for one night while issie stayed with Huw and Mairead in Goring. Hakkasan was wonderful, Huw and Mairead showed up with some balloons , the restaurant said no you cannot put them up! DInner was nearly 800 but fun, adam loved it and everyone was happy to be there, unfortnaelty Sara couldn't make it . THe next day, adam, anna and I took the train out to Goring, when we were walking to their house it stood out as Mairead and Issie had decorated it for St Patricks day. We really enjoyed seeing the kids and Huw and Mairead, the kids were great, as the weather was so nice we all walked in the village, aoife is really fast on the scooter and aidan does a great job on his bike. We sat outside at a cafe as the weather was warm in London. On our last morning,we walked to Regents park which was full of spring flowers etc, London is such a nice city and our 48 hours there was fun. The snow has melted and Adam has been accepted at 3 universities so far, he didn't get into UCLA as for 4000 places they had 58,000 applicants. American university in DC offered him a merit scholorship of 20,000 a year which is a nice suprise, he has still to hear from 9 universities before he makes a decision and ANna has been accepted to boarding school so only issie next year.
Adam really wants you to come to his graduation, hopefully he will work hard as his grades keep slipping, no idea why, it is frustrating as he is very bright. Luckily for uni he just has to finish the year, it isn't dependent on exams . We may have to go and look at some of the universities that he has been accepted too as so far the 3 he has heard from , he hasn't visited.
Glad that you are having such a good time in Oz loev Angela