We came to realize that we were living in a technological and agricultural miracle. Where our country had previously been discredited and demonized throughout the world, we could hold our heads up high and be proud citizens. We shook our heads in wonder as we visited factories, universities, museums and parks.

It seems that we all have an inborn wish to travel. It’s never enough to sit at home even though we have the comforts of television, books and newspapers. We need to be relieved of internal pressures and to be able to look forward to something to do - to travel, see interesting places, meet new people and learn about our surroundings.  

The Technology Travel Group was formed in 2005 as a direct result of my decision to sell my boat, which we kept in the Herzliya marina. Sailing had never been a sandwiches-and-beer thing, never a matter of putting our feet up and watching the waves roll by, but we always had a program, a destination and a need to keep the sails well-trimmed and the boat tuned and sailing fast. I had often wondered whether my two sailing friends valued me or the boat more and what would happen when the boat was gone. So I said to Zvulun one day – "you’re an engineer. Don’t you know someone in the power station, so that we can make a visit there together?" He phoned me up a couple of days later and said "yes they will take us, but we have to have a group no smaller than 15 people." Well, that shouldn’t be a problem," I thought, and that’s how it began.

Zvulun, Dov and I invited friends and acquaintances and set the date, and we were off in four cars.  We had a great time and there is a famous photo taken of us all with the Hadera Power Station as a back-drop to prove it. One of our friends said  "why don’t you organize another visit, Michael?" Well, it so happened that I had a friend who owned a steel factory, and he readily agreed to show us around, and that was an astonishing success. Some of the guys said that their wives had heard about our trips and couldn’t they come too – "Why don’t you hire a bus?" they asked.

I went home and thought about it and then phoned the local bus company to ask how much a bus would cost for the day. I quickly did some calculations. It turns out that when you divide the cost of the bus by the number of passengers, it can be surprisingly inexpensive and a practical proposition. In the back of my mind I had an idea for something interesting to do, and contacted the Technion in Haifa. "Yes," they said, they would be pleased to show us their medical robotics department, their engineering department and arrange a lecture on statistics. That sounded like a terrific program. I had heard of a good travel guide in Haifa, so I phoned her to ask her advice about a visit and told her my plans. I had been thinking over the whole idea of a travel group and it seemed to me that an interesting formula would be one third technology and two thirds travel. Irma agreed to show us a few interesting places in Haifa and also arrange a lunch for us. It sounded marvelous and so on June 7, 2005 we were off.

There was a busload of friends, with me sitting right up at the front in the glaring sunlight anxiously working out the timing. We were spectacularly late – the Technion people were pretty put out, with their carefully laid program in tatters. I had forgotten how long it took to get out of Raanana in the morning traffic and just how long it took to get to Haifa. Nevertheless, we had our program as arranged, we had our delicious lunch on the Carmel hills and did our bus tour afterwards with our guide. As we made our way homewards I had a distinct sense of satisfaction and pleasure that it had been a most worthwhile and enjoyable day.

And so the formula was set, but I was determined never to make a timing error again if it could possibly be avoided. We called ourselves the Technology Travel Group because this accurately described our ethos. We started a website to record our visits and keep our members informed of our future program and the group remained cohesive through email, so conveniently used for passing information and for bookings. Over the next five years we went out on an average of one trip a month, and the bus company and our guides got to know us very well. What I liked about it was that I would dream up what I thought was an interesting program, and then it would come to life. It was like painting a picture – something really creative. I had to have a sounding board for my travel ideas and those closest to me always proved reliable and kept me in touch with reality. To share the burden also, I formed a management committee which advised me on financial matters and insurance, and they fed me ideas for future tours of which there was never a shortage. We passed out maps and diagrams, explained programs and timing and our outings had an air of professionalism which people enjoyed being part of, and most important too - each outing was preceded by careful path-finding and visiting the people and places beforehand.    

But there was another important and unexpected aspect to our travels which revealed itself to us as time went by. We discovered our country. We came to realize that we were living in the midst of a technological and agricultural miracle in a land indeed flowing with milk and honey. Where our country had previously been discredited and demonized throughout the world, we could hold our heads up high and be proud citizens. The hi-tech miracle was there for us to explore and we constantly shook our heads in wonder as we visited factory after factory, university and technical college and the many museums and parks. The whole was far bigger than the sum of its parts.

At the end of the day, with the final words of our guide summing up our program, we could climb down from our bus with a feeling of fulfillment and pleasure and increased knowledge - of a day well spent with the Technology Travel Group.      

If you would like to learn a little more about the places the TTG visited, e-surf to the TTG website at www.traveltec.co.il