As promised (part II)

Now where were we?

Ah, so when we left off, we were almost through with Tuesday of last week. Moving right along, after we surveyed the countryside in the Golan, we went to some more monuments to soldiers lost, as well as a bunker that had belonged to Syria during the Six Day War.

In order to get there, we had to go through a mine feild. The mines are still active and are fenced off so no one gets hurt. Cows, however, walk freely all the time.
Also, there were more fun artillery to climb on ...

After this, we started back. We dropped Chaim off at the bus once more and thanked him for everything. We proceeded back to the hotel for another all you can eat adventure.

On Wednesday, we still had the car (we rented it until Friday at noon in order to get unlimited mileage) so we went off on our own to do a little more independent touring and some more shopping.

First stop was the Naot Shoe factory located on the beautiful Naot Mordachai kibbutz (that's what they do there, they make the famous shoes), Two pairs for me and one pair for Michael later, we were off again.
We passed some more tanks (you're welcome!) ...

Filled up on some gas ...
And toured around the scenery some more.

Ending up at the famous Golan Heights winery!!!

We toured the winery and picked up some interesting information on how the wine is made and we also sampled some lovely vintages (and I got somewhat smashed).


My kinda place! Get sloshed and buy more bottles! Oh yes!

After that, we headed back to Tzvat to see if there was anything we missed before. By this time, most everything was closed so we headed back to Jerusalem. On the way, we hit Tevariah again for some dinner.

The next day (Thursday), we still had the car. So we headed to Tel Aviv to tour a bit and visit some of Michael's relatives breifly.

We walked the beach in Tel Aviv and enjoyed the scene. After that, we headed to Michael's Nana's house to visit with her for a bit.
Then we met up with more of Michael's family and went to dinner. We went back to Jerusalem again that night, after getting slightly lost in Tel Aviv and mildly frustrated with the signs being very difficult. It all worked out and we got back late at night and very tired.

Friday moring, we returned the car and shopped and cooked for Shabbos. We went to the Lapp's for shabbos dinner. Jake was there at his parent's house and we all had a lovely time. Lunch was at home and we relaxed. The weather has been cooler the last couple of days, which has been really rather nice. Tomorrow, we hope to do laundry before the Nine Days start and since this coming week will be our last here in Israel (for a little while) we're going to make the most of it indeed.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this and is now up to speed. If anyone has any suggestions of what we should see our last week here, please feel free to email or leave a comment! Also, this is the last chance if anyone wants us to bring back anything and has not emailed me their list of requested items, they should do so now!

Shavuah Tov!

As promised ...

... The blog that brings everyone up to speed. I contemplated titling this, "The blog of when we were missing for a week" but that didn't sound too nice because we knew where we were, it's just that everyone in the 'States didn't really.

Anyhoo, let's rewind a bit.

Sunday was a fast day so not much going on there except trying to avoid the heat and not get dehydrated. Nothing interesting to talk about there. Moving right along to Monday, we left on a tour bus that took us to Tzvat (Safed) and Tevariah (Tiberious) as well as a few kevers on the way; of which we couldn't go into because of the kohein issue. But everything else was great. The tour was lovely. We had a great time. Our tour guide, Chaim, was hilarious and it was really all a bunch of fun. Here are some highlights in photo representation ...

Pictures on the way to the kineret and Tevariah.

The Rambam's grave.




Stuff in Tzvat!

The beautiful sunset near the Kibbutz Lavi a little west of Teveriah.

Now that was pretty much the highlights from Monday. This leads into the Kibbutz Lavi, of which we stayed at. Kibbutz Lavi specializes in a couple of things. They make furniture for synagogues, for one thing. The other great specialty is their 5 star hotel. This hotel is more like a resort, really. Along with the hotel comes some fantastic accomidations. The room we stayed in had a lovely balconey with a spectacular view. On the grounds there is a tour (which we were unable to take due to time constraints and all the other things we had to do) of the entire kibbutz, including the kibbutz's farm. There is also a pool with seperate swimming hours for men and women. There is a tennis court, basketball court, and ping pong tables.

The other thing, which was my absolute favorite part of the kibbutz's hotel was the food. Oh, yes. it was a full on completely kosher l'mehadrin and shmittah safe all you can eat buffet!!!!

Dinner the first night was good. Some roast, some potatoes, some rice, olives. That was pretty much what I chose along with a really nice cabbage salad with mayo and corn.

Where they really take the cake (no pun intended) is breakfast. Wowzwers! There was pancakes made right in front of you with syrup (chocolate or maple), angelfood popovers, omlets made fresh in front of you, two kinds of scrambled eggs, an array of cheeses like you wouldn't believe, toast, cerial, hot cocoa, orange and grapfruit juice ... you name it, they had it there for your breakfast enjoyment. I heartily enjoyed this hotel and its ALL YOU CAN EAT buffets. There is a possibility we may come back for an anniversery or something and spend a good deal of time just at this resort hotel.

Anyway, back to the schedule of events, day two we decided to hire a guide (again through Artzenu) and rent a car and tour around. Just so happens, we were given Chaim who had been our bus tour guide the previous day. Chaim is a really nice guy. He was so informative and really funny. I really enjoyed his stories and his attention to detail and halacha. We learned a lot from his wealth of information. By the time we were done, I felt not only that we'd been on an amazing journey around the Golan but that we'd also spent some time learning Torah as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again . . .

So, day two (Tuesday) was our trip to the Golan. We picked up Chaim at the bus station and our car at Hertz in Tevariah and were on our way. Chaim showed us around a few '67 war memorials and we got to climb on (and inside) some tanks. Then we headed to the Talmudic Village of Gamla where they had excavated a village that had eventually fallen to the Romans.

It was amazing to see how people lived during the time of the Talmud and there was lots of fasinating information that Chaim gave us regarding this place.



After that, we went to the Museum next door that had more information about the seige of Gamla.

After that, we stopped for lunch and had some lovely food at a pizza place.

Then it was on to survey the Golan Heights. Needless to say, it was breath taking and gorgeous. So green and full of life. More pictures of that:

(Get it? Coffee Anan? --Anan really means clouds btw, and it's on top of a mountain)

Anyhoo, it is almost Shabbos right now so I will post this where it is and continue the update after. I hope everyone has enjoyed the update so far. More to come! Shabbat Shalom.

Stay tuned (we're ok)

As I mentioned earlier, we went to the Golan and the Galil. Well, we're still here! We decided to extend our trip up north by one or two more days. We're at a hotel on a kibbutz and it's really awesome. All I gotta say is, KOSHER (L'MEHADRIN) ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET!!! More on this later, of course (with pictures)!

So to everyone who has been checking and wondering why no posts as of yet, our computer didn't come with us because we traveled light. Hence, I'm writing to everyone now on a public computer at our glorious hotel.

But so, just to make it clear, we are OK! Don't worry. We're safe, we're having a blast, and we still love everyone at home. Prepare and stay tuned for the longest blog most likely of this trip, jam packed with photos and fun facts. Just give us a little more time!

Love to all,

Joni & Michael