For a country that’s about the size of New Jersey, Israel has a huge amount of diversity landwise. It has desert in the south, by Eilat, it has beaches by Tel Aviv, and now, we are up in the hills and mountains in the north. Did you know you can snow ski in Israel? One mountain usually gets enough snow in the winter for people to ski for a couple of weeks! Israel may be the only country in the world where you can ski in the morning, drive or fly to the other end of the country and SCUBA dive on the same day.
We have driven around most of this area and seen borders for Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. We are staying in a cool place called Pastoral K’Far Blum. It used to be an agricultural kibbutz, but, now they make money from the many tourists coming to the area. Our room was the Martin Scorsese room. Next door was the Steven Spielberg.
The grounds were pretty and they had a spa with a cave-like room that shot hot water at you. Next to that was a glass enclosed room with a huge bucket overhead. I think you are supposed to go through the hot water cave, then to the hammam / sauna, then cool off by pulling the thick rope attached to the bucket. My mom did that. She screamed like a little girl. I guess the bucket water was REALLY cold. She also made a new friend at the spa. Our guide told us he is a famous bus driver who used to drive the route from Eilat to Tel Aviv for decades.
Mom said he wore his jewelry and his hat into the sauna and the big cold bucket room.
We visited a lot of historic cities like Tzippori, Beit She’An and Beit Alpha. There are so many cool places with artifacts and ruins from thousands of years ago here are a few pictures:
We also visited the Golan Heights Winery. We learned that in an area spread over only 50 miles, they grow every type of grapes that French vineyards grow across the whole country.
Tel Dan Nature Reserve was memorable because it hailed while we were walking through!
In other news, I got to sit on a tank!
I love this part of Israel.