Rosh Pina area Day 4: Relaxing at the spa and a new restaurant

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Today was Don's birthday with some treats in store. Of course the first was Lesley singing Happy Birthday and giving him a birthday card.

After a rough night with muscle cramps in both legs he slowly got his act together as we went to breakfast. Lesley showed him some helpful leg stretches and suggested that he have a massage so that was booked for the afternoon. As a benefit of membership in the Isrotel Sun Club, the hotel gave additional birthday discounts for his spa treatments beyond the usual member discounts which applied to everything in the hotel including the spa.

Don found that moving helped his legs and eased the pain, so he casually walked around the area for a while. He also got up frequently when sitting and reading or sunning. Then the massage provided further relief. By the late afternoon he was relatively comfortable. He still took care not to sit for long periods without moving around.

Lesley also enjoyed another spa treatment. This was called "Scalp, Hands & Feet" massage. It was a variation on Reflexology and concentrated on getting the entire body relaxed. She pronounced it another very good spa session.



Every day the hotel had delivered some snacks to our room. Daily we found various kinds of fruit and some biscuits or other goodies. In honour of Don's birthday there was a heart-shaped chocolate mousse cake with Mazal Tov inscribed on white chocolate. That was particularly rich and impressive. They also left a small bottle of red wine, which we took home. Some of the fruit and cookies likewise travelled home with us, as there was too much of these treats. We never felt the need for lunch between our big breakfasts and generous dinners, but an afternoon snack always kept us satisfied through the day.



Dinner was booked in the Wood Grill restaurant attached to the hotel. It is completely separate and different from the Mitzpe Hayamim vegetarian / pescatarian restaurant where we dined the first two nights and had breakfast every morning. It was much smaller and somehow more classy in a still informal way. As its name implies, it specialises in grilled meat dishes.

We began with glasses of Gamla Brut sparkling wine for a birthday toast. Our tradition is to celebrate with drinks like champagne when possible, and to take a picture wherever we are.

Our starters were both delicious and large. Good service and food indicated we had picked well to eat here.

Interestingly we saw a very young child at one table and a pair of youngsters at another. This differed from current Mitzpe Hayamim hotel policy and gave further evidence that the restaurant was not an 'official' part of the spa hotel although situated on the premises. It did not bother us.

The main meals were again sizeable and tasty. Don’s was a real surprise, and not because of his birthday. It appeared to have a large multi-leaved plant growing over the plate. Closer inspection showed that the stalk of the plant seemed to be the skewer for the kebabs. Could they really have grilled it this way - Doubtful?!

We enjoyed all the food and nearly finished it, but even Don was outdone by the quantities. The restaurant has a very limited menu, yet does offer interesting choices. There were a few desserts but no way we could attempt more eating.

The reservation at Wood Grill warned that our meal time should not exceed 1 hour and 45 minutes. (Or what - do they bag your remaining food and push you out the door with it?) We ate at a leisurely pace, and finished under an hour and a half.

We charged the meal including tip to our room. The discount of our Isrotel Sun Club status did not apply, as we had suspected would be the case. Still it was very good value.

If we had any issue with Wood Grill, it was that the music was a little too loud. That combined with people speaking loudly to each other because of the music, caused excessive noise in the echoey space. When we talked, we had to lean close to each other to hear. Even the waiters had trouble hearing our order, which should have tipped them off.



A comment about Half-Board (HB) at Mitzpe Hayamim. We chose HB for the first two nights, as we planned to eat in the regular dairy hotel restaurant for dinner those two nights as well as breakfast in the mornings. We chose just the BB rate (Bed & Breakfast) for the last two nights since we intended to dine outside the regular restaurant. The HB add-on over the BB rate for us as a (Sun Club?) couple was 360 shekels per night. If we dined at Wood Grill as HB guests, the cost would have added 70 shekels per meal; in other words the base Wood Grill evening price excluding tip would be 500 shekels. That price includes a starter, main and dessert for each person, and excludes drinks besides a carafe of water. As noted we could not manage dessert, and we each drank a glass of bubbly. Our bill came to 380 shekels including tip, so we fared much better with BB and paying directly for the Wood Grill dinner.



Don also received greetings with well-wishes via email, WhatsApp and Facebook from family and friends during the day. Overall he had a very successful birthday.

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