Blogs from North District, Israel, Middle East

Before we tour this morning, a little story about taking a shower in Israel. If you open your day with the thought, "We are not in Kansas anymore," that will help! Many hotels in Europe do not have a washcloth. If you are desperate to use one, pack your own. You may need it 50% of the time. In Isreal the Dan Panorama had them, but the Kibbutz Lavi does not. Also, there are no shower curtains, If you are lucky there will be a 1/2 to a 1/4 glass wall on the side closest to the shower head that MAY prevent you from completely flooding the floor. Another fun thing is the shower head or lack thereof. You see, in most European bathrooms, showering is not like we do at home: the big shower head, ... read more

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 ... read more

We had a late breakfast. Breakfast is open until 11 and the buffet was constantly being replenished. As expected a wide variety of fresh produce, cheeses, baked goods, omelettes (pre-prepared or made-to-order), juices, coffee, etc were available. We sat outside and ordered coffee. Then we browsed the buffet and found lots to choose. The salads and some of the dairy products are produced on the farm here or by other local establishments. After breakfast we drove half an hour north to the Ramot Naftaly Winery. This is located within the Ramot Naftali moshav and is owned by our friend Shivi and her husband Yitzhak. High quality wine grapes have been grown in the area known as the Kedesh Valley since ancient times. Yitzhak began making wine there in 2003. For nearly two decades the winery has ... read more

This was the last day of our break and we did not rush to leave. We had a leisurely breakfast and went back to the room to pack. Check out was simple and we put our bags into the car. All the closures since the virus outbreak meant that we had not made our usual spring trip to the Golan. In previous years the water level in the Kinneret lake (also known as the Sea of Galilee) was significantly down due to lack of rain. Seeing wide dry banks all around the lake had not been encouraging. Fortunately this winter had broken that drought cycle spectacularly. The Kinneret was filled and the authorities had even released some of the water to prevent overflow. We wanted to see the lake in its fullness. So we decided to ... read more

We spent the day relaxing, not feeling any pressure to go anywhere. The back glass door of our suite opened to a small private patio garden. This was shielded from the outdoor spaces of neighboring rooms by shrubbery, for a good feeling of privacy as well as security from potential virus. During the morning we used the efficient hotel internet to access some classes in a summer program in which we were enrolled. We each used our headphones with our iPads to avoid generating noise that might disturb our neighbors while sitting on the patio. The weather was ideal for lounging and reading on our private patio. We took a simple lunch break with a snack we had collected from the breakfast offerings. Don decided to wander around the hotel environs for a bit in the ... read more