Kfar Blum area Day 5: Lunch at the Sea of Galilee

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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 drive home past Tiberias, adding just a few kilometers to our drive.

As we approached on our route south from Kfar Blum toward Tiberias, we had a great view of the lake looking down from the roadside.

We decided to stop at Decks for lunch. This is a well known establishment on stilts over the lake shore north of Tiberias center. We chose the Pagoda restaurant for kosher Chinese food, a treat relatively hard to find in Israel. We were unfashionably early and there was one other table occupied. We had a very good meal looking across the lake and admiring how it was filled to its banks. We had ordered so much food that we took some home to finish later.

The drive home had a little more traffic than our outbound ride, but still not bad. Now being Thursday afternoon perhaps people were starting to travel before the weekend.

When we got home we found our weekly organic vegetable box had been delivered as expected. With our Chinese leftovers and some basic provisions from the local mini-market we were ready to get back into our routine. The difference was that now we felt refreshed and somewhat released from bondage.

Overall our short in-country break was definitely a success. It also provided material for a Travel Blog in 2020; it would have been a shame to miss a year. As the pandemic continues, we hope to take other mini-breaks when and where we can enjoy whatever remains open in Israel.

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