Going North


Hanoch took me up to the Galilee.

On Tuesday, I checked out of the Top Hotel and Hanoch and I headed north. Every week, he teaches a class at Tel Hai University. He often flies, but this time, we drove. We stopped off first at Yavniel, where his sister Ester lives. She has a lovely house on a small farm. As we arrived, her husband came up the driveway on a small tractor pulling some melon plants. [Click here to see my "Cousins Up North" in Israel.]

Hanoch went to pick some lemons while I went inside. Ester shares the house with her son and his family, who live upstairs. The house is split up like a two-family house. Ester has a wonderful sense of style and her house is full of great art and furniture and books. One painting she calls "Cousin Zelda." She bought it in Paris years ago and gave the woman a name since the woman in the photo seems like one of the family.

Ester also had some great old family photos of herself and Hanoch, their parents, and grandparents. The grandparents were dressed up like Bedouins for a Purim party in the 1920s or 1930s. They looked great. Later on, my own aunt told me that she remembered the photo of Hanoch's parents.

Yavniel is at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee, also known as Yam Kinneret. The lake is Israel's main source of fresh water and is surrounded by hills, including the Golan Heights. Hanoch says the view of Yam Kinneret from the south is one of the best views in Israel and I agree, You can see photos of the Galiliee and Golan here.

Hanoch drove the three of us around the entire lake. Our first stop was Ha Yardenit, where Christians go to get baptized where Jesus was baptized. The water here is fairly shallow. The Jordan in general is not a raging river. You can practically cross it on foot in several places.

Our next stop was the Church of the Multiplication in Tagba. The mosaic of the fish and loaves is on a postcard you can find at every souvenir stand in Israel. All the mosaic [click here to see them ] are quite wonderful.

I also feel asleep in the car as well. The Golan is amazingly steep. Dotting the hills ever now and then are old Syrian blockhouses where snipers perched, and minefield warnings. You can see Syria and Jordan when you're in the Golan. We ended the day with Ester at the Island of Peace . I didn't realize it until later that this area of land is actually now Jordanian and being leased by Israel. This is the site where seven girls were killed in 1997 by a Jordanian soldier who went berserk. Since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1996, this was a major incident with fallout potential. King Hussein of Jordan personally made condolence calls to the girls' families. It's hard to tell that you are in Jordan since a) an Israeli flag is flying there, b) you're on the Israeli side of the barbed wire, and c) the tour bus went through intense scrutiny on the other side of the fence. You can see the Jordanian flag flying here, though. This land was officially given back since Israel signed the treaty. Not too far away is where Rutenberg, the father of Israeli electricity, worked.

After dropping of Ester, we drove to Kfar Giladi, where we spend the night at a kibbutz hotel. The hotel is quite modern and has a lovely pool, of which I took advantage after supper. The meals are buffet style and quite good. I slept quite well that night.

Posted: Tue - March 29, 2005 at 01:56 PM        

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