Two weekends ago we went on another trip to northern Israel thanks to Ehud and Bat-sheva, our unofficial Israeli parents and tour guides.
After a quick trip to Ehud's dentist in Kiryat Shmona we headed off on our adventure. At the suggestion of the dentist (who is also Ehud's nephew), we headed up a winding road toward the Lebanese border. He told us about a very scenic drive that goes along the side of the mountain near the border. The scenery was gorgeous, the road was petrifying! It was like being on a roller coaster, but surrounded by cherry trees, a large fence (a.k.a. the border with Lebanon), and the occasional UN peacekeeping vehicle.
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| Houses on the Lebanese side of the border. |
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| Road along the border was lined with orchards of hundreds of cherry trees. |
Once we got back to the main road, we headed to the Ayun nature reserve in the town of Metulla. There are four waterfalls along the Ayun Stream, all spectacular and all different. You park at the top and hike down - the trail is steep and in many sections there are long flights of stone steps. Because it is spring, there were many beautiful wildflowers. Israelis are crazy about wildflowers and in fact, there is a law that forbids picking them. Ehud made friends with a tour guide who offered him a ride back to the car so that we didn't have to walk back up!
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| Mill waterfall along the Ayun Stream. |
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| Dizzying birds' eye view of the trail along the stream. |
Everyone likes to relax after hiking and what better place to relax than a hot springs? Next stop on the Ehud and Bat-sheva extravaganza, the Hamat Gader hot springs (and crocodile farm!). The hot springs have been used since the Roman times. The spring gushes at a constant 108 degrees Fahrenheit and containers sulfur among other minerals. At first the slight smell of rotten eggs is a bit strange, but after a few minutes you don't even notice it. The bathing pool is just a few feet deep and has several different sections. There are showers and jacuzzis built right in to the pool. It's very relaxing so long as you don't mind sharing your bath with large, hairy middle-eastern men. There were a few other western tourists - mostly Christian pilgrims (including a woman we met from Cape Cod). We didn't bring our cameras into the spa, but here's one from the web.
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| Hamat Gader at night (thanks Wikipedia) |
After a good night's sleep, we headed out for a visit to Mt. Tabor. The mountain holds an important place in history - both religious and political. From battles between the Israelites and the Canaanites, Napoleon and the Mamluks, to the believed Transfiguration of Jesus, this mountain has seen it all including... paragliders. Yes, the first thing we saw as we drove up the nearly single lane, 16-hairpin-turns road to the summit were a couple dozen paragliders.
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| Paraglider or paranormal? |
At the top, the beautiful Church of the Transfiguration, lovely gardens, and the Greek Orthodox church (which, like many things in Israel, is being renovated so we could not go inside). There are hiking trails around the mountain, including the Israel national trail (like the Appalachian Trail of Israel), but it was hot so we passed on that for the day.
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| Church of the Transfiguration. |
On the way home, we stopped for a photo op in a nearby town surrounded by orchards and fields of gorgeous flowers.
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| Quintessential springtime in Israel - a field of lupines. |
Thanks to Ehud and Bat-sheva for a great weekend!
More pictures here!
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