Paradise On Earth

The view from our hike stroll.

In the Bible, King Saul, Israel's first King, led a charge against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:4). The battle ends with the king falling on his own sword and Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchishua being killed in battle (1 Samuel 31:1-4). Wikipedia

At Gan HaMa'ayanot
I call this one "10" 😋

Our Independence Day holiday - Day 2 took us to Paradise on Earth. (See Day 1 here.)Of course you have to earn your place in Paradise - everybody knows that. So before trying to go there we went on a short hike. Normally I hate hiking in Israel because it invariably involves climbing or walking over rocks. Remember this disastrous outing? But this time we walked on a smooth path towards the enchanted natural pools of Gan HaMa'ayanot (Spring Park - as in natural springs).

Entrance is free. You only start paying for things if you visit the shop, the cafe, hire bikes, or pay for a cart to drive you to the springs.

We frolicked in the first pool on the route. DD was't too sure about the tiny fish that come to nibble your feet but you pay a fortune for this treatment at a spa so I was up for it.

You can choose from several routes of varying degrees of length and wetness. You can opt to take the paths between the pools or walk through the streams that connect them. After the first pool we opted to walk straight back to the car and head for the real jewel in the crown.

Sakhne to my left....

Gan Hashlosha (Park of Three, I think it means three pools), also called Sakhne, is a place dear to my heart. When we arrived on our kibbutz in September 1981 for our gap year, one of the very first places they took us to was Sakhne. I have a very clear memory of my future b-i-l and another boy throwing me off the bridge and into the water head first. I was terrified as I fell but then it was fine of course. And though it's one of the most beautiful places in Israel, I've not been back in almost 38 years.

... and Sakhne to my right. 

We were lucky on two accounts. Firstly it was still April so not too hot. And secondly it was the first Friday of Ramadan so it was much less crowded than on a normal Friday. Oh and a third lucky thing - we didn't arrive on the same day that the Azerbaijani contestants recorded their intro video for Eurovision. (Ahh so that's why you recognize it. Yup).

It cost something to get in - I think about 65 shekels per family of two.

And, unlike God, on the third day we rested. except that it was like God because our third day was His seventh ifyswim.

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane Is Not Entertainment

A selfie at Tel Aviv Airport before we left. 

We have been suffering from Jet Lag since arriving home last week. This is totally unnecessary when only travelling through two  time zones but as usual, I messed up.

I get drawn into a personal challenge when booking EasyJet flights. I have to try to get the price down to the cheapest I can within our possible dates for travelling. We only take hand luggage. That may change next time as I'm fed up of having to leave stuff at my Mum's to bring home next time and that scary moment of will it? - won't it? fit into the checking frame. We don't choose our seats, or do speedy boarding, or pay to carry an extra purse onto the plane. And I cannot resist those early morning and late night flights that are tuppence hapenny cheaper.

It's a false economy because we arrive in Luton around midnight and have to leave Stanmore for the return journey at 4 am - both journeys requiring a minicab which swallows the full savings we made on the flights. And still I find myself doing it.

There are advantages to these anti-social flight times. For example, Deeds (that's DD, I nicknamed DD after almost seven years) sleeps on the plane, you get an almost full working day before you leave, and you arrive home in the afternoon with time to get yourself organised to go back to work the next day. The only horrible bit is getting up at 3 am to leave for the airport.

This time I decided to stay up and not have that awful having to drag myself out of bed. Whatever Happened To Baby Jane was on television at 10.30 and not finishing until 12.45. I remember seeing it about 40 years ago but couldn't remember any of the details - except that one sister was in a wheelchair and the other one hates her. Mum and I watched it while playing kalooki and trying to second guess what happened next. Mum only remembered the budgie, I thought I remembered the wheelchair being thrown down the stairs or someone falling down them, but I was wrong.

Through the mirrored ceiling at Luton Airport.
I have a red bag at my feet and I'm looking up.
(Or don't bother trying to find me and just read on.)

OMG. What a depressing film. It's hard enough having to leave all the festivities of Christmas and travel back to Nochristmasland on Christmas Eve. And staying up all night has not had any magic attached to it since I was 21. By the time the film ended I was thoroughly miserable. (I admit that there was a good little twist in the tale/tail.) We had to have another match of kalooki while watching Escape to the Country in order to cheer ourselves up.

We slept on the plane. Landed in Tel Aviv at 14.30. Arrived home in Jerusalem at 17.00. (We took a shared mini-bus taxi and had to go round the whole city while eight other passengers were dropped off before us. It costs 25GBP whereas a private taxi costs 70GBP, which is why we do it.) And then we were home and not at all tired. So we went to bed late and couldn't get up in the morning.

This has continued all week because Deeds keeps falling asleep on the sofa around 5 pm and waking up at 7.30. I have been catching up on work that I didn't do while away so I've also been going to bed extremely late. In a spectacular finale, we both fell asleep at 3.30pm this afternoon and woke up at 8. We're screwed. Tomorrow night we're getting into bed at 8 whether we're tired or not, and no napping during the day!

Back To The Blog

Whilst we were away I took loads of photos and mentally composed a blog post for each set. I couldn't wait to share our holiday online. However, having returned to Jerusalem, I am now finding it hard to muster up the motivation to get back into blogging. I probably just need to jump in and start swimming. So to get me (re)started here are a selction of pictures from England - mainly of DD with her cousins and grandparents.

We had a lovely time and DD thoroughly enjoyed having her three teenage (male) cousins at her beck and call for two weeks. She's not stopped talking about her cousins and her Grandma and Grandpa. So thanks for the hospitality and the babysitting and the new sandals for the summer (Mum). I will write in more detail over the next couple of weeks.