Jun 1: Tel Aviv to Masada

Today's update will go in reverse order. 

We are ending the day at what has to be the nicest establishment to bear the name "hostel". I don't have pictures today, but it's worth googling it to see what I mean -- the Masada Youth Hostel. Although I am starting to suspect that the wifi, while free, is spotty. 

We ate dinner at the restaurant at the Ein Gedi kibbutz, and even Sam, who is a bit of a food snob, was impressed. They lay out a lavish spread for dinner, and the quality was excellent- better than the Sheraton. It was a "meat" dinner, meaning no dairy. Cris pointed out it was a vegan's delight. Most of the stations consisted of various excellent vegan salads. The tomatoes with micro-herbs was particularly tasty. 

The shnitzel was moist. The entrecote steak tender and fatty. The vegetables and broth that came with the chicken were also worth mentioning as delicious. There was a table devoted to bread, and plenty of hummus, so Josh was in heaven. Especially when he discovered the dessert table (complete with non-dairy ice cream). 

The funny thing was that as we drove through the guard checkpoint, he told us the dining room was closed for shabbat, but maybe we could eat in the coffee ship. I'm not sure if he was pulling our leg, or if somewhere there was an even fancier dining room. 

We drove down from Jerusalem -- we never had to stop at any checkpoints into the West Bank, though we did drive near the separation barrier, tall and imposing. I remember this road as a narrow road with sharp switchbacks - that's how it was back in 1983. Now it's a big smoothed out highway. 

The Dead Sea has receded away from the road very noticeably. We read that between them, Israel, Jordan and Syria drain off 95% of its water from the Jordan. Ted read about a proposed project to pipe in sea water - sounds like the debate continues. 

Rachel towing Josh through the waves

We started the day in Tel Aviv, with a trip down to the beach to play in the waves, and play paddleball. Then we picked up the rental car. We planned to catch a 1:00 tour at the Ayalon Institute, where they give a our of an underground munitions factor from 1948. But we were running late, so we skipped it and may do it next week. 

And so was set a theme for the day.

Sam in front of the closed museum(s!) at Latrun

We drove up the highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We stopped at Latrun, site of a pitched battle in 1967 to take back the road to Jerusalem, and now the site of a tank museum. But it was too late - it had closed early for Shabbat. 

We'll try to stop here another time. 

We decided to take a look at the Latrun monastery across the road. It looked lovely from a distance, but we never made it. Relying on the GPS had us driving up an abandoned gravel road, and finally backing out a bit to pull a U-turn. 

Next we programmed in the Haas Promenade, and set off to that famous viewpoint of Jerusalem. We wound round through Orthodox neighborhoods, seeing the people in all their various ultra-orthodox hats and outfits as they finished up getting ready for Shabbat. And then the GPS informed us that we had reached out destination - at the dead end of a residential street. 

We enrolled the aid of 2 more devices (my phone and my iPad) and managed to get ourselves to the real Haas promenade, where we promptly bought ice cream from the ice cream truck. I had downloaded self-guided tours, and I read aloud about what we were seeing from various vantage points at the Haas promenade, the nearby Goldman Promenade (where you can see directly to the east, over the separation barrier, and into the West Bank and on to Jordan). 

Sam and Josh on Antenna Hill

And then we went a very short walk up Antenna Hill, which afforded a new set of views to the southeast. 

Those tours from jerusalemp3.com are well worth the effort of downloading them - they are well done, put out by the Jerusalem ministry of tourism. 

We drove into the city center, passing right by the Jaffa Gate of the Old City, which most of us found very exciting. When we reached the neighborhood where we planned to eat dinner, we realized that at 5:00 on a Friday in Jerusalem, we were not going to find dinner. 

And so we set off to the Dead Sea. The GPS would have routed us west and then down around south of the West Bank. Fortunately we realized we were heading the wrong way on highway 1. We turned off the GPS and proceeded east, down the road to the Dead Sea and on to Ein Gedi. 

And here we are at the Masada Hostel. Tomorrow we get up at 4:00 to climb the snake trail before dawn!