2016-02-28: Banyas waterfall hike & Pan grotto

Pix today & a videos from the hike we took through the Banias Nature Preserve and its roaring waterfalls (probably also much reduced once spring passes. And if you click on the picture in the link above that shows the disputed territory of the Golan Heights, you can see how close Syria would be to Israel were the land be given back - right along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and you can what would happen then.), and Agrippa II's castle ruins (sic transit gloria mundi), to the Pan shrine.

Beginning of the hike

Person taking a picture of a person taking a picture.

Jan & Arie

Jan & Arie & Jan's favorite personal feature.

So you want I should mug for the camera?

Waterfall shots

Wild cyclamen

This is how Israel marks trails

Bigger waterfall

Agrippa's ruin

Site description

I think this was a guard tower

Entrance to Pan's grotto

Nearby water feature

If you want to see a couple other waterfall videos, please visit my flickr account.

Roseanne Roseannadanna

I was looking this up for someone else & had to pass it along. Talk about laugh out loud.

Roseanne Roseannadanna

Ah, Gilda. She certainly died too soon.

2016-02-27: Heading north

A few pix from later that day as we headed up along the Lebanese border to stay with Jan & Arie's friends Birgit & Tsali (and their cats & dogs & a daughter & granddaughter) in Moshav Shar Yeshuv. I think that's Mt. Hermon in the distance to where we made our way the next day. En route we traveled through vertiginous Safed, a Kabbalah Center (that was very quiet since it was pre-sundown, on Saturday & therefore still Shabat) & down a scenic back road (Jan's an expert @ finding these) where the gorse bushes in the twilight were pretty spectacular.

Gorse bushes - with cow.

Gracing the window of the room I slept in.

Upper level of Birgit &Tsali's house including clothes drying rack.

A late supper chez Birgit & co.

2016-02-27: New digs in En Dor

After the delicious brunch, we wandered over to where Iris & family is building a new home on the outskirts of En Dor with a wonderful view of (yet again), Mt. Tabor. And, hey, if you want to stay at the kibbutz, they even have Air B&B.

Iris, Arie's mom & niece looking at the kitchen area.

I think this was the entrance to the bomb shelter.

And I think this is the studio for Arie's brother-in-law
who's also an artist.

Back to the kitchen

The stairs to the 2nd level - believe it or not, Arie's
90-year-old mom climbed them

A windy day on the upstairs patio

With Mt. Tabor in the distance

Patio outside the kitchen as seen from above.

Empty kitchen area

The door of the old house with
metalwork by Arie's brother-in-law.

And one of the brother-in-law's paintings inside.

There's no there there.

Hearing today's radio broadcast of bits of Donna, er Donald, Trump's foreign policy speech, I was reminded of this Monty Python skit.

And in case you're curious about this blog entry's title, it's from Gertrude Stein.

2016-02-27: Do you know the way to the golden mosque?

We wanted to get to the Golden Mosque, next, but ended up at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, in Nazareth instead. If you read the article in the above link to the church's Wikapedia page, we actually saw the spring, too. Then we tore back via a main highway (the Indy 500 drivers have nothing on Jan when she wants to get somewhere in a hurry) to Arie's sister's house in En Dor in time for a delicious brunch with said sister, her hubby, and daughter, and Arie's mom (oh, and their cat). Unfortunately I didn't get any pix of the spread before we'd decimated it).

Now where is that mosque again?

Maybe down this road?

Shades of the spice bazaar in Istanbul.

St. George & the dragon

Another interior shot.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Grocery store for the locals -
I was shopping for deodorant.

OH, there's the mosque. Oh well, no time.

L to R, Arie, his mom (she was born in Italy
& emigrated after WWII), niece & Jan

L to R sister Iris, Arie & his mom

L to R Jan, brother-in-law, niece & sister-in-law Iris

Had enough?

And, of course, the cat.

Cat's had enough

Some neighbors we met outside Iris' current house on the way
to see her family's new house being built on the edge
of the kibbutz. (Stay tuned for pix of that wonderful abode.)