Israel. July 21, 2021. Day 4. Hot as Hell.
Today was hot. So, so hot.
Anyway, I got up at 630 because I set my alarm, but also because someone scheduled a wakeup call to my room. I did not schedule this wakeup call. Can you imagine if I didn’t need to get up? I would have been so angry.
Anyway, I got up and headed to breakfast. It was a full buffet, but I was still full from the night before, so I only had a pastry, some babka, some chocolate spread, fruit, cereal, and chocolate milk. You know, a light start. At 7:45 we boarded the bus and headed to the Golan. Our first stop was at an overlook where a retired Lt. Col. spoke to us about the region and the strategic thinking involved in military operations up north. The biggest takeaway is that peace is extremely far away because there’s no one to actually make peace with. Hezbollah has infiltrated the Lebanese government, so there are two entities there, and with Syria you’re dealing with the rebels and the government. And then there’s Iran. So good luck.
From there we drove to Har Ben Tal, where I have been several times. It seems like they upgraded the coffee shop there, Kofi Annan. There’s got to be some kind of intellectual property issue there. Also, they sold Rainforest Caffe coffee. This place is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Anyway, the group was allowed to walk around by themselves, so we did. The bathroom cost 2 shekel, and it was 2 shekels well spent. I got an iced latte which was great.
From there we drove to Emek Habacha, the Valley of Tears, a site of a major battle of the Yom Kippur war. I’ve been there many times, but this time we heard from Avigdor Kahalani, an Israeli war hero. He was really great, but we were frying out there.
Our next stop was lunch at a restaurant in Katzrin, the capital city of the Golan. It was standard meat and chicken with salads. Very good, but I’m getting a little tired of lavish meat buffets. From there we went to the Katzrin Talmudic village where I think we almost died of heatstroke. It’s an old village with structures from a few thousand years ago. Cool to see, not so cool to see in the heat. We did get to taste some whiskey they make though, so that was fun. At some point I went to the bathroom to get some air, and never rejoined the group. It was too hot. Oh well.
a shul in the Katzrin village
a rich person’s house in the Katzrin village
After that we went to Hula Lake Park where we took golf carts and drove around the valley. This is part of a huge migration trail for birds and other animals. Beautiful views, not so many animals, still hot. From Hula we could see Ramat Trump (Trump Heights) on the mountain.
I know it looks like a little village from the photo, but Trump says the settlement is the largest settlement in the Golan Heights. Period.
At some point during the day someone complained that they would have worn their sun shirt had they known they would be in the sun all day. I said nothing, but we literally went over the entire day’s itinerary last night and told them it was going to be our hottest day with the most outdoor time. Our tour operator says that when people get into groups, they revert back to childhood and cannot function as humans. I’m finding that’s true.
Our final stop of the day was at Baba Yona Farm where the group was split up and everyone worked on a part of dinner. There was also old-school Israeli dancing. It was very cute. Now were back at the hotel. I figured out that the hand-held shower works significantly better than the “rain shower,” but my air conditioning leaves much to be desired. Tomorrow we head to Jerusalem!
