Golan Heights

View of the Kinneret

Talmudic era house in Katzrin

Ancient synagogue in Katzrin

washing our hands with olie oil soap

walking through trenches on Har Bental

Pink ice cream at Coffee Anan

View from the terrace at our hostel

Luiza's (photo credit to Ella)

It took a little prodding, but I eventually got everyone out the door this morning (I have new found sympathy for tour guides who have to get everyone on their tour up and out early every morning).

We drove north around the east coast of the Kinneret, stopping just for photos, and made our first real stop in Katzrin - a small town which is considered the "capital" of the Golan. It was a bit strange because all of the major tourist attractions surrounded a modern shopping mall. Our first stop was the Golan Magic experience, a cheesy, but cute movie about the Golan (built around the theme of experiencing the Golan with all of your senses - when it talked about feeling the Golan it sprayed us gently with water, smelling the Golan it pumped in the smell of wildflowers). The best part of the presentation was the second part which used a huge relief map to tell the history of the Golan and both the 6 Day War and Yom Kippur War. It made really clear the strategic importance of the Golan to Israel (both in terms of freedom from constant shelling by the Syrians and having control of the watershed from the many mountains which drain naturally into the Kinneret and the Jordan River, but which the Syrians were working to divert to deprive Israel of water).

The second stop (also right next to the shopping mall) was the Katzrin historical park, which is on the site of a Talmudic era (maybe 4th century?) village and synagogue. Again, there was a certain cheesiness to it, with people dressed up as Talmudic era figures (to explain the time period to visiting camp groups), but the remains of the village were truly impressive.  It was cool to see how the homes were made of rough stones, whereas the synagogue was made of carefully hewn stones that fit perfectly together (in a Herod-influenced style). It was easy from the well preserved remains to imagine life in this village, and Jonah especially enjoyed climbing through the ruined houses and figuring out the use of each room.

Last stop in Katzrin - the olive oil factory. We had a quick picnic lunch in their large courtyard and then  a fun tour/sales pitch of the factory where they make very high quality olive oil as well as soaps and cosmetics from the residue that remains after the first press. Olive oil has been one of the main trades of the region since talmudic times, and we learned a lot about how it was made then vs now. Lots of samples, and we managed to show enough self control to leave without buying any.

We drove a bit further north then passing through two Druze villages, Masade and Buqata, and finally arrived, after some harrowing hairpin turns, at the top of Har Bental. This mountain in the Golan was a key position in the battle for the Golan Heights in 1973. Syria attacked on Yom Kippur with 1500 tanks. Israel had 160 tanks in the region. Amazingly, David and Goliath style, Israel destroyed 900 Syrian tanks and the rest turned and fled (by which point only 7 Israeli tanks were still operational). The view from Har Bental was amazing. You could look down and see Kibbutz Merom Golan, the first Jewish settlement in the Golan after 1967. You could look out and see snow still on top of Mount Hermon. You could also look down and see the border with Syria about 5 kilometers away (the Israeli tour guide for the NIFTY tour group that was there at the same time told the kids on that tour that the border was the wire fence about 10 feet from where they were sitting - tour guides make up dumb stuff all the time, we've noticed). We also listened in on a tour guide telling their group the amazing story of Eli Cohen, the famous Israeli spy. If you don't know the story, this is a great summary http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Eli_Cohen.html
In brief, Eli Cohen is a primary reason that Israel was able to win such a decisive victory in the Six Day War.

On top of Har Bental is also a hip coffee shop with the clever name Coffee Anan (a pun on the former secretary general of the UN and the Hebrew translation which is Coffee in the Clouds). We had a snack, enjoyed the view some more, roamed through the trenches and bunkers, and then headed down the mountain to the Banyas National Park. There we took a gorgeous 45 minute hike past gushing waterfalls that you can't believe you're seeing in such a hot, dry country. The air felt cool and damp and was such a nice respite after the heat of the past few days.

Finally, we headed to the youth hostel at Tel Hai. This is our first (of a few) youth hostel on this trip, and we are very impressed with it. The facility is modern, the room is spacious and clean, the beds are comfortable, and the staff is friendly. We checked in, took showers and drove 5 minutes or so into Metulla, sometimes called the Finger of the Galilee, since the area juts like a finger up into Lebanon. The town was mostly deserted a few years ago due to incessant Hezbollah rocket fire, but it's much quieter now, and life has returned to this lovely town. We went to an excellent restaurant called Luiza's, where we ate delicious salads and pastas out on the patio (the air is cool since we're pretty high up). On the way back, we tok a 2 minute detour up to the "Good Fence" Israel's former border fence with Lebanon (now closed). Driving short distances all day, but going from the border with Syria to the border with Lebanon, I think we're all getting a feel for how very small this country is!

Tomorrow morning there is Israeli style breakfast at the hostel from 7:30 - 8:30, so hopefully I won't have to do quite so much prodding to get everyone up and out when they know there is shakshuka waiting for them!