The Galilee (a few days delayed due to lack of wifi!)

If you ever want to know what heaven looks like, just ask my kids - they found it today. But, I'll come back to that later...

We got up early in Jerusalem to finish packing and pick up the rental car. Interesting experience ... Everything in the Avis office felt like something of a shifty deal ("you want to rent a car? Let me call my cousin"). But, lucky for us, our friend Eyal had put in a word for us with his friend who is high up in the Avis Israel chain of command, and having his name on our reservation seems to have smoothed our way.

We pulled the car up in front of the apartment, carried everything down the 4 flights of stairs on last time, and played the first of many Tetris like games of fitting all of our stuff into the trunk of a Mazda 6 (it fits, barely). Abe did an amazing job of getting the hang of driving in Israel (with me nervously shouting warnings at him every 2 minutes). We first swung by our friends' house to drop off some Jerusalem tour books we had borrowed (even finding our way to their house without winding up in the West Bank felt like a major accomplishment).

Next we headed on to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem to see the Chagall windows. Hospitals are fairly complicated places, so the idea of putting a major tourist attraction/work of art in one actually seems pretty ill advised, but it was well worth the trouble it took to get there, park, and find the right place. This series of 12 painted glass windows that Chagall designed specifically for the synagogue at the hospital are really stunning. The theme is Jacob's sons - one window per son, each in amazing vibrant colors, and each tells a story with the hidden symbols that we expect from Chagall's art. The audio presentation told the great story about how the windows were damaged during the six day war. The hospital administrators called Chagall and asked what they should do to protect the windows. He told them, "you take care of the war. I'll take care of the windows." After the war was over, he repaired and replaced the damaged widows, leaving one small mark from the damage as a reminder.

We were already a little bit behind schedule (we are spoiled from being able to spend as long as we want places in Jerusalem), or we would have lingered longer admiring the beauty of the windows. Funny experience leaving... We pulled up to the parking lot exit, but could not figure out where to put the ticket. So we pressed the call button and the guy asked if we paid the ticket at the machine inside. We hadn't, so I went in and paid it. We still had no idea where to put the ticket, so we called again, and again he asked if we paid it, and this time we said yes. Are you sure, he asked. Yes. And he lifted the gate and we left. It's possible this is the system, but it seems hard to believe.

We navigated our way to Route 6. This is the one toll road in Israel - a major north/south highway which I believe will eventually run from Haifa to Eilat. It was fascinating to drive up this road and see the security fence running along side it (also to see camel farms by the side of the road). We stopped at what I believe might be the only highway rest stop in Israel and had lunch, and then drove a short way longer to Tel Megiddo.

Tel Meggido is a fascinating archeological site. Situated at a major ancient crossroads, it has been home to at least 27 different civilizations each one defeating the one before to take control. Another word for Tel (mount) in Hebrew is "Har", and so many battles were fought there that the name (Har Megiddo) became the word for the place where the final battle at the end of the world would take place (Armeggedon). Megiddo was a fortified city as early as 4000 BCE and many ruins remain of many of the settlements there. We walked through the Canaanite city gate, the Israelite city gate, past the stables where King Solomon is recorded to have kept over 400 horses, and ended by walking through the incredible tunnel that led underground to the water source outside the city walls (like Hezekiah's tunnel, but actually way, way more impressive construction).

Back in the car (and happy to be back in the air conditioning - it is considerably hotter outside of Jerusalem) we made our way through some beautiful countryside and agriculture (corn, orange trees, almond trees, date palm trees) to Kfar Tavor, where they have a museum dedicated to, of all things, marzipan (made there to take advantage of the almond trees, which are a good crop for areas with little water). We started in the museum where they have a changing exhibit of marzipan sculptures. The current exhibit is on the theme of movies and animation (the previous theme was women in the Bible). The sculptures were amazingly detailed and entirely made of almond candy. Next, a peek into the marzipan factory a short film about the history and making of marzipan (narrated by a Sicilian mafioso - or at least an israeli impression of one). Finally, a marzipan workshop. The kids each got a selection of colors, some rubber candy molds, and a few brief words of instruction, and got to try their hand at marzipan creations. Ella believes she might have found her life's calling. (She called this the best museum she has ever been to).

Finally, we headed east toward kibbutz Maoz Haim (home of a cousin of our friend Eyal - another major connection he made for us for today). We passed a sign that said 10 km to Jordan and we kept driving east. Just a couple of kilometers from the border, we entered the kibbutz. We met Eyal's cousin in law, Shimon, who is our amazing host for the next few days. He set us up in the guest room of the kibbutz (unlike most kibbutzim today, Maoz Haim has not gone into tourism, so their guest room is just for visiting friends and family of kibbutz members). Shimon is in charge of payroll at the kibbutz, manages transportation for the kibbutz, and is in charge of the pool. It was this last role that elevated him to star status in our kids' eyes and made this a perfect day. The gorgeous pool closes at 7, but with Shimon, we could stay after hours. We swam in this huge, cool swimming pool, chatted with some of the other families, Shimon ordered pizza for us and him and his son, Lahav, and we hung out until after dark talking and hearing interesting things about kibbutz life (which I'll have to save for another blog entry, as it's getting late). The kids went for one last night swim (this was the mostly heavenly part), and Shimon started training Jonah to be his pool assistant.

Only downside to kibbutz life for us so far...no wifi. So, blog entries may be a little bit delayed. We'll hope to find some wifi in the course of our adventures tomorrow.

Highway stop - Israel style

Ancient stables at Tel Megiddo 

Marzipan creations

Heavenly pool at Maoz Haim