A tiyul on the 25th of December

Yesterday, 25 December 2008, we decided to take a drive just to get out of the house. Local light showers were predicted for the day, so we didn't count on being able to get out and walk much. So, we decided to head for the קריון Krayon, a big mall in the קריות Krayot, the area northeast of חיפה Haifa along the sea. The area got that name because it is the plural of קריה Kiryah, and there are several towns in that area whose names begin with קרית Kiryat (which means "cluster of", "town of", or "suburb of"): קרית ים, קרית מוצקין, קרית ביאליק, קרית אתא. The name of the mall, קריון Krayon, is no doubt a contraction of the words קריות krayot and קניון kanyon, which means "shopping center" (and NOT "canyon" -- incidentally, there IS a mall in Haifa whose name is גרנד קניון Grand Kanyon!).

At any rate, when we got there we drove all over the parking structures and the open parking lots, but we could not find a single open parking space (and there were plenty of other cars looking for spaces, too!). So, after 45 minutes of this, we decided just to skip it and continue down the road to קניון לב המפרץ Kanyon Lev HaMifratz ("Heart of the Gulf Shopping Center"), where we have been many times and where we can ALWAYS find a parking spot!

Sure enough, we did find a place right away. We went into the mall and browsed a little. We considered trying to go to a movie at the new 23-theater complex that they recently added, but we weren't able to figure out which movies were actually playing, so we decided against it. After quenching our thirst, we decided to get back into the car and head for טבריה Tverya ("Tiberias").

I had seen a description in one of our atlases about a place called ארבל Arbel, which is a national park located on the top of some cliffs near Tverya, so we decided to check it out. By time we got into the area, we were beginning to get hungry, so we went down into Tverya first (remember, Tverya is next to ים כנרת Yam Kineret, also known in English at the "Sea of Galilee", which is more than 200 m BELOW sea level) and had French onion soup at a nice little restaurant there where we had eaten a couple of times before.

Then we drove back up to where the road to Arbel leaves the main highway (just above sea level) and headed out for Arbel. We got there at about 3:15, leaving us enough time to hike up to the top of the cliff and back to the parking lot before they closed, at 4:00. The 5 pictures accompanying this entry are ones that I took along this hike. In the first picture, you can see a view of the cliffs (looking northeast) as we approached them (where the sun is lighting the foreground and the cliffs but not the background). The second picture is a view with the sheer cliff that we went to the top of on the right. This is looking almost directly north, I think. The 3rd photo is a view ACROSS the gap (to the northwest). The fourth is a view of the Israeli Arab village at the foot of the cliff. Finally, the last picture is a view of the cliffs from BELOW, near the Kineret (looking southwest), which I took as we were driving home.

So, it was a lovely tiyul, the scenery was beautiful, and even the weather cooperated!