קרקרים

David went to the dietitian yesterday and, after talking with her (in English), received a suggested menu from her, in Hebrew. So I was looking at it to see what it said. There were a few words that I didn't know so, naturally, I pulled out my handy electronic dictionary. One of the words, קרקרים, wasn't in there. Of course, it's pretty obviously plural, but I couldn't find any singular word that it might be the plural of. I noticed that it was suggested that he eat them with tehina or a little hummus, so I asked him about that. That was when I figured it out -- it's krakerim, i.e. crackers! It's always those darn ENGLISH words that cause me the most trouble!

Juxtapositions

Yesterday, we visited Natzeret (Nazareth) for the 2nd time. The purpose of the visit was the same as last time: to take some papers to the Ministry of Health office there, where they will decide if David can receive a rehabilitation package and, if so, what will be included.

After delivering the documents, we went to a large mall not far away and found a place to eat. I couldn't help notice the interesting juxtapositions. The mall is located between the Arab part of Natzeret and the Jewish Natzeret Elite ("Upper Nazareth"). So, here in the town where the founder of Christianity grew up, in a mall between the mostly Muslim but partly Christian part and the Jewish part, we were sitting in a very modern mall eating guacamole and labneh (a white, liquid cheese that tastes somewhat like sour cream) in a tortilla wrap! Just another typical experience here in this modern but ancient land!

A trip to Banias Falls

Today, it was cooler than some of the days this past week, so we decided to take a trip to Banias Falls in the Banias National Park. We left right after breakfast so that we would be out there before the hottest time of the day.

As we were going out the front door, some of the kittens were hanging around, in including Mr. B, who is one of the most curious. He sat down in a very cat-like fashion and watched me intently. By using my camera's maximum digital zoom, I was able to get several great pictures of this photogenic kitten. Here's one of the best:

Here's a view from near the entrance to this part of the park. In the foreground, you can see the viewpoint on the opposite side of the river. The canyon that the river runs in is between us and the viewpoint, but about all you can see of it is the green tops of the trees that grow down there. In the distance, just to the right of the viewpoint, is Nimrod's Fortress, a castle built to defend against the Crusaders. To the left of that, we see the end of the range of mountains leading up to Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon), the highest mountain in Israel.

Here's a zoomed view of the viewpoint area, where you can see some people looking down at the Banias Falls itself:

After hiking down into the canyon, crossing the Banias River (on 3 bridges!), and hiking back up the other side, I got this view of the Banias Falls, looking down from the viewpoint:

Here's a view of a small cascade in the Banias River a little ways downstream from the Falls:

In most places around northern Israel, these thistles have long since finished blooming, but I saw several on the hike today:

I also saw of few of these unusual and beautiful flowers:

This is probably the most surprising thing that we saw today. As we were hiking back up the side of the canyon to return to the car, I happened to look high up on the cliff above us. And this is what I saw: a beehive! Thank goodness again for the zoom capabilities of my camera!

Some vistas on a clear day

Last Shabbat was a beautifully clear day here in northern Israel, so we took a drive. Along the way, I snapped a number of pictures of scenery, taking advantages of the clear conditions. This first picture is a view of almost the entire Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee") as seen from a viewpoint on the road between Tsfat and Rosh Pinna.

We drove down to the Kinneret and around on the east side. The next view is from a point just above the eastern shore of the Kinneret. Here, we are looking northwest towards Har Meron (Mt. Meron, the purplish range on the left) and Tsfat (which is on the hill to the right of Har Meron. Har Meron is actually higher, but it's a little further away, so it doesn't seem higher in this photo.

Here's a 2nd view from the same point, looking west towards the city of T'verya (Tiberias) and the cliffs of Arbel:

From that viewpoint, we continued southwards. When we came to the road that runs east-west at the southern end of the Kinneret, we turned left (eastward). This road begins to climb along the northern side of the Yarmoch River valley. The border between Israel and Jordan follows this river in this area. A short distance before the end of this road, there is a road that climbs very steeply up to the southern end of the Golan and has many very sharp switchback corners. About halfway up this road, we stopped at a viewpoint (which is also an old military post dug into the ground). The rest of the pictures are all taken from there.

This first picture is a view to the west. In it, you can see the southern end of the Kinneret and the fertile Jordan River Valley just south of it.

Here's a view to the southeast. In it, you can see Hamat HaGader, the green area just below the center of the picture; some of the switchbacks that I mentioned earlier (in the lower part of the view); and a Jordanian town above and beyond Hamat HaGader. The border between Israel and Jordan runs right next to Hamat HaGader, which is a hotspring area. Although we haven't yet visited there, we have been told they they also have a small zoo there, including crocodiles!

Here's the view towards the southwest, showing the end of the Yarmoch River Valley, where it joins the Jordan River Valley. You can seen the green strip that marks the course of the Yarmoch River in the lower part of the picture. Note the cliffs on the Israeli side, with the road we had traveled running right along the edge. You can also see a Jordanian road running along the other side.

Here's a photo taken with maximum zoom on my camera showing that Jordanian road, on which you can see a vehicle driving.

StarTrek in Haifa

Because June 1 was a holiday in most of Europe (Whit Monday, the day after Pentecost), all of my lessons for that day were canceled. David needed to go to Rambam, so we took advantage of the free day to do that.

June 1 was also the 13th anniversary of our wedding at Beth Chayim Chadashim, so we wanted to celebrate that, too. We decided to check out the movies at Cinemall (formerly called Kanyon Lev HaMifratz), in Haifa. We managed to figure out that they were showing the new StarTrek movie, so that's what we saw, and we did enjoy it. In fact, this is the very first movie that we have seen in a theater since we arrived here in Israel nearly 3 and a half years ago! The experience was so similar to an American theater that, despite the Hebrew subtitles, I was almost startled when the usher said להתראות l'hitraot ("Bye" in Hebrew) to us as we were leaving!

Kitten update

We made a rather startling discovery the other day: there are actually SIX kittens, not five! We were very sure that there were only 5 of them, but I counted in the morning when they were eating, and there were SIX. I'm sure that we had NEVER seen all 6 at once before. The "extra" one is another gray tabby, which helps explain what happened. The 2 gray tabbies (who look like their mother) look very similar to each other, so we probably just never happened to see both at one time before. We had named "the" gray tabby Mr. B, but now we'll have to try to figure out how to tell the 2 apart and them figure out 2 separate names for them.