A hike in the Eilat hills near us

Our unpacking process is beginning to wind down now, since we're virtually all done. So yesterday I decided to take a little hike in the hills back of Eilat near our house.

The road that marks the border of Eilat is only 2 short blocks up from us, so I was into the desert in no time at all. I had spotted the cut of a dirt road going up the side of the hill, so I figured out where it started and headed on up it. Here are some spectacular panoramas of Eilat and beyond from up there.

Here's the view looking about south-southeast. The view includes most of שחמון Shakhamon, our neighborhood. Our building is quite near the center of this photo, but it would be hard to be sure exactly which one it is. The כיכר kikar ("traffic circle") a little to the right of the center is the intersection of our street, עין יהב Ein Yahav, and דרך הרים Derech Harim. The barely visible land on the other side of the Gulf of Eilat (or Aqaba) at the extreme right of the picture is probably far enough south to be in Saudi Arabia. A little to the left of the center is the green strip that I wrote about before. If you look really closely, you may be able to see a modest cruise ship docked in the port of Eilat.

Here's the view looking approximately east. The green strip is barely visible at the right. The כיכר kikar ("traffic circle") in this photo is the top of עין נטפים Ein N'tafim (also the name of the local water company!), the next main street north of ours. The left of this picture is dominated by 3 of a group of 5 of the tallest apartment buildings in town (20 stories!). They are right at the northern corner of the neighborhood. In the distance (but right above the tall buildings in this picture) is the luxury hotel district of Eilat, right at the northern end of the Gulf of Eilat (the eastern branch of the Red Sea). Behind them, even further away, is the city of Aqaba, Jordan (which is why they call this the "Gulf of Aqaba"). Behind Aqaba, of course, are the mountain of Edom.

Here's the view looking northeast. The tall buildings are just barely OUT of this view on the right. The large כיכר kikar in this picture is where highway 12 heads out of town. It first goes west and northwest up into the mountains of Eilat and then heads north. For some distance, it follows very close to the Egyptian border before turning and intersecting with highway 40. This is probably why it is currently closed just after going through a pass in the mountains. Anyway, in this picture you can see most of the rest of Eilat.

I hiked back along highway 12, since the dirt road I was following connected over to it.

There is almost NO vegetation of ANY kind in the hills here, but I did see this one interesting plant along the highway on my way back. I suppose this is the flower, but it could also be a group of leaves, since I didn't see anything else green on the plan at all!

As I was approaching the city again, I heard a pounding sound. It seemed to come from the direction of the tall buildings. As I looked more closely, I figured out what it was. As you can seen in the picture on the right, they are building a wood roof over the the top מרפסת mirpeset ("balcony") on one of the tall buildings. Look even closer, and you'll see that there's a worker up ON the sloped roof! Now, I like heights and high places, but THIS job would be a little too scary even for ME!

The move to Eilat, with some pictures

Moving day was Sunday, 26 February, two days ago. Now that we've finally gotten some crucial things unpacked and gotten the city taxes, the electricity, the water, and the gas transferred to us, I can pause for a few minutes to give an update on the move and to show you some pictures.

First, here's a picture of the moving truck literally packed and overflowing with our stuff! The 4 guys in the picture are the movers. The one in the blue shirt on the right is Erez, the guy I first talked to when I called them. He is one of the owners. He's the only one of the three who did NOT travel in to Eilat. His business partner is Leon, the guy standing up on the tailgate of the truck. I didn't get the names of the others. Both the young man on the left and Erez spoke pretty good English, and, of course, they ALL spoke Hebrew (and all but Erez spoke Russian, too!).

Now HERE is the picture of our car! The first things loaded, which you can't see at all, were the 3 cats -- Katom, Pascal, and Peachy -- in their respective cat carriers. Besides that, there were 3 computers, 3 boxes of other things, and some miscellaneous loose items, including a blanket, a quilt, and several coats. This is the max that our tiny hatchback can carry!

After we got to Eilat without any problems at all, this is the picture I snapped out of our new kitchen window. You can see the fading sunlight on the Moutains of Edom, located on the opposite (east) side of the valley behind Aqaba, Jordan (some of which is also visible).

Yesterday (the 27th), I took a short walk down to the local supermarket to pick up a few things we had forgotten when we had gone to the really BIG shufersal supermarket on the other side of town. Here are some pictures I shot during that walk.

Here's the view of our building from across the street. We are on the corner of Ein Yahav (our street) and Ein Akev. There is a kikar (traffic circle) at the intersection. Behind the building, there is plenty of parking for the people who live in several nearby buildings.

Here's the view looking up our street (northwest). Just 2 short blocks up is the road that goes around the edge of Eilat. The desert begin the other side of the road.

Here's the view looking DOWN our street (southeast). Yes, that's a bit of the Gulf of Eilat, the eastern branch of the Red Sea that you can see, although the street does NOT go all the way down to the shore. On the other side of the sea are more of the Mountains of Edom (in Jordan). A little further south, but certainly well out of this picture, is Saudi Arabia!

Two blocks over from our street, in the northeast direction, there is a long park or green strip parallel to our street. It runs most of the length of our part of Shakhamon (the name of our neighborhood). Here's a view looking down the green strip from Ein Akev (2 short blocks northeast of our place).

We still have a LOT of unpacking to do, but we really have made good progress, so it shouldn't take us too long.

I'll try to continue taking more pictures of the area as we take more walks in various directions.

About to leave for Eilat...

Tomorrow is the day! The movers will arrive here at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. All of our things other than the 3 cats, the computers, and a very few other things will be loaded onto their truck, and then both they and we will head for Eilat. When we all arrive there, they will unload the truck, and we will be into our new apartment.

So, after writing this, I'll be bringing the computers and the network down, packing them up, and making the final preparations for the move. We will NOT be back online until at least Monday afternoon. When it IS back, it is supposed to be 40 times as fast as our current connection, yet we'll actually be paying LESS per month for everything -- it's all good!

Packing, packing, packing...

Our move is really taking shape now. We hired a mover who will come and take our things to Eilat on the 26th of February. That's just ONE week from tomorrow! Of course, we have been busily packing (and throwing LOTS of stuff away!) now for weeks. We still have a bit more to do, some of which, such as our computers and the dishes we use every day, have to be packed at the last minute because we'll be using them until then. We also have to attend to switching utilities and several other things before we move. However, I think we're on schedule and will be all ready in plenty of time. And, although the snow today was beautiful, we will NOT miss the miserable COLD weather!

Below is a picture of the stacks of boxes in our living room. And this is NOT all of them, either! On some of the boxes you can see where I have written by hand the word שביר (shavir), which means "breakable" or "fragile".

Snow in Tsfat!

As had been forecast, we got snow today up here in Tsfat. A small amount fell last night, but this morning it came down seriously. Then, the sun came out and quite a bit melted. But, later in the day, we got even more snow. In the late afternoon, though, the sun came out again for quite some time, and now MOST of the snow has melted. However, we may very well get some more this evening or even tomorrow.

Here are some pictures that I snapped with my iPhone (my camera is already packed away!) from various windows in the house.

Spool table by our front door

Our palm, etrog, and little lemon trees

Looking down our street

Our car in our driveway

Road hazard

Yesterday (Friday 17 February) was very windy all over northern Israel. On our way home from synagogue, we ran over something in the road just after the Karmiel East intersection. It was dark, and so I hadn't seen it at all, and I still don't know what it was. I imagine it was either something that had blown off a truck or perhaps a sign that had been blown over. Whatever it was, however, it apparently had something (nails?) in it, because, a few kilometers later, our front right tire went flat.

I called MEMSI, the Israeli equivalent of the AAA in the States. They came out quite quickly and changed the tire, putting the spare on there instead and warning us not to go over 80 kph on it. So, we continued towards home, taking it quite a bit more slowly than usual. When we were almost all the way up the hill to Tsfat, the BACK right was flat! Since we, of course, had no more spare and it was Friday night, we simply drove home from there VERY slowly. We'll have to get new tires and have someone bring them to us after Shabbat.

We've got an apartment!

We found an apartment to rent in Eilat, and we are really quite excited. It is on the top floor (4th floor here, although it would be considered 5th in the States) of a rather new building in the best part of town (called Shakhamon). The landlord and landlady are moving out of the apartment to a townhouse not far away since she is pregnant with their second child. They are very nice people, too. It took us a day longer than we had planned because we wasted a whole day waiting for an answer from the owner of the first apartment we wanted. Then, in the end, he decided he wanted to sell it instead! Anyway, it is a great relief to know that we'll have a good place to live.