19 July 2012

This morning I woke up with a bit of a sinus or dehydration headache, and I didn't get up until a little later than usual. I did go for a walk, though not all the way to the gym. It was hot, but there was a good breeze so it was quite pleasant. I stopped in the shady park next to the tall buildings (20-story apartment buildings) to do my stretches, and then I headed back home.

I have only one lesson today, with is still more than 30 minutes from now. So, this morning we decided to take a drive, and we did the "big" loop: we drove up the Arava on highway 90 to the Menucha Junction. We actually drove slightly past the junction, to a large "pundok" that is located there. According to my Hebrew-English dictionary this word means "inn" or "tavern", but based on the usage here I'd say it's more like a commercial rest area where travelers can refresh themselves. NONE of the 3 pundoks that we went by today have any kind of bar or place to spend the night. Anyway, we stopped, got more Pepsi Max, and then head west on highway 13. It's only a short distance to the Tzikhor Junction, where highway 40 comes in from the right.

We continued south on highway 40, past the Ashram in the Desert (at a place called Shittim, which means "acacias") and Camp Shizafon (pronounced like "she's a phone"), an army training base. Shortly after that is the Shizafon Junction, where we turned right and took highway 12 from there back to Eilat, passing for some distance right along the border with Egypt and then descending dramatically at the last minute down to the city. The highway reaches town at a big kikar (traffic circle) right by where I did my stretched this morning.

We had falafel for lunch today at the shop in the mall. Just after I parked the car and headed towards the mall, a jet plane came in to land at the airport. This approach is VERY dramatic because the plane flies so low and almost directly over the mall that you thinks it's surely going to crash into either the mall or the cars and people on the road right next to it! It lands on the runway which begins only a short distance north of there, across a road that goes to the hotel district. The mall was so busy in the food court that we almost couldn't get a table to sit at. When some people got up and left, we grabbed their table before the workers even cleaned it!

After lunch, we returned home. The predicted high for today was also 45˚C (113˚F), and so it was VERY hot and dry out. But it's been very nice and comfortable all afternoon in the house, thanks to the good air-conditioning!  :-)