Saturday, August 25, 2018

Shabbat, 25 August 2018

We both slept really well last night, with our door wide open. It was almost like sleeping outdoors.

We got up leisurely, walked around a little, a got more acquainted with the other guests. In particular, we were chatting with a couple, Ronen and Idit, who live near Jerusalem and are both biologists with Hebrew University at the Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem. Then the four of us walked over to a café nearby and had a lovely breakfast, accompanied by even more great conversation.

We finally checked out and left, a little reluctantly, after 11:00. It was a really wonderful place to stay!

We drove down highway 70 all the way to the coast and down through Tel Aviv and finally to Arad. I would have taken highway 6, but I had forgotten to ask the rental car company about whether that was allowed or not.

Just before we got to Arad, we visited Tel Arad National Park, and it was really amazing! There are actually TWO ancient and interesting archeological sites there. The first is a Canaanite walled city, which once housed about 2000 people. We could see ruins of the city walls (2.4 meters thick) with towers, two temples, a water collection area, a palace, and city streets. The second site was an important walled fortress from the Kingdom of Judah, in which they found various notes on pottery that show that this was a regional defense center. It was all very fascinating!

Tonight we are staying at a beautiful hostel in Arad. It has lovely landscaping, and we have a nice, modern room with a private bathroom. Once again, we have managed to end up in a great place for the night.

I walked a total of 4.9 kilometers today.

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