While I am not usually one to complain too much about hotel accommodations, the rooms we had in Tiberias were rather interesting. Most notably, the beds were short and the blankets stretched only to my midriff. When I untucked them a bit more from the bottom of the bed and scrunched my body down into a more compact position I was able to nearly get the covers up to my shoulders, which was necessary, considering the air conditioning was set on full blast in our room. In my sleep I imagined I was out under the stars in the desert, exposed to the cool night in the arid land, although in reality it was quite warm outside.
Breakfast looked somewhat more Americanized than the typical fare I'd seen in Italy, including pancakes, frittata, and cereal. However, there was no syrup, and I instead enjoyed my pancakes with tzatziki: one of a number of cheese and yogurt options that were available along with a terrific tuna fish salad and one other smoked fish I couldn't identify.
Before we could begin our day, we had to come up with a group name, which came surprisingly easily. In honor of our bus driver, we called ourselves "Team Shlomo," which led to the group call-and-response chant, "Marco, Shlomo."
Our first day in Israel was a real blast: start to finish. We began by hiking down the Nachal Jilaboun river gorge, weaving our way up and down along the sides of the valley, crossing the stream back and forth, passing over slippery rocks, and clinging to nearby tree branches for support. There were several waterfalls along the route, and it made for an exhilarating start to our day. The valley was peppered with volcanic rock and was in bloom with some gorgeous pink flowers and prickly pear cacti—planted originally by Muslims to serve as fences.
The hillside around the Kinneret (Sea Of Galilee)
The flat plateau of the Golan Heights
Syria controlled the Golan Heights up until 1967, and all across the plains beside the roads were minefields planted by the Syrians prior to Israeli control of the region. The Israelis have deactivated many of the mines across the territory, but certain places, particularly near the border, they've left undisturbed in part as a buffer in case of future war. There was certainly a much more visible military presence during our driving today, passing several military bases with tanks being driven up and down the highway on flatbed trucks.
Our second destination was Mt. Bental, a dormant volcano overlooking Syria, the U.N. border zone, and Mt. Hermon, where Israel also borders Lebanon. We could see farmland in the Israeli areas, followed by a road marking the border, and then arid terrain across Syria, which was more clustered into cities. At the top of the mount we also got to tour an old military bunker, replete with turrets and gun mounts for defense of the high ground.
We ate lunch at a shopping center, which had some more traditional American fare, but the majority of us went for falafel or shwarma. It was definitely a few notches better than what I get at even the best New York street vendors. The falafel and vegetables were more evenly distributed in the pita bread rather than stratified one on top of the other, and the overall quality was far superior.
Following lunch we headed off to what I would term a "wine factory." By comparison to the producers I am familiar with presenting at Moore Brothers, who average 10-15,000 cases of wine a year. The Golan Heights Winery boasted some 2,500 cases of wine produced a day. The quantities are outrageous, and as a consequence, I believe the wine shows less character in representing the region. This became clear in other ways as well just in listening to our guide at the winery. They are using mostly new oak barrels from France for fermentation, which filled a building as big as an airplane hangar floor to ceiling, and
varietals seemed chosen more by familiarity for a foreign market, despite the fact that some made sense for the weather of the region, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and others did not, like Pinot Noir and Riesling--typical grapes of much cooler climates in Burgundy and the Rhineland.
The wine itself was perfectly adequate, and I'm happy that many of my peers got to learn some about the wine-making process, but it was rather generic tasting, with little to distinguish it from wine in California, Australia, and other places around the world. Those new oak barrels masked much of the fruit and earth tones that might have come out in the wine. After competently answering nearly all of the questions our guide asked about wine, I was approached by many of my peers, who had further questions about wine and wanted to know how I knew so much on the subject, and to each who would listen I shared my unique Moore Brothers perspective of nuanced wine representing a place, a people, a culture, and the weather of that year.
In a brilliant show of Birthright planning, we then headed to the Jordan River for a three mile rafting trip down the lazy river. I was able to use my experience from summers of canoeing in Canada to help me paddle my group down the river, although we were taken off guard by one rapid that shot us out into an unrelenting eddy, from which we had to paddle backwards in order to continue. At that point, I wanted to get out of the raft and swim us forward, but we were instructed to stay in the boat for safety reasons. I got a lot of joy out of the rafting, which, like the hike, I get to experience so seldom these days, living in New York.
Dinner was the same buffet as the night before, and with more energy on night two, we concluded the evening on the roof deck of the hotel swapping stories, playing cards, drinking beer, and admiring the view of the hilltop developments of Tiberias.
The Kinneret at sunset.
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