Winter in Jerusalem

Is characterized by sweaters, rain (only a few drops so far), bowls of soup, and ripening citrus fruit.

 And, bougainvillea that continue to bloom.

I think sweater weather in mid-November is pretty amazing. I have abandoned my open-toed shoes in favour of sneakers and boots, but I still mostly dress in jeans, a tshirt, and a sweater. Yesterday was the first really cold day we've had; I took an extra layer. Today it's warmed up again and the sun is shining. Amazing. Truly. The climate is spectacular.

Still, it's winter and bowls of soup are on the menu, especially kubbeh soup - an Iraqi-Jewish specialty. Here's an example of a winter lunch we had last week at Azura in Mahane Yehuda. Two bowls of kubbeh soup (a dumpling stuffed with beef and pine nuts) and a ground beef and pine nut-stuffed eggplant. (Getting the theme here?!) Plus hummus and pita of course (oddly pickles and onion were missing that day).

Lunch at Azura

In the courtyard near Azura there is a cafe packed with older men drinking coffee, smoking and playing backgammon. In a city filled with anachronisms, this is one that I worry about the future of. For how long will these old cafes and their Shesh Besh players persist? Will men of my generation be doing this in their retirements? 

Shesh Besh at Mahane Yehuda

Breathe Freely

It may be that Israel's current gas mask era is nearly over. A story today in Ha'aretz provides considerably more detail on gas mask distribution and production than I was able to obtain in August. It seems, if the Ha'aretz story is reliable, that only about 60% of Israelis have received gas masks since the state started a redistribution of them about 5 years ago. Masks already budgeted for and in production will be distributed up until March 2014. After that, it looks like gas mask distribution will stop: no funds in the 2014 national budget have been allocated to producing more masks.

Why?

Firstly, cost. Ha'aretz says it would cost NIS 1.3 billion (CAD 365 million) to outfit the remaining population (something less than 40% of the country) and an additional NIS 300 million (CAD 81 million) annually to maintain the population in masks (replacement of parts; refitting - kids grow out of theirs). I have no idea if maintenance (of the 'fleet' of gas masks) continues; if it continues while the masks are distributed and production is halted so that nearly 2 in 5 people don't have a mask; or if the state will begin to collect the masks for central maintenance.

Secondly, threat reduction. Observers report that Syria's chemical weapons store is being dismantled according to plan.

I'm inclined to think the budget is driving this decision...

Touring the North in a Fog

Keeping with the theme of autumn and cooler weather, I am at last reporting on a wonderful (if slightly epic) trip I took last February with my Swiss friend Theresa. We went west to the coast, near Netanya where we dropped our friends off at the U-Pick strawberry patch - open just in time for Valentine's Day. Then we headed north to Haifa and Acre (Akko) and drove east (inland) to the Galilee to stay the night. The next morning when we woke to fog we both exclaimed something like "Oh, I forgot about fog!" This is ridiculous considering we both grew up and have recently lived in seriously fog-prone locales.  Maybe it does get foggy in Jerusalem sometimes, but I've never seen it.

First stop - Haifa. We arrived in Haifa just before noon and drove up to the top of the hill (edge of the Carmel Mountain) to see the Baha'i Gardens and take in the view.

view of Haifa

Haifa Baha'i Gardens

We did give Haifa rather short shrift (except for the circles we made trying to get on the highway to Akko), but it was Shabbat and you have to make hay on Shabbat!

Next stop - Akko - for lunch. We ate fantastic hummus at Issa's in the main square. At the traditional (and especially at the Arab) hummus joints, it's typical for the older men (especially) to get extra olive oil added to their hummus like one might ask for freshly ground pepper. The excellent quality of even budget olive oil here explains why they ask for more.

Onto the sight seeing...

Akko

 Akko is a beautiful walled/oceanfront city in a spot that was probably inhabited as early as 3000 BC. Since then, nearly everybody has laid claim to the town because it's tremendously strategic. (The Crusaders used Akko as their toehold in the Levant on the way to Jerusalem and held out for a while against the Mamluks.) Scenes from Akko:

 We stayed in a small town in the Galilee and the next day drove east further into the Galilee.

Piki'in

 We went to Safed - one of the four holy cities of Judaism (along with Hebron, Tiberias, and Jerusalem). We didn't see much because at 900 metres Safed was shrouded in thick fog.  Driving further east we came out of the fog and enjoyed lovely cherry blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms after Safed before Rosh Pinna

Then we headed into the Golan. Eastward on the Road to Damascus -- don't worry this isn't a conversion story, it's just amazing how close these ancient places all are -- our next destination was the Hermon River (Banais Falls). Before we got there it was fog, then rain as we passed by vineyards.

 The Banias Falls Reserve is just inside the Golan territory captured from Syria...evidence of that past is abundant. Running along the road you turn off of to enter into the Banias Reserve is barbed wire fencing and signs the area is mined. 

Even in inclement weather, the Golan is beautiful, and the early spring flowers lovely.

Surface water!

Banias Waterfall

A little bit further to the northeast (and upstream) in the Reserve where the springs emerge as surface water is the Temple of Pan built in 3rd Century BC.

Temple of Pan

Water pools near Temple

We drove past Nimrod's Fortress, which actually has nothing to do with Nimrod (Noah's great-grandson) on our way to Mount Hermon. The road to Mt Hermon passes through Majdal Shams, a Druze village that services the ski population. We didn't get to Mt Hermon and it was shrouded in fog so the views were limited.

The road to Mt Hermon

Then we drove down the Golan with limited views of Syria. Along the Syrian border there is evidence of the contested nature of the territory in the form of road barriers...

That afternoon, further south in the Golan, we went for a wine tasting and stayed the night at a kibbutz. The next day we drove down to the Sea of Galillee where spring was in full force and the fog lifted. We stopped at Capernaum where Jesus is meant to have done some healing after a teaching.

Cliffs near Migdal (just north of Tiberias)

Cliffs near Migdal

 And finally, we drove down Hwy 90 through the West Bank and then west on Hwy 1 up out of the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem. A long, great weekend.