Ilan cooked up a wonderful dinner last night, which we ate outside on the patio accompanied by wine and good conversation. Ilan says it will be too cool to sit outside in the evening soon, but it is hard for me to believe that.
Jodi and I slept a bit late this morning so when we got up Ilan and his wife had already left for work. I was really sorry we missed them. We spent a couple of hours sipping coffee and working out arrangements for the rest of our time here in Israel. First we reserved a rental car to get us and our bikes back to Tel Aviv and to the airport for our Thursday morning flight. Then we reserved a room at the Hilton Queen of Sheba Hotel here in Eilat for two nights, and a room in a hotel in Tel Aviv for Wednesday night. Then I plotted the addresses of our hotels and the car pick-up and drop-off points so I could upload them to the GPS. That doesn’t sound like much when I write it, but it took plenty of time to do.
Finally we were done with chores, so we packed up the bikes and rode down to the beach promenade in the area where the hotels are. We stopped at a coffee shop and sat for an hour or so enjoying the air and watching people walk by, then around 1pm we checked into our hotel.
When you reserve a hotel on-line you are never sure what you are really going to get. We had reserved a double room with sea views. Well, our room has a double bed; it also has sea views. It also is the largest hotel room I’ve ever had. We have a separate living room, a bedroom, a small kitchenette, and the bathroom. We have views east to Jordan, and west down the coast towards Egypt. It is really quite nice!
As icing on the cake, when I told the clerk at reception that we had bicycles she said “no problem, it is a large room.” Everywhere else we have stayed in Israel our bicycles have created quite a stir and usually resulted in a huge discussion among various members of the staff. We have never been allowed to bring them into our room, and have had to leave them in the luggage storage room. In one hotel they even insisted that we carry them across the lobby rather than wheel them across the floor.
The easy day seems to be good for Jodi and she is feeling a bit better today, though still fighting a stuffy head.
Well, we are off to sit by the pool and relax for a while. Bye for now.
