Last night we got to sleep in a real king-sized bed. Every hotel we’ve had so far has advertised double beds, but what you actually get are two twin beds pushed together.
Ilan, the Warmshowers host we stayed with on Sunday night, is the controller at the Underwater Observatory here in Eilat (http://www.coralworld.com/eilat/eng/). I emailed him this morning to tell him we were going to ride down there to visit the park, and to ask if he would be available for a few minutes to say hello. Ilan replied and told us to ask for him when we got there.
The park is down Rt 90 just a kilometer or two before the Taba border crossing to Egypt, so we rode to the border before doubling back to the Underwater Observatory. Back at the beginning of our trip we rode north on 90 to Metula, where it ends at the Lebanon border. Now we have also been to the southern end of 90.
When we got to the Observatory I told the cashier that we were friends of Ilan’s and she called him for us. Ilan met us and we spent a few minutes visiting over coffee, then he set us up with admission to the park and audio headsets for the exhibits. The exhibits were excellent, showing the sea-life of the Red Sea and the coral reefs. They even have an underwater observatory wherein you descend below the water level and can view the reefs and fish through windows. It’s like putting the visitors in the aquarium and leaving the sea-life free to roam.
We’ve been enjoying our time here in Eilat, but tomorrow we have to drive back to Tel Aviv and get ready to fly home early Thursday morning.
