![\"\"](\"http:\/\/allenf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/DSCN27242-e1318002060818.jpg\" "\\"Jodi's")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe guest house we stayed at last night is only about 10km from
\nTiberias, but of course we had to take the long way here,
\ncircumnavigating Yam Kinneret. It was still only about 51 km, and
\nbeing more or less flat we rode it in about 3 1\/2 hours. We got online
\nthis morning and reserved a room in a hotel here. We came into town
\nriding along the shore of the lake, and our hotel sits way up atop a
\nhill. It was a very long, steep climb, and we had lots of impatient
\nand aggressive drivers honking and passing way too closely. I was
\nstarting to lose my temper and was feeling myself get ready to have a
\nconfrontation with the next person who tried to bully me aside, so I
\npulled off onto the sidewalk and we walked the rest of the way up.<\/p>\n
We got here about 1pm so had to shower quickly and head out in search
\nof food since everything closes around 2 or 3 pm; this being Yom
\nKippur Eve. The front desk clerk told us all the restaurants were back
\ndown at the bottom of the hill (of course!) so we rushed down there
\nand believe it or not we ended up eating at a McDonalds, being one of
\nthe few places still open. The menu is a bit different here and we
\nended upo having a “Big New York” and a “Big Texas”. They are both
\nhuge burgers at 250grams of meat; a bit over a half pound. The place
\nwas closing as we ate, so we left there and walked back up the hill to
\nour hotel.<\/p>\n
It’s about a quarter to five now and I can hear only a few vehicles
\nout on the street. We have been listening to what sounds to us like
\nsome loud religious music through our open window, but it has just
\nstopped.<\/p>\n
We had been planning to go to Zefat (Tszfat, Safed, pick a spelling!),
\nwhich is a Jewish holy city, but tomorrow being Yom Kippur everything
\nwill be closed, and we don’t want to be those insensitive cloddish
\ntourists that make the locals feel like they are an exhibit on one of
\ntheir holiest days, so we are going to skip it. We just made
\nreservations at the Shlomi Guiest House, which is just east of Rosh
\nHaNikra, the northernmost town in Israel along the Mediterranean
\ncoast. We plan to take advantage of the fact that nobody will be
\ndriving tomorrow and ride without worrying about which roads have the
\nleast traffic. It looks like the country between here and Shlomi is
\nhilly, but it is only about 65km.<\/p>\n
Oh, I almost forgot. While riding around the Sea of Galilee today we
\ndiscovered that there is a bike path along the south-eastern part of
\nthe sea. Road cycling seems to be a rather new phenomenon in Israel,
\nand it seems they haven’t quite figured out how to integrate it. We
\nwere riding along the shoulder of the road and noticed the beginning
\nof a bike path to our right, but the path didn’t actually connect to
\nthe road. We had to drop off the curb, ride across some loose gravel,
\nthen climb up the edge of the bike path. The path also ended a couple
\nof times at locked gates, forcing us to turn around and find a way
\nback out to the road. And in one section, the path was completely
\novergrown with overhanging palm branches that we had to bull through
\nwith our heads down. It made a simple cycle path quite an adventure!<\/p>\n
Jodi just got back from a trip out to investigate the music.
\nApparently many of the towns people are dressed in their finest and
\nwalking to temple.<\/p>\n
Allen & Jodi<\/p>\n