Golan Heights

As you already know we are spending our winters back home in Israel,but that does not in any way mean sitting at home.
It is a very small country and to give you a feeling of the size I have managed to fit it 8 times into Florida (I actually did it on the computer),it also means that you can drive from North to South for 6 hours and get from one end to another,but from East to West there are places that you can drive for 30 minutes and hit the Eastern Boarder....I sometimes find it hard to believe myself.
But in this small country we do have 4 seasons,one lake,one mountain,one desert ,one sea and a lot of great sites.
Winter is a good time to travel,the rain brings water to the dry creaks and brooks that fill the rivers and create waterfalls,the fields become green and colorful as result of all this humidity and that is when you want to go out and smell the ground and experiance the colors of the bloom.
That is exactly what we did this weekend,we visited and hiked in the Northern part of Israel.
We had to wait for 3 days after the heavy rain to be able to hike the trailers and that is what we saw.

My cousin Peter visits Isarel

When my cousin Peter from LA sent an e-mail saying that he wants to come over for a visit of 5 weeks we started to make a plan what to show him except the regular tourist places that will leave him with long lasting feeling that he really "saw" the country,its people and understood they complicity of the region.
So we made a list of places to see like Jerusalem,Dead Sea,Masada,Old Jaffa,Golan Hights and so on and we added places like Markets,weeding,meeting people and experiencing family life.

Here are some selected pictures from our travels in different places around Israel and it seems that 5 weeks gave a first time visitor an overview of the country and through the media eyes that are in many times giving a faults picture.
8 miles from the Mediterranean to the West Bank???-Yes-Unbelievable.
Florida bigger than Israel 8 times???Correct...hard to believe.
Here are some pictures from the visit,we hope that the colors,smells and the country spirit will stay with him londg after he leaves.