2016 Purim at the Upper Galilee

We have just gone through the Purim festivity here in Israel, an opportunity to take a long weekend vacation, get on the motorcycle with some friends, and get crazy.

This year we decided to go for a vacation at the North of Israel. Actually Lily and me were invited by our friends Shmil and Louiza to join them in a long weekend at the Upper Galilee.

We left in the morning of March 24th, heading North to the roads that take us to Carmiel, and from there to Mount Adir and to Zefat (Safed), ending our day in Metulla in the very North of the Upper Galilee.

Our first stop was just for some coffee, in Karmiel. There we managed to take this picture:

From Karmiel we continued to Mount Adir. A beautiful peak, with a stunning scennery, in which the Observation Point has been dedicated to the Second Lebanon War heroes. A beautiful place to be, with a view of all the Galilee and the Golan Heights. 

​The pictures below give some idea of the place.

Our continuation was to Zefat (or Safed, as it is called in English). In Zefat, we could enjoy the real street Purim of a religious town, with adults and children wearing costumes in the streets, making a lot of noise with the loudspeakers of the cars, etc. The girls could also have some shopping of Judaica items.

We were already near the end of the first day. Now it was time to leave Zefat and travel to our destination hotel in Metulla, at the very North of the upper Galilee, a few meters from the border with Lebanon.

In the evening we met another two couples who have joined the trip with a car, Tuvia and Hagit, Moti and Rachel. After a dinner in a nearby restaurant, we spent the evening playing Head-and-Tail quizzes at the hotel lobby.

In the next morning, we woke up with the intention of travelling all together, but we were soon to find that the people in the motorcycles and the people in the car had completely different interests. So we decided to split in two groups, and Shmil and Louiza, Lily and myself left to the Manara Cliff.

Manara is another beautiful cliff with a view to all the Upper Galilee and the Hermon Heights. It is a pity that the weather was not at its best. Nevertheless, we can still see Mount Hermon at all its greatness and whiteness.

From Manara we continued to Kibutz Yiron, through beautiful and twisty roads, which very much reminded us of the Pyrenees and the Greek Mountains. At Yiron we sat a little by the small artificial lake that they have built there. We didn't really get inside the place, since we had some 15 minutes to stay there and the entrance price was not low.

We were getting near to the entrance of Shabat. We are not religious, but we wanted to be at an event of Kabalat Shabat (the receiving of the Shabat) at the Berenice Winery at 13:00. The event was completely non-religious, with a music trio who played Israeli and world popular music, much wine and food.

Berenice Winery is a boutique winery built in a house in ancient Tiberias. The place is run by a very nice couple, Gidi and Estee, and is very nice to visit. Their facebook page is in this link.

We left the Berenice Winery around 16:00, after the wine had already gone down from our heads.Back to the hotel, around two hours of sleep, and at 20:00 we were ready to leave, this time all the four couples, to the Muse restaurant in Kiryat Shemona.

Muse is a chef restaurante which has been there in Kiryat Shemona for the last 3 years, and is having a lot of success there. The meal was very nice, the place was very comfortable and warm, and after the meal we left back to the hotel for the night.

In the next morning, after a late breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and got ready for the trip back. While the guys in the car decided to take the straight way to Central Israel, we, with the motorcycles, decided to make it a day for a visit to the Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights provide the best roads a motorcyclist may desire in Israel. A very beautiful and interesting road from Metula to Mas'ade and to Mount Bental, a very beautiful, though straight ride through the Golan Plateau until Mevo Hama, and then a twisty way down to Hamat Gader which goes down from the Heights of the Golan to the Sea of Galilee crater (a part of the Great Syrian-African Rift Valley). You will be able to see the descent from Mevo Hama in the video, and here are some pictures of the view of the Golan and Syria from Mount BenTal.

We stopped for lunch after the descent of the Golan at the Zemach Junction, at an Asian restaurant called Japanika, and had a very nice Asian meal there.

​Well, the next stop was already at home, meeting the children, the dog, and sitting down to edit and prepare the movie that you can see below.

So, another vacation is gone, and we are already waiting for the next one.

​I hope that through this blog post you managed to get some idea of what the North of Israel has to offer.