Parks, Paddling and Pickling

I seem to be playing catch up with my blog at the moment. These photos are from our various Chol Hamoed Sukkot day trips a few weeks ago, which I referred to back here. I hope that you still enjoy seeing the pictures of these gorgeous places in Israel. I guess it doesn't really matter if the shots were taken yesterday or three weeks ago, right? I can assure you that even now, at the end of October, the sun is still as high in the sky as it was for our week's holiday, though apparently there might be a little rain tomorrow night. Hurrah!My dad was with us for the holiday and during that week we squeezed in a lot. I take the view that it won't be long till the kids start saying that they don't want to come out with us but prefer to stay at home with their friends, so for the moment we are enjoying full-on, really great days out together, which results in a really busy and quite exhausting week!We spent a good few hours in the National Park at Caesarea, a town on the Israeli Mediterranean coast. Caesarea is a city that Herod the Great dedicated to Caesar Augustus more than 2,000 years ago. Today it is one of Israel's major tourist attractions and an increasingly popular place for Israel's elite to make their homes. Originally called Straton's Tower after its founder Straton who is believed to have been a ruler of Sidon in the 4th century BCE, Herod built Caesarea into the grandest city other than Jerusalem in Palestine, with a deep sea harbor, aqueduct, hippodrome and magnificent amphitheatre that remain standing today.
We spent time strolling along the sea front, collecting shells from layer upon layer of them washed up on the shore. We sat in the sun and watched a horse show in the hippodrome and kept an eye on the fishermen trying to make a catch.
The sun was setting when we tried to leave and found ourselves locked into the grounds because preparations were being made for a concert due to take place that evening in the amphitheatre next door, but that's a whole nother story... The next day our eldest went off to an overnight camp with his youth group and we took the youngest and his best friend on a tour of the Tnuva milk and dairy food company factory in Rehovot. Afterwards we travelled to nearby Ramle, a city known for being the only city founded in the land of Israel during the era when it was under Arab rule. It’s been around since 716 CE and is full of architectural artifacts. We were looking for the 'Boating Under the Arches' sign. In land-locked Ramle it sounded too strange to be true, yet we passed through the centre of the town and upon finding the place, were led down steps into the underground pools where rowboats awaited us. With the two seven year olds in charge of the rowing we paddled among the pillars and arches, around the 20-by-20 meter space, which was lit by small ground-level windows. The Unayziyya Cistern, also known as the pool of St. Helena, dates back to the 8th century and once served as the reservoir for the town and the surrounding area. Today it is a tourist site of sorts - though frankly I am really not sure how many tourists reach the town of Ramle, currently a rather neglected place, though in recent years attempts have been made to develop and beautify it. We enjoyed two more great days out that Chol Hamoed week. We picked olives and prepared them for pickling close to home in the Ben Shemen forest, a forest in fact named for its fame as an olive-producing region in the past (in Hebrew shemen means oil). The fruits of our labour will hopefully be ready in another week or two. At the Better Place Centre near Herzliya those of us with driving licences test drove the company's first fully electric, battery-powered car currently being prepared for commercial launch.
All in all it was great week. Dad has now returned to the UK. The kids are in school for a good few weeks now and I'm back at my desk crafting away! The memories of our jam-packed week will last for quite some time, as will the quantity of olives that we harvested that day in the forest.