Day 4: Heading to the Galilee

On Day 4 we were still at our hotel in Tel Aviv, where we were served a fantastic breakfast again.

We had some time before we were to meet up with our tour group, so my sister and I decided to walk around a bit and grab a coffee at a cafe.  My sister is lactose intolerant, so she is actually in a good place to be able to get coffee beverages the way she wants them-with soy milk.  We stumbled upon Cafe Esther.  Once they told us they can do soy drinks, we knew we found the spot to sit and relax for a little bit.

The gentleman helping us was so kind and helpful.  He even brought us these little cookies to munch on.

I had a cafe Americano. 

My sister had a soy cappuccino.

After some relaxing, it was time to head to the hotel where we were to meet up with our tour group.  We will be spending the next week with this group on a trip to learn about the events of the Six Day War in Israel, and the unification of Jerusalem 45 years ago.

When we arrived to the hotel, there were snacks and drinks set out for us.

We had a little more time to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea.

There was also time to enjoy some gelato...there is always time for gelato!

Then we boarded the bus and made our way to the Galilee, passing through Mt. Carmel and the forests of this region.

I couldn't resist the picture of this stop sign with the hand.

Here we are arriving at Kibbutz Lavi, which is where we were staying.  A kibbutz is a community where people live and work, usually focusing on a few specific skills or crafts.  These are usually working farms and everyone living there contributes to the community/kibbutz.  In the past, I have stayed on a kibbutz and worked, although it wasn't much hard labor.  This time, we were staying at Kibbutz Lavi, where they have a hotel that the members of the kibbutz run.

On the way in we passed by some of their fields.

Here is the entrance.

The hotel is very beautiful with great rooms.

The bathrooms were also nice!

Our room even had a patio off of it with a little sitting area.

Here is my sister out front before we headed to dinner.

Since we were tired, we decided to share a glass of wine.

Plus, we hadn't eaten much, so we knew we better munch on some bar snacks.

Then we proceeded to the reception area and met some of the other members of our tour.

Dinner was an impressive spread of items.  Since the kibbutz is kosher, the main meal was meat, so all the sides were vegetarian, and dairy free.  The meat dishes were all covered up, so I decided to just take pictures of the salads and desserts.  I know these pictures will leaving you drooling.  Everything was delicious.

Salad

Tomatoes

Peppers

Quinoa

Eggplant

Hummus

Grilled Veggies

Breads

A variety of desserts, all dairy free since this was a meat meal.

Then we headed back to our room so we could get some much needed sleep, which would allow us to be somewhat well rested for the next day where we would be touring the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever heard of a kibbutz?  Did you know that kosher bakeries will carry dairy free desserts (this is good news for people that are lactose intolerant or just don't eat dairy)?