More Tiberius and "Stuff" Before I Forget

The picture, below, is another view of our hotel room. We had some ruins right next to the hotel, the Golden Tulip, and though we walked around it, never learned any info about its history.

Bocatov! In Hebrew, Tov means "good," "Boca" means morning, so good morning! Like Mozel tov - good luck. These may be the only Hebrew words I can remember. There's the proof, if I don't write it down . . .

Here are a couple more shots from our room at the Golden Tulip hotel in Tiberius, sunrise, you can see the haze in the air. Our guide said the haze was caused by an ongoing sandstorm in the desert, but in Israel you don't get the wind with the sandstorm, just the haze. Coupled with the beautiful wildflowers blooming everywhere (it's spring in Israel), a few folks had to battle hay fever and allergies, but all adjusted pretty quick, we had all brought just about every type of medicine made. You can also see some ruins right outside our hotel, we checked them out, but never learned the history about them.

Here's Tiberius in the daytime, a clean, modern city. Israel is full of hills and rock formations, buildings all made of stone.

Our guide, Bernice, and driver, Assad, were incredible people. Bernice is Jewish, raised in South Africa and now living in Tel Aviv. She once was a teacher, now is a guide, says she doesn't do it full time as it would grow old, giving same old facts and going to the same old places, she said it wouldn't be as fun or interesting. Assad is, I believe, a Christian, and a terrific guy.

Bernice passed along bits and pieces as we drove and walked Israel, here's some general info she passed along on our first few days.

Teachers make about $1,000 per month to start and never more than $3,000 per month, and that in itself would be very rare. The typical Israeli earns about $1,500 per month, the typical Christian living in Bethlehem earns about $300. Throughout Israel, it's apartment living, very few if any single family homes, too expensive. It's not kosher to have meat and dairy at the same meal - so, you would never see bacon and eggs (little jokie). Everything was so clean, nice. Buildings are primarily made of stone, either limestone or basalt, not wood (or aluminum siding).