Day 7: Goodbye, Eilat. Hello, Jerusalem. With Ice Cream.
Tuesday morning we have some free time in Eilat, so we head to a marine reserve a few blocks from the hotel (and a few blocks closer to Egypt), so Derek can snorkel with some of our fellow riders. I hang out on the beach and piers with Triss and Rachael from the Chai Rollers, wading in a bit to enjoy the relatively cool Red Sea water.
Our bus to Jerusalem leaves pretty much on time at 1PM, and we head north much faster than we headed south. We stop for glida (ice cream) at Israel largest dairy, Tnuva, just a little south of Kibbutz Ketura. I asked the counterman for a flavor I don’t see at home: date honey and yogurt. I ask for a small, and he wants to know what other flavor I want, since a small is 2 flavors. He has a children’s size, but insists it is too small for me. So I add mango. I am now spoiled forever. I want to go back.
We make another quick stop at the Dead Sea. We’ve now done all three: Med, Red and Dead as part of the trip. Expensive Dead Sea cosmetic products at the store. Lots of Russian speakers everywhere. Hot. We’ll be back tomorrow.
We arrive in Jerusalem around 6. Since we’ve just spent a week with everyone, we feel like it’s a really good idea to join up with a few of our fellow riders for one more dinner together: good dairy Italian in the newish pedestrian mall of Mamilla. I’m going to miss these people.