The Oasis Tour of Israel

Apparently, I just exhausted the fourth and final natural swimming spot of Israel. Well, we didn't exactly swim this time; we did that in the Red Sea last time. And it wasn't salty enough to make us float; that was the Dead Sea two-and-a-half years ago. It wasn't so cold that we only tiptoed in, that was the Mediterranean in March. I guess you might say that we "anchored" in the bath-warm summer water of the Kinnerat (Sea of Galilee). Its the blue dot under the "A" to the right.

Photo by Eldad Drori

Ayelet, her parents, and I made the cross-country trek in Israel during our recent visit. We drove all the way from the west coast to the east coast and back in a day! Actually, it's not too uncommon since our drive from Tel Aviv was only about 2 and 1/2 hours. And since we packed our swimsuits when leaving chilly Germany, we were going to swim...no matter what.

Photo by Eldad Drori

Photo by Eldad Drori

It was a quick dip in the Kinnerat, just before sunset. As far as I could see, we had the entire lake to ourselves. There was little speculation from Israelis we had talked to about it being too empty, but maybe it was because of the demand to go to a nearby crocodile farm (sorry, inside joke).

Salzkammerwhat?!

As you know from the previous post, we went to Austria for a rainy weekend with my parents. The region we went to is called Salzkammergut and is beautiful. Even when it's rainy and cold, driving through the wooded, rolling hills and various lakes is quite nice. However, I'd recommend going when it's not raining because the biking and hiking as well as water sports in that region are worth the trip.

We stayed in a little town called St. Wolfgang. We managed to find rooms at a local hotel after pissing off the receptionist with car antics - parking on the wrong side of the road while on a steep hill; trying to get into the parking lot without the key and without a clue of where to go, forcing her to run out cursing into the light rain to stop the crazy tourists in the car (aka Greg and Eldad). Beyond that, we didn't anger the locals too much.

Seeschloss in Gmunden

On Saturday, we checked out the ice cave and then drove on to Gmunden to see the city. Unfortunately, we missed a promising ceramics market although it was interesting to Greg and I that there appeared to be no worries about afterhours security of the ceramics. The vendors just rolled down their tent sides, clipped them into place and left their fragile merchandise unguarded. Gmunden might be a lively old town at any other time, but sadly, not at 6:30 pm on a cold Saturday night. In any case, we got to see their cute Seeschloss (sea castle or palace).

I promise to stop talking about the rain in the next post because it'll probably be after we return from sunny, warm Israel! We're there for a few days for a cousin's wedding so it'll be nonstop action with the fam.

Ice Cave...no bears spotted

The mountain tops were blanketed under clouds all weekend as Ayelet, her parents, and I spent the weekend in the Austrian Alps. So what do you do when the weather is rainy and in the 50s??? You figure out a way to make it all seem warm and less wet. We went into an ice cave (Dachstein Welterbe).

We started our journey up the steep mountain in a cable car - no more unknown mountain hikes like in Garmisch. We went from the rain at the bottom of the mountain right up into the clouds where it was coming from. All you could see in the distance on our short walk up the hill were the tall pines about 30 feet away.

Now, don't tell on us for this next part because we did see a sign for no photos at the entry. However, I really should have asked for an explanation from the tour guide about this policy. In the future, I think instead I will just test how many people ask me not to take photos from now on. Anyway, enjoy our photos.

The entry was cold, like a walk-in refrigerator. However, there was no ice to be found. We quickly flipped through our English pamphlets(the tour was only spoken in German) and realized it was still above freezing in the first chamber. We walked with our group through the cave bear graveyard (no bones seen) and passed through a large steel door to a claustrophobic freezer. I couldn't get the images out of my head of the gigantic boulders that had fallen from the ceiling after thousands of years of freezing and thawing. I spotted one rock that looked like it was ready to break and passed my scientific observation onto Ayelet. She was not too pleased about my curiosity [AG: here you could substitute the word "paranoia" for "curiosity" ;-) ] at that moment.

Luckily, the small tunnels opened up into giant caverns with waves of frozen water. The temperature now sat around the freezing point and every now and then sprinkles of water pelted us from the rock above. We found many dry spots to pause and take pictures before leaving our dark surroundings for a balmy blast of heat outside. Mission accomplished on making 50s feel warm! The sun never really did come out for us all weekend, but the ice cave made it a memorable trip without comparison.

Ayelet and Eldad on the cable car