Monument to the Negev Brigade

On one of the weekends we made a trip to the Beer Sheva area to see the Monument to the Negev Brigade created by a famous Israeli architect Dani Karavan. Beer Sheva is the capital of architectural style called brutalism and this monument is a great example of the style.
Eighteen separate concrete elements symbolize Palmach Negev Brigade that fought in the Israeli war for independence. The monument is rather neglected and doesn't have any tourist facilities like bathrooms, water or security guards, however it is still a beautiful and meaningful place to visit. There are two audio stations with info in Hebrew a English. Kids enjoy running around, hiding, climbing the pieces, playing with acoustics and you can take a lot of artistic family photographs.

Ahula Lake

This Saturday we took a family trip to Ahula Lake Nature Reserve that is a big WOW for kids as well as adults. Israel happens to be a perfect rest spot on a migration journey for the European birds escaping the cold winter to Africa. Over 120 species and millions of birds are passing by every winter. Originally they were feeding on the fish grown in the Galilee fish farms and frequently shot by the farm owners. Until the government decided to "welcome" them properly and flooded the Ahula area creating a large Nature Reserve and started charging small visitor fee of 5 shekels that goes toward the bird food. Now it is a birds paradise. Rumor goes may of them never even continuing the journey to Africa.

Turn your volume on to hear the birds feasting in this video:

There are cranes, pelicans, storks and many others.

                       

The route around the lake is around 10 km. 

You can travel it by foot, rent bikes for 1-5 people or a golf carts. Pushing such 3-person bike with my kids turned out to be an excellent and a very hard physical exercise.

In addition to birds there are also nutrias

and water buffaloes:

After these hard physical activity we planned to stop somewhere for a hamburger but couldn't resist trying the Druze pita. Paper-thin, spread with lebane, zaatar, tabule and spices and heated in front of us on a taboon, it was a delicious culinary experience.

Related and recommeded is a good Israeli family movie: Igor & The Crane's Journey

Pick Your Own.... Paprika

In Boston this time of the year we used to go to the Marino Farm in Natick to pick apples, pears or peaches. Yesterday we drove 2 hours North to a little spice farm near Haifa to pick our own paprika. Much lower scale and less organized but much cheaper than Marino Farm, The Spice Farm, was holding a 10-day Paprika Festival. Here are paprika bushes that we picked the ripe red peppers from:

This is a paprika bath where a few green peppers were hidden among thousands of red and everyone was invited to sift through for a prize. Nadia found one.

I am standing in front of the festival's poster and proudly holding a bag of picked paprika and a dry paprika wreath Nadia and I assembled.

Scarecrow.

This farm is a popular tourist attraction and frequently holds some tours or cooking classes, in addition to an excellent spice market. Worth a visit if you are passing by.

The view of Bahaian Gardens from the main Haifa street.

Then we met a local Arab friend for a coffee in the Fattoush restaurant in Haifa. The atmosphere and food in the restaurant were so good that we almost stayed in the nearby hotel overnight in order to enjoy the dinner. Alas, the hotel was all booked and we will have to return back to Fattoush one day.

With the coffee, I had a pistachio ice cream with tahinni and honey, which was so delicious I forgot to take a picture before it was gone. Little Nili swallowed her share helping herself with a spoon and both hands.  But then when Moshe's order of kanafeh arrived, I was ready with the camera:

It is a traditional Arabic cheese pastry served with a sugary-sweet syrup.

Here is the link for Fatoush if you ever find yourself in Haifa: TripAdvisor Fatoush

A sign at the entrance to the restaurant welcomes people of all colors, cultures and religions and the mix of languages, colors and friendly laughter on this main Haifa street leaves some hope that peaceful coexistence in this part of the world may be possible.