Tel Aviv and Tiberius trip with Garam!

Another trip and another 6:30am bus to Eshkol or so it should have been. Me and Garam got lucky and one of the kibbutzniks saw us standing at the bus stop and was going there anyway so we got a lift. A good start to Monday morning.

First stop was Tel Aviv. We arrived around 9 well prepared with pita, hummus and  boiled eggs for breakfast on the beach. The sun was shining there was no wind to put sand  in our food it was perfect. Garam insisted on buying a beer for breakfast too. Crazy girl but hey its our holiday so why not.

Next we needed to do some shopping. I hate shopping but it was necessary. My one pair of

Before too much cycling

shoes that aren't flip flops had holes in them and it has been raining. I was a little fed up of getting wet feet.  We headed for Tel Aviv's massive shopping centre. By this point we needed coffee. One large cappuccino and a large latte enjoyed, it was time for the shoe hunt to begin.  We hadn't been wandering the corridors of shops long when we got distracted by Top Ten an accessories store that had a sale on where everything was 20 shekels (about £4) or had 30% off so I came out with a hat, a scarf and some socks. The socks were needed and were only one size turns out the one size is small! They were a bit of a squeeze for my big feet.

After this I thing the coffee wore off. The shoe search became a pain in the ass and we ended up going back pretty to were we started in the first place before we were successful. We were both desperate to get on the bus to Tiberius and get some sleep by

Checking out the hot springs

1pm!

Arriving in Tiberius in the evening wasn't very exciting. It's low season and it was ultra quiet along the promenade and the Sea of Galilee wasn't very impressive under the night sky. But we had a few beers and a chat before bed, as there was another early start in-store for a super long day of bike riding.

It's 58km around the whole of the Sea of Galilee..Garam wanted to go all the way. I knew I would never make it that far without my legs falling off, so  I managed to get her to agree just to do part of it. Thankfully! We set off at 9am after a delicious all you can eat buffet breakfast for 40 shekels.

We headed in the direction of the national park to check out the hot springs. It was the smallest national park we have both ever been to. I did point out that Israel is a small country but still took us about 5mins to see everything. We carried on in the same direction if was pretty flat and easy but not much to see as it was just beach after beach. So after an hour or so we decide to head back towards the hostel get some lunch in town then head for the other side of the Sea (or giant lake). 

After too much cycling

On the other side there are famous churches to check out like the place where Jesus was meant feed the thousands with his fish and bread trick. There are also a lot of hills!!

I apologise to Garam as I did a hell of a lot of complaining on this trip. My new shoes hurt my feet, my bum hurt and my legs couldn't pedal any longer. Turns out we cycled about 30km in total so it was understandable. I practically

How are we going to get home?!

cried with happiness when we saw this stone outside for the church..before collapsing on it.

It was about half 4 when we put down the bikes to check out the church so we needed to be getting back pronto, before it got dark. 

Cycling was not an option. 

Tabgha church

After I'd had an ice cream and Garam a beer and took some photos of the place we set about getting home. We started walking to the bus stop about a half a mile away up a hill with our bikes. Just hoping that the bus driver would be nice and let us on with our bikes. 

Luckily we got lucky! There are mini bus taxis here and they are usually pretty cheap. One saw us lagging at the bottom of the hill and pulled over offering us a lift back to Tiberius for 40 shekels to take both of us.  Not surprisingly we jumped in that taxi pretty damn quick. 

Our last morning in town was a lot more chilled. We spent the day with most of Tiberius' pensioner population at the hot springs spa. It was bliss! I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

Grumpy Isreali makes me look pale.