Tzfat and CaesareaWhile Tuesday was our only full day in Zichron, and we decided to visit my cousin in Tzfat. We started the day with breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. While most rooms have breakfast included, when booking with SPG points (as a Gold member) you do not get a free breakfast. I spoke with the mashgiach before our trip to confirm the kashrus of the food and he said basically everything was kosher.
Pictures of breakfast at the Elma:
We had breakfast from the buffet, though I was a tad disappointed having just been at the Ritz’s breakfast. We got ready to go and were in the car by 11:30 am.
We arrived at my cousin’s house in Tzfat at around 1:00 pm. Both DW and DD slept in the car on the way there. Apparently, my cousin and her husband normally have a late start to their day, as they were just finishing up breakfast when we came. After schmoozing at her house for a while we eventually headed out to a rather late lunch at around 3:00 pm.
My cousin and her husband decided to join us for the day, while her kids were all busy. My cousin’s husband drove us to the center of town, parked and we all walked down to a restaurant. The main street was quite deserted, as it was Tuesday and besides for the big cities, Tuesdays are a quasi-weekend with many people off and businesses closed. We eventually got to the restaurant, and my wife and I ate lunch (my cousin and her husband just got a coffee and a pastry).
TzfatLunch in Tzfat:
After lunch, we decided to walk around the old town which was thankfully covered. We walked around there, my wife bought a necklace, and we met a friend of my cousin in one of the (open) shops. From there we decided to walk back most of the way while my cousin’s husband went to get the car. We ended up at a nice park for 10 minutes before he showed up and we went back to their house.
Park we were atWe picked up our car here, said our goodbyes and drove back to Zichron. Because of our very late lunch we weren’t hungry for dinner so we just put DD to sleep and went to bed.
Wednesday started almost the same as Tuesday. We went to the breakfast buffet (for a charge), played at the pool for a bit, and left the hotel at around 11:30 am.
Pool in the ElmaAfter stopping for gas, we went straight to Caesarea, a 15-minute drive away. When we arrived, there were loads of spots in the parking lot and basically no line to get in. When we got to the front of the line to pay I told the woman we’d like a pass for everything. She printed our tickets and we were in.
I brought the baby carrier and was carrying our daughter around everywhere. We walked around the area when my wife saw a sign for a movie. We walked there only to find our tickets didn’t in fact cover everything and it would be an extra fee to see the 10-minute movie. Despite the fact that the room was air conditioned, we decided to skip the movie and head to the famous Amphitheater.
Some random picutes of Caesarea:
When we got to the ticket check spot we showed our tickets and were told we needed our receipt as well. After showing that we went in. We walked to the amphitheater and looked around a bit before heading back along the water. We didn’t mind one bit walking in the “splash zone” along the water, as it was quite hot out.
More Pictures…
By the time we got back to the walls heading out of that area, my wife wanted to go back to the movie since we had our receipt and apparently it was good (both the movie and the amphitheater section cost extra). We were told once again that our tickets didn’t include the movie and in the words on the person there, “I don’t know how you got in if you didn’t pay.”
We were enjoying sitting in front of the air conditioning, me taking a break from carrying DD and DW just cooling off, when a large group of Americans walked in and DD went straight for them. After entertaining the group for a bit, and us just sitting there pathetically not going in, the woman working there decided to let us just go in anyway.
It’s a good thing we didn’t end up paying. After about 2 minutes of sitting in the video, DD decided she didn’t like the dark and started whining. Out we went. I offered DW to sit in the rest of the movie about the area, but she didn’t want to, preferring to just go.
We walked out, ate lunch in the car, and were off to Yerushalayim by 1:45 pm. When we arrived in Yerushalayim around 3:00pm, after DW and DD had slept in the car, we first went to the street they named after my wife’s Yerushalmi great-great-grandfather. We filled up the car and drove to the hotel, the Waldorf Astoria.
After dropping DW and DD off at the hotel, I went around the block to return the car. While I first found the car rental office to return the vehicle, they told me that this was not the spot you return cars. I started following the guy’s directions, but after a short while of realizing they were leading nowhere, I went back to the office to ask where to return the car.
Turns out I was going to the wrong area. The correct area to return the car was in an underground parking lot a few blocks away. Once in there were loads of signs for the rental return, and I eventually found it and returned the car.
After a short walk back to the WA, we were off to our room.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
Once we were settled in we decided to go out for dinner at Luciana Restaurant in the Mamilla mall. We had a bit of trouble finding it exactly (you enter an indoor part of the mall right near Fox), but we eventually made it upstairs to Luciana. While the restaurant definitely wasn’t cheap (it was the most expensive meal we had in Israel!), the food was absolutely fantastic!! I was literally making sure every last piece of food we got was consumed it was that good.
Dinner at Luciana:
Inside of the restaurantAfter dinner, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed. DW took a nice, relaxing bath after DD was asleep while I was on my computer for a bit, and then we went to bed.
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