(DAY 10) The Golan, Chocalate, Wine, and Olive Oil

We begin our day heading out for the Golan Heights - Mt. Hebron (snow-capped) in the Distance from the Bus.

Today is such a beautiful day, and due to the warmer weather, we stop off to see a waterfall bringing water from the Golan mountains down into the Sea of Galilee.  This is one reason the Golan Heights is such an important territory for Israel.  The Water from the Golan feeds the Sea of Galilee, and this is the main source of fresh water for all of Israel.

This is such a great phot spot - everyone wants a picture in front of the falls --

Sivan and Anita

Sivan, Anita, and Hal at the falls

Leon and Judy

Some of the goilz!

The Rabbi - by himself ...Goilz - help him out...

The Rabbi with the goilz...

Next we went to El Rom Kibbutz for a visit.  This kibbutz is very northern and near the Vallay of Tears.  This is a valley in which many Israelis died during battles in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.  They were outnumbered like 10 to 1...

The heroic story of the Valley of Tears in the Golan Heights
The future of the Golan Heights and the outcome of the entire Yom Kippur War (1973) was determined by one of the most famous artillery battles in the world, which took place in “The Vale of Tears”. Despite the fact that Israeli tanks were vastly outnumbered, they succeeded in defeating the Syrian forces. The impressive Valor 77 ("Oz 77") movie depicts the story of this heroic battle.

At El-Rom - we watch a movie about the Valley of Tears

We arrive at the Golan Volcanic Park.  This mountain was a volcano at one time, that exploded creating a caldera larger than Mt. St. Helenes.  The mountain is a strategic point for its height overlooking the valley, and because it is the entrance point to the area between Syria and Israel.

Terri overlooking the Valley of Tears

Trenches and armaments at the top of the mountain overlooking the Valley of Tears

The top of this strategic mountaintop --  this is now a tourist spot !

Which way was I going??

At the top of the mountain we joined a group from the Emunah center - a group from our sister city in Afula, where we will be visiting with tomorrow.  They planned a field trip for the kids today to meet with us and to visit the Chocalate factory next on our agenda.

First Yosi and the children serendade us with a song, then Beverly leads us with Yosi on our own song.

A few words from the director, Shlomo Kessel and then its off to the Chocalate factory.

De Karina chocalate is made here -- Its founding "chocalatier" comes from a long time family of chocalatiers who owned the De Karina chocalate company in Spain.  She made Aliyah (moved to Israel) when she was younger and opened the chocalate factory in Israel.   We toured the factory (no pictures allowed inside) where they demonstrated how the chocalate is made from Cocao fruit seeds (Cocao beans), all the way up to spreading it out for final product.

This reminds of Hershey PA.

Then we all made our own chocalate 'pictures' and candies ! 

I'm not sure who enjoyed this more, the kids or the adults!!!!

One thing about this place -- from the momemnt you walk through the door, until you leave, there is a rich smell of chocalate in the air.  MMMMmmm.

We adults started getting to know many of the children here.  Some kids speak fluent English, others only Hebrew.  But smiles work in any language :)

Nancy wants to take these kids home with her

Near the Winery and the Olive Oil factories we stopped for lunch with the kids at a food-stop where there was Shawarma, Pizza, Burgers, Salads, and ... Falafel -

Hey -- it says "Best Falafel in the World"!
...and Yosi told us the best was at the Druze village!

Our guide at the winery was very knowledgeable about Wine and Winemaking, and told us what makes a wine Kosher.

Getting information about the Winery before the taste tests...

We tasted a white Savingnon Blanc, followed by a Merlot, followed by a Moscato.  We got to keep our wine goblets too.  How will we get those home??

We met back up with the kids to tour the Olive Oil factory (yes, they skipped the winery!!)

Our tour guide talked to us about the different types of Olive Oil - and how it is made - from Black or Green olives, and from pitted or non-pitted olives. 

Getting information about how Olive oil is made.  Cloudy oil is better!!

Our group shots keep getting bigger and bigger ...