Hidden Gems in the Golan
Recently a kindly aunt of Husbands offered us a free overnight stay in a zimmer up in the Golan. Since a holiday is totally out of our budget range right now, we jumped at the chance. On the way up we decided to go to the de Karina chocolate factory (been dying to go there for ages) so off we drove past the beautiful kinneret as the car thermometer climbed up to – I kid you not – 38 degrees centigrade. In November. In the North. Presumably we are in the midst of some desert wind right now, as this can’t be normal. Exactly 1 week before this I made hot chocs and cake for my family and went off to shul in tights.
The views are magnificent round there, and the hazy weather cast a silvery glow over the kinneret, aka Sea of Galilee. The most bizarre thing to my mind about the Golan, is this fairly desolate landscape which is speckled with random little bits of culture that other olim have imported with them. The chocolate factory, started by a European immigrant (daughter of an Argentinian family that started a chocolate empire around a 100 years ago) is one of these gems. We had a “tour” of the tiny factory – tiny because its all handmade, no machines (and believe me it makes a difference to the quality) and then Jojo and Husband got to partake in the workshop and make their own choccies. Great fun and highly recommended for all chocoholics or people with kids. There is a little cafe where you can order nice chocolaty things, and there was a very exciting moment when little Roni discovered that the spoon in his hot choc drink was also, in fact, made of chocolate. Smiles all round.
After buying some little treats (I recommend the block of milk choc with fruit and nuts – dare I say better than cadburys? or have I just been here to long???), Husband was in heavan over the white choc irish cream and we saw a cappucino one in the factory that looked like Heavan…. We then headed up to our zimmer, a beautifully tranquil haven in Ramot (a resort moshav), known as HaBayit Shel Naomi. Our plans to barbq didn’t go as planned so we headed to the only kosher meat restaurant in the place. I didn’t have high expectations, I thought maybe some chicken and steak and simple salads. Boy was I wrong. Habakata turned out to be another well kept secret. Beautiful and nutritious salads which kept the kids busy whilst we ordered MEAT. mmmm. In fact we ordered every animal that we hadn’t seen much of since we moved here. In case you are a foodie, I recommend the smoked duck breast salad started (oooh aaah), Husband had a large 350g slab of smoked cow (good if you are the carnivorous type) and I had the lamb spare ribs in some american-tasting sauce (rather fatty but absolutely fine if one if pregnant and breastfeeding if you ask me). We were so busy enjoying our meat fest we let the kids eat most of our chips. Lets just say my unborn foetus very much appreciated the sudden iron-intake and danced with delight for an hour afterwards.
The “resort moshav” has this funny arrangement where you can order breakfast to your balcony, which we did. Was pretty good. Husband thrilled with the chocolate yoghurt (which I presume was part of the kids meal, do parents really give their kids pots of sugar to start their day here???) and we went swimming in the little pool. Completely freezing but we are British and therefore Well Hard so we don’t mind this sort of thing. Coming from a country that sells windbreakers and thermos flasks for people to take on beach outings, a bit of cold water on a hot day is no big deal. Not something most Israelis would consider mind you.
All in all very relaxing and especially so for small children, who are much happier foraging out in the nature than being cooped up in a hotel. One word of advice. Don’t forget your mosquito bat.