Life in a Letter: Elijah's Cave, Mt Carmel, Haifa

So this morning I woke and took breakfast in the business lounge as I was blogging, I decided today I was going to visit the beach, half way down the mountain I received a phone call from My Beloved to say contracts were getting signed and it looks like the house will be ours on Wednesday, shopping time me thinks, our belongings don't arrive for another two weeks, not that we have much in the way of furniture, but it will be great to use all our wedding gifts in our new home.

After the phone call I decided that Elijah's cave must be close to where I wanted to be, so I googled and got the GPS working, eventually after a very long walk I came across a sign which said Elijah's cave, but could I find the cave, turns our the second sign I had seen which said Tourist Information was actually the directional arrow for the cave. I had walked passed all the other signs as they were in Hebrew, so I ignored them. I walked the path to the cave which has a Church over the top of it, and entered, it was really quite bizarre to be in the cave where reportedly Elijah hid from King Ahab and where he set up school when returning from exile, also reportedly Mary, Joseph and Jesus had sought shelter here on their way back from Egypt.

From the cave I walked down to the cable car and decided to take the short hop up the mountain, what a brilliant view over the downtown and port areas of Haifa, and out to sea and across to the Lebanon mountains, at the top after taking lots of pics I found a lovely restaurant which was glass fronted and decided on a spot of lunch, I only ordered a salad and what started as two dishes, turned to four, then five, then six, I had to say stop in the end, but each bowl was filled with different salads from the Lebanon, the waiter explained everything as it arrived, I had tomato salads, avocado salad, pomegranate salad, mushroom salad, leaves and pittas and garlic coated things, what they reminded me of was toast but when you thinly slice the crust off and throw away the bread, they were delicious, tabouleh arrived and I had to say STOP I was gonna need a kick start after all this food, I took an Americano, but an espresso arrived and along with it was another gift a Lebanese Kanafeh, a small slice of dessert to take with my coffee and it was lush.

I left the restaurant and set the GPS because having come halfway up the mountain in cable car it appears I had a short walk home, but GPS is wrong, wrong, wrong, my short walk home, turned into a trek up the mountain mainly via the steps again, how is it I find the paths on the way down and the bloody steps on the way up. By the time I got back to the hotel I was like a wrung out dishcloth, a little damp, and very unattractive, so shower time again.

My Beloved finished early and we walked up the road to find a barbers as he was starting to resemble a Yeti, I sat and watched as he had his hair cut, shaved, manipulated and oiled, I have never seen so much care and attention taken to a mans haircut, this guy was amazing and will be getting regular custom from My Beloved. Never he said has he had so many implements used on his hair in one haircut.

We decided on a light supper which turned out to be Japanika, the Tuna was to die for and the Japanika Special was huge, once again you just can't eat small when it comes to Sushi. When we arrived back to the lounge Natalie was asking what we have been up too, and once again called me crazy, especially when we worked out how far my walking trip was today, in total I walked 13.5km, 8.5 down and 4.5 up the mountain, its no wonder I'm feeling weary tonight.

We chatted with the Buba Mumma and Dadda tonight, it was great speaking to them and getting all the news from Turriff, and telling them our news about the house, then it was onto Lou Lou for a little Facetime with her and Lydia.

Time for bed..................