Israel - Pesach 2025. The Sixth Plague. Rhinovirus.
Tuesday morning, we got up and had to be ready by 9:30 to be picked up by our little minibus and tour guide, Shulie. The day’s destination: the Shomron.
By this point, my cold was in full swing. It was back. Achy, congested, exhausted. But do I complain? Am I a drain on anyone else? I’ll let you answer that.
Madeleine, who’s currently obsessed with turkey for breakfast (don’t ask) fueled up, and we somehow managed to leave only a half hour late. Before taking off Hadar and Hallie ran over to Roladin to get coffees and borekas. Even though she’d finished a good amount of turkey, Madeleine also polished off one and a half potato borekas. She loves them now.
The ride was about an hour to our first stop. We drove through a checkpoint into Yehuda and Shomron, or the West Bank as some like to call it. We passed some beautiful Arab villages with streets lined with palm trees, where the poor occupied Palestinians live. Looked pretty nice to me, reminiscent of Beverly Hills.
First stop: a small village called Kida, where we visited a woman with a glass art workshop. Not to be confused with glassblowing—this was more like layering glass for decorative plates and bowls. You design something, layer on the little glass shards, and then she puts it in an oven and it all melts together. We’ll see how that comes out when we get them in six weeks. I made a plate, Madeleine made a bowl. It’s crazy because we were literally working with little glass shards (I think there were a couple of cuts) and you never would’ve been able to do an activity like this in America, at least not with little kids. Also, Hallie was working with a diamond knife, which is literally a tool for breaking up pieces of glass. The kids jumped on a trampoline outside while the adults finished up. Tzvi also bought a bottle of wine because of course the woman’s husband helps run a winery in Kida, because I think everyone in Yehuda and Shomron makes wine. It was a very nice morning activity in a very serene setting.
From there, we went to the Shiloh Winery. A few weeks back, we’d actually met the winemaker at a One Israel Fund dinner. He wasn’t there that day, but he connected us with Matanya, who gave us a great tasting and tour. We toured the facilities and then sat for our tasting. We tried a bunch of different wines and also had lunch, a spread of dips, turkey, crackers—it was lovely. When we registered, we had ordered four food platters, but when we got there they told us that was too much, and we really only needed two. Well, after consuming the two I. think we are all in agreement that we could have used at least another platter. It was weird that they kept trying to convince us otherwise when we were more than happy to pay for more food.
The highlight was at the end when he took me, Tzvi and my mom into the basement barrel room (not even the one that’s part of the tour, just special hidden room). It was rows and rows of barrels. He opened some at random and used a wine thief to give us straight-from-the-barrel tastes. He said some of them may never end up being sold, or may end up being added into some new wine blend. The barrels are stacked five high and he was just climbing up the sides of them. We were worried they’d topple but he said he’d done it many times. It felt like a behind-the-scenes peek into something really special. He kept giving us big tastes that were too much for my mother, and when she couldn’t finish them he just spilled them on the floor. We stayed way too long at the winery and then bought two more bottles of wine (that brings Tzvi’s trip total to three). I think our tour guide Shulie was getting antsy, even more so than our kids.
Next stop: Ancient Shiloh, where we learned about the historical site of the Mishkan (the tabernacle) and got a surprising introduction to the Parah Adumah (Red Heifer) program. We saw a short film about it, and they even had real red heifers on-site. Apparently, there are so many rules like if one hair isn’t red or the cow is used for labor—even if someone leans on the cow—it’s disqualified. Wild.
There were also a bunch of activities for the kids that they really enjoyed: making a hoshen (the kohen gadol’s breastplate) with stones, clay medallions, fabric dyeing. It was cold, but the kids had fun. After that we trekked up to where the ruins are where they believe the mishkan once stood. It was cool, but we were exhausted. Also doing all of this while feeling half dead was super fun.
The drive back to Jerusalem wasn’t too bad and the driver dropped us at the First Station where we had dinner at Lechem Basar, a meat place. We ordered a platter to share that had different kinds of steak (most of which was too rare and needed to be sent back), schnitzel, chicken, and fries. We asked the server if one platter and then one additional entrée was enough for us, and he said yes. Well, it wasn’t. Don’t these people know Americans need more food? The bathroom had no toilet paper—always a bonus. By this point Tzvi was complaining that I wasn’t being aggressive enough about my cold. [Tzvi: I know how this goes. Every time. She gets a cold, it turns into a sinus infection, a week later she’s dying and finally calls a doctor and gets a z-pack. We’re supposed to go to Tel Aviv tomorrow, I don’t have that kind of time to waste.] So I called my doctor, who was out of office, but with some back and forth with the secretary she told me I also had this last April and I should start a Z Pack.
Back at the apartment, we got ready for the next day. Tzvi had some work to do, and at some point—despite feeling like death—I got it into my head that I had to make matzah crack. So my mom and I did. Then we tried the Ben and Jerry’s charoset flavored ice cream. It was mediocre. Tzvi had calls scheduled basically between 11pm and 2am, so he worked in my mother’s apartment. Of course she was awake and also working. And then at around 2:20 AM, I heard a loud crash from the kitchen—Tzvi had come into the apartment and it was pitch black, and in trying to feel around in the darkness for the light switch he knocked a glass bottle off the counter. Of course. [Tzvi: yeah, that was fun to clean up at 2 in the morning.]. Can’t I just have one uninterrupted night of sleep? I did manage to get a few hours of sleep after that, from about 2:40 to 6:30 but not great. At least tomorrow we’re going to Tel Aviv, so I’ll be in a hotel with no kids and no noise to bother me.
Right?
Wednesday morning started bright and early. The girls were excited—today we were seeing Inbar and Robyn (former au pairs) again! We all got up and met Shulie at the entrance to the Old City at 10, of course after Madeleine had her morning turkey sandwich.
First stop: Tower of David Museum, which was recently renovated. I’m not sure if I’d ever been there before. It gives a good overview of Jerusalem's history and the interplay of the three major religions. Tzvi and my dad both fell asleep in the Muslim room. From the top of the tower, we saw Inbar and Robyn arriving—it was cute. The girls were thrilled.
Then we all walked to the Kotel, which was packed. I hadn’t seen it that full in years. Still, we made sure the girls got to touch the wall and put in their notes. Afterward, we wandered up into the Jewish Quarter for lunch—which was, predictably, chaos. The girls and Tzvi got burgers, I found a random salad, my parents went for Pesach pizza. It was every-person-for-themselves. [Tzvi: they just couldn’t figure it out at Burgers Bar. I had to go back to the counter three different times. I ordered the lamb burger, but they gave me a regular burger, so they ended up just throwing a lamb patty on top of what they’d already gave me, so I had something like 600 grams of burger for lunch. It was actually pretty good.]
We made a stop in the Cardo to visit Udi, our favorite artist who I’m sure we’ve written about many times in the past. Naturally Tzvi spotted a new painting he wanted, so now we have a new painting and don’t know where to put it. I should also mention that Udi is working on a piece for our dining room, that we’ve been discussing for years. But he said now that he spoke to Tzvi he has a better idea of what he wants. By the time this painting is finished we will probably be hanging it up in our Jerusalem apartment. We then made our way through the Arab shuk. Shulie gave the kids a scavenger hunt with stickers to fill out a paper. They really enjoyed it. I should say that she was great with the kids.
Eventually, we hopped on the light rail to Machane Yehuda. It was so crowded there was actually a woman standing there pushing people in to get the doors closed, like they do in Japan. Then we got to the shuk where we said goodbye to Shulie. The shuk was beyond crowded and a little overwhelming. We bought some dried fruit and candy. Then a little dance party broke out, so that was fun to watch.
We made a quick stop for coffee at English Cake, said goodbye to Robyn, and then headed back to the apartment to regroup. Inbar came back to the apartment and hung out for bit.
At 6 we were picked up by Yoram who drove us to Tel Aviv. This was the same driver who picked up Tzvi at the airport. Tzvi didn’t mention that Yoram drove like he was in a video game—so much gas/brake/gas/brake. It was nauseating. Inbar tagged along for the ride as she was going to Tel Aviv for her own plans. I had to pee so badly the last 30 minutes. Also, I couldn’t stop coughing and felt like I couldn’t breathe.
So yeah, our little two nights away from the kids was off to a great start.
