19 June, Into the Valleys

 We had decided to hire a car today, but 7 hire places later we gave up and hired a taxi and driver for the day. This cost $NZ600. 

It was a lot more relaxing, we didn't need to worry about parking, or returning it later. 

We headed down to The Valley of Elah where David faced Goliath. We wandered around the hill top and worked out where the two armies may have been, and chatted about the history. Then we went to where the story of Samson unfolded amongst a vineyard, and bought ourselves a bottle of wine, some good cheeses and olives and had a great lunch looking over this valley.

We headed into Rishon le Zion to pick up some items for a friend of mine, from his parents and then into Jaffa to have a tour of the old city. 

We said good-bye to our wonderful guide, and our Arab driver for the day and headed inside to eat some of the pastries that the parents had given us. 

After dinner, I felt it would be a great final evening to go to the Tel Aviv beach. We headed down there as the sun was setting and had a great swim in the beautiful warm water. 

Tomorrow we are going back to Jerusalem to visit some museums, and then it time to head for the airport. 


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