New Years at the Beach

Jaffa Fort

New year's eve was a day of relaxation after several busy days touring. We went to bed early the night before and took our time waking up before heading out. We walked along the beach to the small town of Jaffa.  After exploring the old city we popped in to a cafe for lunch and to escape the rain and then slowly meandered our way back to the hotel. A glass of wine, a book and a nap felt like the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

After a short nap, we headed out to dinner to celebrate new year's. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we didn't make it to midnight but we managed to come really close. We were both tired and had to wake up early for our flight to Eilat.

View of Tel Aviv from our hotel

I'm not sure, but I suspect that Colleen and I were subjected to extra screening due to her trip to Morocco a few years ago. We presented out passports to an attendant at the airport and after she looked at every page of each she started questioning Colleen about her trip to Morocco. She then, still holding both passports went to spell with someone who again flipped through each page of both passports. Next thing we knew, we were removing all electronics from it carry on luggage and watched as the swiped every item inside and out of the bags, put them through a scanner and proceed to remove and look at every credit card in my wallet before informing us that it was to early to check in. At this point we were given the option of leaving out bags with them for an hour or conducting the entire screening again. We chose the first option. Everything we kept with us (coats, wallets, kindle) had to be scanned again, but afterwards we were escorted past the regular screening, directly to the gate.

Eilat is a lot like what I imagine Atlantic City to be like but without the casinos. We walked along the boardwalk on the coast of the Red Sea and it was filled from end to end with shops, restaurants.  and various rides and amusements. Just off the boardwalk is King City, an amusement park with a biblical theme. Since we were not in the mood to check it out we just relaxed and prepared for our trip to Jordan.