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We spent the Tuesday relaxing in Netanya, which isn’t such a bad thing since they have a really nice beach:

The day after we got ourselves a rental car. Rental cars are quite nifty because normal cars rarely fit in the overhead compartment on the plane, and the airport security people normally don’t let you bring them onboard because they are too large for the x-ray and contain a lot of dangerous liquids. But the main reason is that I don’t have a normal car, so a rental car was the only option.

First up was a town called Sderot. Even though Sderot feels like any sleepy small town it is very close to Gaza and they get an awful lot of rockets from there. And being so close they only have 15 seconds to get into a shelter. Thankfully there weren’t any rockets while we were there:

After a short stop for coffee in Ber-Sheba we continued out in the desert towards the Dead Sea. Last time I fell in love with the desert, and it still continued to amaze me.

The plan was to go up to Masada. And when I say “the plan was” you know that it didn’t happen. Given that is was Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) they decided to close an hour earlier than what they said in the phone the day before. Oh well, we looked at it from the ground a bit before we headed towards the Dead Sea:

Floating in the Dead Sea is quite nice and surreal. And the water is saltier than salt liquorice, which makes it hurt more when you get it in you eye (not that I have ever gotten salt liquorice in my eye, but I have pretty good imagination if I may say so myself):

We then headed off back to Ber-Sheba, but had to stop on the way back to admire the view:

In Ber-Sheba we celebrated Rosh Hashanah with honey and apples as you are supposed to, which was very nice.