Finding the right spirit in the Golan; a family reunion

Family reunions are not generally the reason d'etre for spiritual inspiration but hence, when selecting the Golan Heights as the venue for a celebration, it is so easy to transform the party into a biblical exploration of local produce as well as a culinary experience. The selected venue for our three night stay for 14 people was bikta belavan (http://www.biktabelavan.com/) , an Israeli guesthouse situated in Moshav Ramot overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

The guesthouse facilities included four large cottages, each offering a private master bedroom with a king size bed, flat screen television and oversized Jacuzzi, a large living room with a pull out double sofa bed, room for a third cot if needed, a television a fully equipped kitchen complete with an espresso machine as well as a large bathroom with a stall shower. The oversized porch overlook expansive grounds complete with large hammocks, a pool, chaise lounges, barbeque, all with the most tremendous view overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Our accommodations came complete with a homemade breakfast, served to us outside on fine Victorian-inspired china and linens. The tasty breakfast included a selection of fresh local cheeses, finely cut Israel salads, shakshuka (an Israeli morning specialty of eggs cooked inside a deep heavy skillet of sauteed onions and tomatoes), cheese borekas, danish, chocolate milk, lemonade and pancakes as well as the necessary local accompaniments of olives, jams and fresh butter. In addition to amenitizing our units with bottles of wine, Victorian-inspired appointments, milk, water and espresso, Michal, the owner, would keep a jar of freshly baked homemade rugelach (sweet pastry cookies filled with nuts and cinnamin) filled daily in each of our units. It would have been quite easy to just stay at the bikta all day long ounging by the pool and taking in the view, but our location put us so close to many interesting sites that we couldn't help exploring our surroundings just a little.

We made a number of local stops learning about wine production, olive oil production, shofar production, meats as well as biblical archaeology, all within a twenty minute drive of our base at Ramot. Please note that because of the high interest level in each stop, I profiled every visit in a separate entry on this site.

Having enjoyed so many unique experiences together brought us all closer together. Family reunions should be an opportunity to bond and find pleasure in each other and, amongst the olive trees, vineyards, antquities and seaviews found in the Golan, it was a simple, yet memorable experience.