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Eilat, Israel

Posted: February 1, 2010 at 9:58 pm | Tags: Coral Beach Eilat, dolphin reef eilat, Eilat, Mezuzah, Mezuzot, Royal Beach, Royal Beach Eilat, מְזוּזָה‎

Last June, Mum won complimentary flights to Tel Aviv with BMI through a Jewish Woman’s Week Lunch. Daddy K wasn’t interested in a visit to the Holy Land so never one to turn down a free holiday, I jumped on the bandwagon! We decided a week of sunshine in January in Eilat couldn’t hurt.

Mum booked the hotel and internal flight however it wasn’t all plain sailing. BMI were recently bought out by Lufthansa and proceeded to cancel the London Heathrow - Tel Aviv route. Right up to Christmas we had no idea if we would actually be going on the trip, we thought we might be sent through Frankfurt instead of London but just before New Year we got confirmation we were being transferred to an El Al flight.

I would guess El Al are the safest airline to fly, you may laugh but after 20 questions by security, practically, what did you have for breakfast Monday 3 weeks ago? It’s funny, El Al don’t bother with the liquid checks like other airlines however there’s not a hope of any B words getting onboard!

After 3 flights, and 4 airports we made it to the lovely Royal Beach, Eilat. We were upgraded to a Royal Room with jacuzzi bath, funky, if I wasn’t there with my Mum!

The hotel was lovely, the breakfasts filled with fresh fruit, omelettes, eggs etc cooked how you like them, pastries, donuts, pancakes, and anything you can imagine. It was also situated right on the beach and within walking distance of the Mall and market stalls.

Eilat itself is more like a resort which could be in any country as opposed to Israel, the Holy Land however while in the country I wanted to get some Jewish supplies for our house As agreed with Mr Bkenny I was allowed get a Chanukiah (please see my previous post)  & a Mezuzah.

A Mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with the prayer The Shema. The Mezuzah is fixed to the front door post of Jewish houses to fulfil the Mitzvah (good deed). Mezuzot are meant to be on each door way of the home except bathrooms and really small rooms however most people just have the one outside the front door. The parchment is rolled up and placed inside the Mezuzah.

Although the weather on our trip wasn’t great, we did manage to fit in swimming with dolphins at Dolphin Reef and snorkeling off Coral Beach.

Can’t believe  I’m posting these but here goes! I actually made it into a wet suit! Please excuse quality, I had to scan the originals.

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So after a week of relaxation and a lot of travelling I’m back to reality & back to work.

I am going to do a separate post with my other Israeli purchases so stay tuned

Lilah Tov (goodnight)  -לילה טוב

Mwah