HillgirtHeightsAdventures: Scenes from Inbar, Israel's smallest kibbutz (here until July 7)

Set in the heart of the green mountains of the Galilee is Inbar, (the smallest Kibbutz in Israel!). The setting boasts multiple rooms for guests, a large group room, dining and TV areas with play areas for children. It's located about a mile down a dirt road with cattle on one side and desert grazing fields on the other where the cattle are rotated for grazing. Meals were delicious and completely vegetarian. While there we visited several locations on day trips like Safed (multiple spellings on road signs for this place) an ancient hillside place on top of a mountain (Israel's tallest town, known for art, spiritualism and a mostly religious populace), bathed at a public beach in the fresh waters of the Sea of Galilee surrounded by banana groves, and hiked a bit around Mt. Arbel - too windy that day for the whole climb. There were other famous Christian pilgrimage sites.

When off site for dinner, we ate twice at an amazing Druze felafel place - unlimited salad to eat on small plates and stuff into pita bread! Very friendly staff and patrons. Also dined our last night at a gorgeous restaurant on top of yet another hillside town, Rosh Pinna, near Inbar. We stayed at Inbar for 3 nights and were reluctant to leave - especially when we got to Haifa which was way too large, busy, not very pretty and had almost no street signs indicating names of the streets.

Stone house built into the side of the mountain in Maghar a Druze village
adjacent to Inbar - the artist who lived here built the house and when we paused at
sunset being attracted by his sculptures in the driveway, he invited us into his studio
to see other sculptures and his paintings. He also did amazing mosaic insets into
statues and permanent sculpted seating around his home. Photo credit DW.

Unusual setting for this larger than life Liberty statue done by the sculptor we met.
She was perched on the precipice at the end of his driveway next to the home
above. He research the dimensions of the NYC statue and quoted them to us
as we stood agape overlooking this lovely view. Photo credit DW

Most restaurants even the small ones with
no indoor seating offered hand washing stations for
patrons - this one was particularly dramatic with
beautiful tile work. Let's promote this at eateries
in the USA!

New friends we met who were guests here - they reside in Ashkalon
close to the West Bank - it's being lobbed by enemy rockets several times
a day. Husband wanted some peace and quiet for a weekend -
wife couldn't wait to leave - too quiet!