The bus driver said, "no"!

We have been to Tel Dan and Banias on 2 of our past trips to Israel.  But the bus driver would drive by something, point to it, tell us about it and then say, "we don't have time to go there!"  So today, we filled in those gaps.  And it was extra nice because we didn't have a guide telling us to get back on the bus in 20 minutes!  LOL!!!

We hiked down to the Banias Falls.  Breathtaking!  

 

The falls....

 

A Syrian rock hyrax.  Very fast moving little critter.

 

A sister-selfie at the falls.  I am so glad we made this hike.  But I can certainly understand why a tour bus couldn't risk the liability that such a hike might entail.

 

I counted 110 steps from the bottom to the top.  Not your standard steps either....these were made of limestone.  Uneven, rugged, about 1' tall.  My knees are telling me about it tonight!

Then over to the Banias Springs.

 

The springs literally come out from under the rocks:

 

From here, we drove to Nimods Fortress.  We could have done a 2 hour hike....sort of glad we drove!

 

This was built by the Muslims.  Was a castle.  Pretty impressive to say the least!

 

This was inside of just one of the many rooms at this palace.

 

After that, we drove to Rush Pinna - an artists colony.  Again, everything was closed.  We did manage to get to a soap shop that we visited 2 years ago and stocked up on some of her wonderful soaps.  Nila Soap.  Smells wonderful!

 

Returned to our B&B to this relaxing view

 

I took well over 100 photos today and simply can't take the time to share all of them.  Just enough to give the highlights of our day.  We had an amazing breakfast here:

 

Figured out how to put gas in the car.  Visited a grocery store where no one spoke English and none of the products had English words on them. We sort of guessed at what we were buying!  Laughed tons as our talking GPS system temporarily shut down and we had to use directions that I printed before we left home.  

Our saying for today....I'm the driver, and I can't drive. April's the navigator and she left the map in the room!!!

Blessed to be here.  No one told us "no".  No one told us to get back on the bus!!!