Things we got up to on a weekend not so long ago.

I had the honour to ride my bicycle with Gila of "my Shrapnel" and try to help her prepare for the ALYN ride so that you can sponsor her

Anyway, I'm not going to burden this with a lot of hyper-links, so if something interests you you can (A) leave a comment, or (B) look it up for yourself, or (C) do B and then A if you know what I mean and save us all the trouble of looking it up.

We set it up for a Shabbat moning, and I reckoned with no small amount of hubris that if I left home 10 minutes after she let me know that she was leaving, that we'd meet up in the middle. When I was barely in sight of North-East Petach-Tikva (PT from now on), she called to say that she was at the arch in honour of Baron Rotschild, in other words in P.T. market! She asked what to do next so I replied "slow down!" (or if I didn't I should have...). I chalked it up to her being all excited about meeting me at last, and totally ignored the fact that I was excited (and far more justifiably) about meeting her.

Anyhow we met up pretty much by PT police station, which, like the station in Ramat Gan, was once a British constabulary base and is known as a Tegart fort and headed out of town. First kibbutz we passed on the way was Givaat HaShlosha which has neither a hill (Givaa) nor the Three (Shlosha). It is named in honour of three men from old P.T. who during the Ottoman period were accused of storing weapons for the British (like NILI) and were taken to Damascus never to return. In their honour, a part of PT was named Givaat HaShlosha (and is now a geriatric home), but the kibbutz founded later just outside PT which took the name has no hill. When the kibbutz movements split (Ichud and Meuhad) and people left GHS for Einat, a statue of the three was put up - in kibbutz Einat.

Next our route took us past the castle of Antipatris, guarding the springs of the Yarkon river, and an important place on the old via Maris. Most of whst we saw from the road is from crusader times, but the place dates all the way back to Joshua, when it was known (and still is today) as Afek.

Off-road now, and through the fields of Einat and Kfar Sirkin till we pulled in to home on Nachshonim, which as I explained is so-called because the first settlers here were in fact Jews from Egypt, from the Hashomer HaTzair movement, hope you all understand the symbolism.

After refreshments (and going ga-ga over the little one), we pulled out for the main off-road part. Took us into the mausoleum at Mazor.
" To the south-west of the moshav is an archaeological site, which includes a 3rd Century Roman mausoleum. The mausoleum is the only Roman-era building in Israel to still stand from its foundations to its roof. A Byzantine-era mozaic floor was found not far from the mausoleum."
(ripped off the last bit from Wilipedia)

Into the woods, past the remains of Qula and quite deep into the woods we went, but I was in good company. Showed Gila that if you have stirrups on your pedals, you can ride uphill one-legged, always useful to know.

Then back for more refreshments, by which time gorgeous-little-baby-boy and long-suffering-spouse were off in dreamland, and out again on the bikes to point Gila in the direction of home.

Verdict - we'll have to do it again, soon