12:55pm - Having been up till past 5am the prior night I woke up late 12:58pm - Sms to Kobi saying I am jealous of him going cycling 12:59pm - Ruthi calls to say that if I leave the house NOW, they'll wait for me 1:05pm - Washed up, loaded the bike on the car, and left the house 1:30pm - Joined Kobi, Merav, Racheli, and Ruthi at Tel Hadid and went for a short but pleasant tour of the surrounding hilly area. We covered very little ground (around 10km) but the scenery was nice, the company was pleasant, and we got to play amongs the dirt and the rocks of the hills of Yehuda. We were done sometime around 5pm.

Ruthi was curious about Tel Hadid, so let me add some historical details. Tel Hadid sits on a strategic hill controlling the surrounding area. And the surrounding area is the road to Jerusalem. This strategic significant led to Tel Hadid being settled at least as far back as 3500BC. Here Simon Maccabaeus faught Greek king Diodotus Tryphon (the very king his father Jonathan Maccabaeus helped put on the thrown, and which later repayed the favour by assasinating him) around 142BC. The Roman general (and later emperor) Titus Flavius Vespasianus camped here while preparing to attack Jerusalem during the great Jewish rebellion of 66AD. The last time this hill shed blood is during the Independence war of 1948.