Another minor travel snafu–no trains to Beer Sheva!

As it turned out, there were buses to Beer Sheva right outside the train station, so we actually arrived in Arad on schedule.

There isn’t much to do here in the off season. Hard to find transportation or organized tours. The hotel seems nice enough, but the staff are pretty clueless as is our experience in the rest of the country.

Ephy tried to take us to the site of my Arad school (thirty five years ago), but he confused WUJS with the Jewish Agency, so it was a nice walk to nowhere.

There is a “Visitors Center.” When we got there we found it closed for the afternoon siesta. Eventually we got in and discovered that it was mostly a sales shop for Dead Sea products. Arad is now where many of these products are manufactured. Although the first person I encountered was of no assistance, we were eventually introduced to a woman who was knowledgeable and helpful! She even knew where the old WUJS Institute was located, so I still plan to see the site of my youthful wanderings.

Siesta sounded like a good idea, so I am writing this after a nice nap.

Tomorrow we hope to find our way to Masada.