Grand Bus Tour of Efrat

As I blogged yesterday, my husband and I spent Shabbat in Efrat at a family simcha, joyous occasion. One thing that bus travelers learn pretty quickly is that you should take the first bus that comes, even if the route is a bit indirect, because, especially on a Friday, you don't know what and when will follow. And considering that we did have the time and hadn't been in and around Efrat for quite a long time, it seemed like a very good opportunity to see how much the city has grown.

Just in case you're interested, we had looked into joining the very first families for Efrat and had signed up, but for various reasons we decided against it and moved to Shiloh. No doubt that our lives and our children's lives would have had been very different if we had moved to Efrat. Besides having some relatives there, we have many friends who live in Efrat. It is a place I'm fond of, but for many reasons I'm glad that we decided on Shiloh.

So here are the photos of the ride to Efrat from Jerusalem and the grand tour until we got off at the "Te'ena Commercial Center."

We also took the bus back to Jerusalem, and ironically had the very same busdriver both ways. To make it more interesting he had once been a driver on the Shiloh-Jerusalem route. And to make the trip back even easier, the second to last stop on the Efrat bus is the second stop on the buses to our area which leave from the area of Binyanei Ha'uma. We got off the second bus at the "northern city line" and traveled the rest of the way by tremp to Shiloh. We certainly would have taken a bus, but none came.

Shabbat in Efrat

For us to be away for a Shabbat or Chag, Holiday twice in a month is unheard of. We rarely go away that much in a year. But maybe this is the beginning of a trend...

We spent the Passover Seder in Jerusalem, and less than two weeks later we were in Efrat for Shabbat. We have relatives there who were disappointed that they hadn't been informed that we had needed a place for the Seder. Also I had almost gone there for the Shabbat when my husband was in England for Limmud at the tail end of the blizzard. And since they were making a siyyum (festive end of learning a specific book/topic,) in memory, l'ilu'i nishmato,  "elevating the soul" of my late mother-in-law's cousin, father of the hostess, it was a fitting occasion for us to share with them.

Efrat is south of Jerusalem, and Shiloh is north of Jerusalem, so we had to travel quite a bit to get there. First stage of the trip was a bus from Shiloh. Our local regional council provides a free bus on Fridays to Jerusalem, which we took. We had been offered a ride to Efrat from Jerusalem by a friend who wanted us to meet her near Binyanei Ha'uma, which is near the central bus station.  Our free bus took us to Ramat Eshkol, and since the Jerusalem buses have drastically changed (there's no longer the #8 at that stop) we and another couple found it easiest to share a cab the the "cbs" especially since they were in a rush to catch a different bus.

There wasn't any traffic, and we got to Efrat quickly, so our friend took us on a quick tour of Efrat entering from the northern end.  Here are some photos I took.

security wall blocks gorgeous view

My return home was a bit more complicated, though quick enough. We took a ride to Jerusalem with our friend. Then we took a bus on which my husband continued to the bus station, but since I hate waiting and there was over an hour until our bus I went home differently. To sum it up, I took 1 ride, 4 buses, 3 tremps and then I walked at least a half a kilometer up the hill to our home.