The Best Aquarium in the World?

This is my last day in Eilat on the Red Sea, in fact my last couple of hours, and it was a real pleasure yesterday to take a plunge in the sea and also to visit a special place called the Coral World Undersea observatory, which lets you take a close look at a Red Sea coral reef in several ways. They have some large conventional tanks, artfully arranged, but you can also take a look at the actual reef by stepping down into a large glass-walled room, and/or by riding in a glass-bottomed boat. It's wonderful. I was startled first by how alive the coral looks - an incredible variety of shapes and colors, and while I didn't get to touch it, it looks to be as soft as a plant or the inside of a mollusk would be, nothing at all like the hard calcified pieces you sometimes see.

The other amazing sight was the different kinds of fish and the way they school (or don't school, depending on the species). There were some enormous schools of tiny little fish - thousands of them! - all moving together in a kind of dance. They are far more spectacular than any individual fish could be, no matter how large or colorful it might be. The shape of the school changes as the fish move around, yet it keeps its smooth and definite shape, like a piece of clay or a balloon being squeezed and stretched. Other fishes, bigger ones, make schools but keep a little more distance among each other. Others really seem to travel alone. (Fish hermits? bandits? social rejects? lost?)

We had our dinner at a nice place called the Spring Onion; the blintzes were almost as good as Marc Kagan's (I said almost!) and I tried a very nice glass of Israeli white wine. They were nice people, too. Anne got a plate of food that contained something she couldn't eat, and the waiter insisted on replacing it with something she liked - "We want to see a smile on your face!"

I'm looking forward to meeting Naomi's cousin, Moshe, and his family. Shabbat Shalom!