A journey of love, literature & history
Good night, my love.
Tomorrow is no ordinary day. I've prepared something special —
a quest that will test your knowledge of literature and history,
woven from the pages of great love stories and the ancient stones of a legendary city.
From Remarque's Three Comrades to Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince,
and from the wisdom of the ancients to the shores of a sacred sea —
each answer will bring you one step closer to a surprise.
Are you ready to begin?
In Remarque's 1936 novel, three war veterans run a small auto repair shop
in a crumbling republic. One of them falls in love with a woman whose beauty
is matched only by her fragility.
Her full name was Patricia Hollmann — but the man who loved her
never once called her that.
What was her nickname — the name he whispered?
The very first time Robert went to visit Pat at her apartment,
he wanted to bring her flowers. But he didn't go to a florist.
Instead, on the way there, he stopped at a public park and
broke off branches of blossoms — a spontaneous, imperfect,
perfectly Robert gesture.
What flowers did he pick from that park?
The three comrades restored an old racing car — unremarkable on the outside,
but with the heart of a champion under the hood. They treated it as a brother
and gave it a man's name.
It was in this car, on a drive through the glittering city at night,
that Robert and Pat first sat side by side.
What was the car's name?
Robert. Otto. And a third.
The dreamer. The poet of the group. The one who told Robert to send
Pat roses after their disastrous first date. The one who believed in beauty
when the world offered none.
His death shattered what remained of their brotherhood
and left a silence that could never be filled.
What was his first name?
Their love was never easy. From the beginning, a shadow hung over Pat —
something she tried to hide, something Robert slowly came to understand.
It was the same illness that claimed Keats, Chekhov, and the Brontë sisters.
The same disease that haunted the sanatoriums of early 20th-century Europe,
where patients were sent to mountain air in the hope of a miracle.
Pat's battle with this illness is the heartbreaking core of the novel,
the ticking clock that made every moment with Robert precious beyond measure.
What illness did Pat suffer from?
On his journey through the stars, the Little Prince visited six planets,
each home to a single absurd adult. A king with no subjects.
A vain man with no admirers. A drunkard. A businessman counting stars.
But on the fifth planet, the Prince met the only grown-up he truly respected —
a man faithfully performing his duty, lighting and extinguishing a flame
every sixty seconds on a planet that spun ever faster.
What was this man's occupation?
Flowers are the thread that runs through every love story.
Robert picked lilacs for Pat. And on a tiny planet among the stars,
the Little Prince devoted himself to a single, vain, beautiful bloom
who claimed to be the only one of her kind in the universe.
On Earth, he discovered a garden full of thousands just like her —
and wept. But he learned that his was unique,
not because of what she was, but because of the time he had given her.
What kind of flower did the Little Prince love?
On the sixth planet, the Little Prince met a geographer —
a man who recorded mountains and oceans but refused
to write down flowers in his books.
When the Prince asked why, the geographer used a single word
that changed everything. It meant "threatened by imminent disappearance."
In that moment, the Prince understood for the first time
that his flower would not last forever — and he was filled with regret
for having left her alone.
Like Pat in Three Comrades, like all beautiful things —
love is precious because it does not last.
What was the word the geographer used?
Before the story begins, there is a dedication.
Saint-Exupéry dedicated The Little Prince to his closest friend —
a grown-up, yes, but one who could still understand things that matter.
This man was a French Jewish writer, living in hiding from the Nazi occupation
when the book was published in 1943.
The dedication ends with the words: "To [him] — when he was a little boy."
This same darkness that pursued Saint-Exupéry's friend
is what burned Remarque's books and scattered millions into exile —
some of whom found refuge in an ancient city by a sacred sea.
What was the full name of the friend to whom The Little Prince is dedicated?
Now our quest follows those exiles from Europe to the ancient land of Israel.
One of Judaism's four holy cities sits on the western shore of Israel's
largest freshwater lake. Founded around 20 CE, it was named after
the Roman emperor of its era.
For two thousand years, scholars, mystics, and wanderers
have come to this city seeking wisdom, healing, and home.
What is this city?
The emperor who gave this city its name carried a heartbreak
of his own — one worthy of Remarque.
Tiberius was deeply in love with his first wife.
But Emperor Augustus, for political reasons,
forced him to divorce her and marry another.
Years later, Tiberius caught sight of her in the streets of Rome.
He followed her through the crowd with tears streaming down his face,
unable to speak. After that, guards were posted to ensure
he would never see her again.
A man who ruled the known world, powerless before love.
What was the first name of the woman Tiberius loved and lost?
Just south of the city, seventeen underground springs
erupt from the earth at sixty degrees Celsius.
The Romans wrote of their miraculous healing powers.
Patients traveled from as far as Athens to bathe here.
The site sits atop a biblical city mentioned in the Book of Joshua —
a city whose very name is the Hebrew word for "hot spring."
Beneath the ruins, archaeologists uncovered a synagogue
with one of the most stunning ancient zodiac mosaic floors ever found.
What is this ancient place of healing called?
One of the greatest minds in Jewish history — philosopher, physician,
and codifier of law — was born in Córdoba, Spain,
served as court doctor to Saladin in Egypt,
and chose Tiberias as his eternal resting place.
His tomb on the hillside is a pilgrimage site to this day.
The saying goes: "From Moses to Moses, there arose none like Moses."
In Jewish tradition, he is known not by his full name
but by a Hebrew acronym of his title and name:
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon.
What is this acronym?
You've found the city, its springs, and its sage. Now find its sea.
This lake is the lowest freshwater body on Earth.
It has been called by many names — the Sea of Galilee,
Lake Tiberias, and an ancient Hebrew name derived from
the shape the ancients saw in its waters: a musical instrument.
Fishermen have cast nets here for millennia.
Its sunsets are legendary. Its water is sweet.
What is the Hebrew name of this sea?
My love,
Like the three comrades who knew that true wealth lies not in what we have, but in who we hold dear,
like the Little Prince who crossed the universe to return to his ephemeral, irreplaceable rose —
I want to take you on an adventure.
Where the ancient stones of Tiberias meet the gentle waves of the Kinneret,
where healing hot springs have soothed weary travelers for thousands of years,
there awaits a place of luxury and tranquility — just for you.
A stunning waterfront retreat on the shores of the Kinneret. Infinity pool overlooking the sea, world-class spa, gourmet dining, and the magic of Tiberias at your doorstep.
Pack your bags — you're heading to Tiberias!