Arrival in Tel Aviv - Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Delta 747 departed about an hour late from JFK. There was a mechanical issue that needed fixing before departure.  It took about 15 minutes to repair and then about 45 minutes to complete the necessary paperwork showing that it had been fixed.
There were 303 people on board the 747 and it was the busiest flight I have ever been on. I think it is part of the middle-eastern culture but people were up and down the aisle all night.  It made for some fitful sleep but I think I still knocked down a couple of hours of sleep in a couple of different stretches.

The flight was 10 hours long but for me it seemed to go fast.  There were 4 movies shown but I spent most of the time reading a new book. Our route took us across the north Atlantic, then across Northern Spain, Sardinia and Italy and then the Greek Islands.  It was daylight as we approached Spain so it was interesting to try and guage our route the rest of the trip.

Skies were clear as we arrived in Tel Aviv and it was 97 degrees.  We had made up some of the time from our late departure and arrived right on schedule.  Arriving in the middle of the day the airport is relatively quiet but the line going through immigration did take about an hour.  As we left the immigration hall we claimed our luggage and met our tour guide for the Israel portion of the trip.

Our guide's name is Pilar and she is from Spain but has lived and worked in Israel for 30 years. She is very knowledgable and well organized.  She wants our group to feel like a big family during our next 10 days with her.  She did admit that she knows nothing about trees or crops;  if you ask her what kind of tree that is she will say "green."  We might have to educate her a bit on some of these things.

This is a very busy time of year for tourism and Pilar had just dropped off another group and rushed to the airport to meet us. We spent some time together with her this evening reviewing our itinerary and making some minor adjustments so that we can see as much as possible during our trip.

Our hotel in Netanya is only about 30 miles from Tel Aviv but it took about 90 minutes to get here.  It seems they have rush hour in all parts of the world. That, coupled with road construction, delayed our arrival a bit and gave us a chance to rest a bit.

The Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya is located right on the Mediterranean sea.  After checking in and getting to our room, Terri and I donned our swimsuits for a quick dip before dinner.  The water was warm, the beach quite sandy and the waves were big.  It was a great way to get some exercise and freshen up after the long, overnight flight.  A hot shower, clean clothes and we were ready for dinner.

At dinner it was obvious we were in the Middle East.  All kinds of vegetables, olives and hummus were on the buffet for dinner. I had some matzah (sp?) ball soup, cucumber salads, roasted peppers and some grilled chicken for dinner.  This will be a very healthy diet for the next two weeks, I'm sure.

The key to beating jet-lag is to stay up as long as possible without taking a nap.  I think I have done pretty well with that, especially since I had two days of blogging to do after dinner.  (Terri is lying in bed as I type and I keep catching her dropping off to sleep.)

So tomorrow the sightseeing begins.  We are going to have an early wake-up call and depart the hotel at 7:45.  With the short day-light this time of year we want to get an early start; we have a full day of history awaiting us.