Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Day 1 and 2.  This has been a long day(s).  Getting on a plane and being transported from Newark, NJ to Tel Aviv, Israel, is not as easy as it sounds.  As we were finding our seats on the Boeing 777 we passed through “business” class.  The almost cubicle look of the business class seats left us a bit jealous.  Spending a little more than 10 hours in an airplane seat left us a bit underwhelmed.  It wasn’t that the seats were completely uncomfortable, it is just sitting anywhere for 10 hours is difficult.  If that isn’t enough, we crossed 7 timezones.  My watch needed to be changed from 9 am to 4 pm.  The 7 hours are gone until we try to recover them on our return trip.

It all started with our band of 14 arriving at the Columbus airport.  Other than arriving at 4:30 pm for a 6:46 pm departure, our trip started uneventfully.  When we arrived in Newark, we headed for our gate.  When we arrived at our gate, we found that it was closed.  Turns out, they open the small gate just prior to boarding.  It was strange there was an entrance and an exit to this gate.  The exit was a significant walk to get to the entrance.  Our group of 14 became 16 when we ran into the Wig’s.  The Wig’s were a couple from Akron who we had come to our house to meet our group during one of our information meetings.  We finally were told we needed to be at the entrance.  We found a line forming at the entrance.  Behind us in line was a group wearing purple T-shirts with an “Israel 2018”.  I discovered that they were the group of 8 joining us from Muncie, IN.  Now we had joined up with 24 of the 31.

Turns out, we had to pass through a strange security specific to our gate.  The TSA people allowed about 10 people to pass through the entrance.  We were told to place our backpacks, carry-ons and purses on a table.  The men were “wanded” by a couple of male TSA agents and likewise the women were “wanded” by a couple of female TSA agents.  Another TSA agent “wanded” our carry-ons.  This wand was check from explosive residues.  None was found so they let us go to the next step.  The 777 is a large plane and 354 people were waiting to board.  We were separated into boarding groups and stood around until we were allowed to board.  Terry took advantage of this time to meet four more of our group of 28 out of 31.  The final 3 of your merry band would join up with at the hotel in Netanya.
On the drive from the Tel Aviv we got to meet our guide and driver for the week.  Driving here is a bit concerning.  At this point, it is more concerning than any bombing.  I was sitting in the front seat behind the driver and much of the time I was riding down the center line of the freeway.  It wasn’t that bad but the motorcyclists were like we had seen in Europe.  I caused me to ask our guide if any formal training was necessary to get a motorcycle driver’s license.  She said that training was necessary to obtain a motorcycle license but that the automobile drivers weren’t much better.

After a dinner, a planning meeting, a walk on the beach and finally a shower, we were ready for bed.  Below are a few pictures of the city of Tel Aviv and a view of the beach in Netanya.






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