July2-3
All journeys need to start with a challenge. When we arrived at the airport and some of the group checked in with no problem, Jan and Alan could not be found on the computer. After everyone else was successful in checking in, the lovely Continental agent and three associates still could not find us on the computer. Why? Because although our trip itinerary printed by the tour company said our flight was on the 2nd, in fact on the receipt and in the computer we were not scheduled until the 3rd. They began to see what they could do and also called the agency but there was only one seat on the plane from Rochester to Newark.
I then realized that Ben might also have a problem. Guess what? Ben and Megan Finnefrock were scheduled to have left already on June 24th. The agent had to pull strings to not get a complete loss on that flight. After quite awhile the tour agent found 4 seats on the flight from Newark to Tel Aviv but Jan still had no seat from Rochester to Newark. They finally decided to send her through to the gate on standby. With 20 minutes to go the agent called me over to whisper that one person didn’t show up and they put Jan in that seat although she was the second on the list. So off we went.
One positive outcome was that my assigned seat for the flight to Israel was 5K business/first class. When we got to Newark I got a message from our tour operator to check in again. I did and they gave me a different boarding pass with the same seat. The fight was slightly delayed and when they finally called for the first 10 rows and I handed them my boarding pass, guess what? It was not registering. The agent took it to the counter and finally after ten minutes they came back with my coach seat next to a baby, but at least with leg room at a bulk head. The flight was uneventful except for a couple of food mix-ups. The group was scattered around coach but everyone either bartered a seat switch or went with the flow.
We arrived at Ben Gurion airport and were met by Romano from the tour operator. Everyone found their luggage on the carousel. Hurrah! Liz and Sarah met us as we walked out with a big welcome sign. Our tour guide is Yakov Cook, originally from Argentina. He is truly delightful. He recently returned from a trip to San Francisco.
Our first stop was to old Jaffa. We walked through the restored quarter to a small archaeological sight and the top of the hill that features a lovely sculpture of biblical scenes. We offered a “Shehechiyanu” blessing for arriving in Israel and headed to our hotel, the Dan Panorama on the Tel Aviv beach.
Most of us had our rooms ready for us, but six lucky ones had to wait for a while. “Society comes last” and, in this case, the Larsen’s took the prize.. A bit later two thirds of the group walked with our guide to Shuk HaCarmel, the open market and to Nahalat Binyamin, the Park Avenue of Tel Aviv with its cafes and boutiques. Shuk purchases include food items like olives and halava and a few knick knacks. Some of us ended up at a café for iced coffee (with “glida”, ice cream) and light snacks.
Next we are off to Maganda for our first official “Israeli” dinner. L’hitraot!