Israel Day 1 (1/05/15)

Kate and I are on a new adventure. Yesterday afternoon we boarded a United flight to Israel, arriving at about 9:30 am this morning. We will fly home a week from today. The main reason we're here is that our cousin's daughter is getting married tomorrow night.

It was a about a 10.5 hour flight -- we watched movies (I saw Walt Disney's original Sleeping Beauty and Grease, two of the selections in the Classic Movie category), read, slept, and ate a little. The flight was almost full with a variety of people (Orthodox, college kids on Birthright tour, a church group tour, Israelis, etc.) Going through immigration took almost no time, then a long wait for the luggage, and through the green line (nothing to declare) at Customs, which meant walking out the door. Then a very long wait for the shuttle van that took us to our hotel. There are a few photos from the airport and van ride. Countryside is interesting and Jerusalem is a fascinating city. Two important things we learned on the van ride -- the most important piece of equipment for a car, truck, or bus is the horn (not sure they can operate without it) and vehicles do not yield to pedestrians.

We're staying at a nice, small hotel in the Rechavia section of Jerusalem -- in easy walking distance to the Old City, a shopping district, other points of interest, and our cousins' house. My sister-in-law Ruthi is also here so after we did some unpacking, we went for a walk with her. There are photos of the edge of the Old City, interesting buildings, shops, etc. Although it was a beautiful sunny day, temps in the 50s, there is a cold front coming in and rain/snow expected Wed. and Thurs. Depending on how bad it is, the city could shut down. We stopped at the grocery store to buy a few things (yogurt, hummus, bread, crackers, oranges) to stock the mini fridge in our room. This way even if the restaurants close, we'll have food. Amazingly we ran into our cousin Ahuva shopping in case of the storm (she has invited us for Shabbat dinner on Friday night).

Kate and I went for a second walk to see things lit up after sunset. We had a light dinner at a small nearby cafe (salads and a mint lemonade smoothie for Nancy).

Here are the photos for day 1.