GOING TO ISRAEL: February 6 and 7, 2017

Our flight was around noon from the Buffalo Airport. Janie generously picked David, Peggy and I up at my house and took us to the Buffalo airport to catch our first flight to NYC (Delta)

I don't remember exactly what Peggy was doing in this picture, but it appears to be just before check-in.

These T-shirts were on display at the check in area. 

  We met up with Pastor Craig and others from Faith Tabernacle and checked our luggage and got to our terminal  The flight was uneventful.

We arrived at JFK and had lunch while we waited for our EL AL Flight to Tel Aviv. I was happy to find out that Peggy, David and I were sitting together.  I got the window seat!   It was a VERY long flight, but it went well.  We were served two meals. There were a lot of Jewish people returning to Israel on this flight.  I think these two men were praying. 

We were expecting a direct flight to Tel Aviv, but found out that the plane would be stopping in Berlin, Germany to refuel.  That added time to our flight.

When we landed in Tel Aviv (Ben Gurion Airport) we met our tour guide Hanna.  The original plans had us going to Independence Hall and Jaffa, but because of the refueling delay, we went directly to our hotel DAN PANORAMA TEL AVIV.  We were given a brief welcome reception

and a drink while our luggage was taken off the bus.  We claimed it and took it to our rooms.  By this time, I had met my roommate, Kathryn.

Hanna suggested we drop our luggage in our rooms and then cross the road to the park and catch the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.    Peg, David and I decided to try to find a geocache instead (Clore Park Re-visited).  We met up with others from our group in the park.

 We were unable to find the cache, but later on the owner told us to log a find since we were in the right area, and someone keeps stealing the cache.

Supper that evening was PHENOMENAL.  There were several kinds of meat including goose and lamb and veal.  The deserts were AMAZING.  I don't remember much about the room there, but we did have a partial view of the Mediterranean.  The main thing I remember is that a large piece of the ceiling in the hallway outside our room fell down !   

We only stayed one night and headed out the next morning with our luggage.  I don't recall anything about breakfast before leaving.