Day 14, Friday, March 16, 2018 - Tel Aviv to home

Our trip has finally ended. We had a 7am shuttle to the Ben Gurion airport, a relatively quick check through Israeli security and departed on United flight UA085 at 10:30.  The flight was scheduled to take 12 1/2 hours but was actually an hour faster, arriving in Newark at 4pm. Of course with the early arrival, a gate was not available and we had to wait 20 minutes to disembark. I used the Mobile Passport app on my phone and it took less than a minute to get through the immigration hall. Even the Global Entry line was slower.

We rented a car and started on our way home. Being Friday afternoon, the rush-hour traffic on the Garden State Parkway was stop and go for quite a while but despite that, we made it home a little after 8pm. Carmen had made a fire in the woodstove so the house was toasty warm.

The Road Scholar trip we took, "Journey of a Lifetime: Israel and Jordan" certainly met my expectations and then some although at times there was Roman ruin "overload". It is impossible to express the wonder of travelling through the Siq to the ruins of Petra, gigantic sandstone tomb facades that go on for miles. It was truly informative to hear from the various speakers about the political and religious issues of the region in addition to the information provided by our Israeli and Jordanian guides. It was very sad to hear from our Muslim speaker that he had no hope for the future in terms of an Israel - Palestine solution.

It was fascinating to visit many of the sites that are mentioned in the Old and New Testaments - Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Bethany, Capernaum, Jordan river, Sea of Galilee, Mount of Olives. I hate to be cynical but it seems unlikely that many of the specific sites are accurate, given the time between the events and when their locations were recorded, often hundred of years later.

It was also interesting to have conversations with the other trip participants who had traveled widely and enjoy travel. Most were professionals, including a state supreme court justice, psychiatrist, psychologist, several lawyers and many teachers. Most of the participants were between 60 and 70 but were very fit.

Carmen and I are looking forward to our cruise up the Rhone River from Avignon to Lyons in June.

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