Days 1&2, Sat & Sun, March, 2018 - Travel to Jerusalem
Last fall my mother called to say that she was interested in visiting Petra in Jordan and had signed up for a Road Scholar tour of Israel and Jordan. She asked if I was interested in going along and after some discussion with Carmen, agreed to travel with my mother and signed up for the trip.
We were fortunate that the Friday nor'easter ended on Friday night and by Saturday afternoon the roads were clear. Our power went out at 9am on Friday and was still out at 4:30pm when we left for the airport on Saturday. A nuisance but not life-threatening.
Our first bit of excitement was seeing a police car with flashing lights behind us just before we got on the Thruway. We were stopped for a broken tail light that Carmen will need to get fixed on Monday. We got a summons that we could show the police if we were stopped again but we weren't stopped on the rest of the way or when Carmen drove back.
We stopped for dinner at the Majestic Diner on route 17 in New Jersey and highly recommend it. The food is good and reasonably priced. Carmen and I had dinner there in December before staying at the Newark Marriott overnight for a very early flight to San Diego. We had eaten dinner at the Marriott on a previous trip - the food was ok, the price was excessive and the service was poor so we thought it was better to eat before getting there.
When we got to the airport to get our boarding passes we were surprised that the seats we had reserved had changed, we weren't sitting together and I didn't have the aisle seat in Economy Plus that I had paid for. Fortunately, I had passes to the United Club and the agent there could at least get us seats together although they were both middle seats in the center row. He said there was a change in aircraft and they arbitrarily reassigned the seats. Very annoying that we didn't have any prior notification.
The flight was reasonably smooth but long, over 10.5 hour direct from Newark to Tel Aviv. The flight was absolutely packed and by two hours before landing, the bathrooms had run out of paper towels and the sink was clogged - not very impressive. It is 12.5 hours on the way back.😉
It was about 65 degrees when we landed around 5pm. We met the Road Scholar greeter after passing through immigration and customs which went smoothly. A small bus took us on the 45 minute drive to the Prima Kings hotel in Jerusalem where we will be staying for 3 nights. Our hotel is within walking distance of the old city with the sacred sites.
There are 24 people in our tour group although only 18 had arrived by dinnertime due to weather travel problems. The rest should arrive tomorrow or the next day. We had a delicious buffet dinner followed by an orientation by Yanathon, our tour guide.
We need to be out for our first tour at 8am tomorrow.
We were fortunate that the Friday nor'easter ended on Friday night and by Saturday afternoon the roads were clear. Our power went out at 9am on Friday and was still out at 4:30pm when we left for the airport on Saturday. A nuisance but not life-threatening.
Our first bit of excitement was seeing a police car with flashing lights behind us just before we got on the Thruway. We were stopped for a broken tail light that Carmen will need to get fixed on Monday. We got a summons that we could show the police if we were stopped again but we weren't stopped on the rest of the way or when Carmen drove back.
We stopped for dinner at the Majestic Diner on route 17 in New Jersey and highly recommend it. The food is good and reasonably priced. Carmen and I had dinner there in December before staying at the Newark Marriott overnight for a very early flight to San Diego. We had eaten dinner at the Marriott on a previous trip - the food was ok, the price was excessive and the service was poor so we thought it was better to eat before getting there.
When we got to the airport to get our boarding passes we were surprised that the seats we had reserved had changed, we weren't sitting together and I didn't have the aisle seat in Economy Plus that I had paid for. Fortunately, I had passes to the United Club and the agent there could at least get us seats together although they were both middle seats in the center row. He said there was a change in aircraft and they arbitrarily reassigned the seats. Very annoying that we didn't have any prior notification.
The flight was reasonably smooth but long, over 10.5 hour direct from Newark to Tel Aviv. The flight was absolutely packed and by two hours before landing, the bathrooms had run out of paper towels and the sink was clogged - not very impressive. It is 12.5 hours on the way back.😉
It was about 65 degrees when we landed around 5pm. We met the Road Scholar greeter after passing through immigration and customs which went smoothly. A small bus took us on the 45 minute drive to the Prima Kings hotel in Jerusalem where we will be staying for 3 nights. Our hotel is within walking distance of the old city with the sacred sites.
There are 24 people in our tour group although only 18 had arrived by dinnertime due to weather travel problems. The rest should arrive tomorrow or the next day. We had a delicious buffet dinner followed by an orientation by Yanathon, our tour guide.
We need to be out for our first tour at 8am tomorrow.
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