Arrival!

The flight to Israel was "uneventful", which I always find an event in itself. After all, this is a place to was all but unaccessible for so many years. Now, you can get on a plane almost anywhere in the world, and find yourself in Israel the next day! Very nice.

Unlike last year, my luggage made the flight as well, and we all arrived in Israel together. At the airport, staff for the ride met us, picked up our bikes for delivery to Jerusalem, and a few of us grabbed a taxi for the 40 mile drive to Jerusalem. We were in the hotel by 7 pm.

Dinner in the old city? Unfortunately, that wasn't to be on Sunday night. Four of us, two from Boston and two new friends from San Jose grabbed a cab to the old city, where I was hoping for dinner at my favorite shwarma place, but they were closed. Darn! Instead, we took a walk through the market area, though it was mostly closed. We made one wrong turn (not good), but a young, tennis racket toting (and playing) priest was walking by, and walked us back to jaffa gate, before going on his way. From there, we walked to Ben Yehuda street, a very busy place on a Sunday night. We quickly found another excellent place for schwarma (yes, i had a craving), and had a great dinner, with sidewalk seating, and a chance to get to know three of my new riding companions. Even had a few minutes to do something that I've never done on the Israel Ride, shop!

We leave Monday morning for a JNF organized quick tour of Northern Israel...more on that in the next post!