Thursday, July 7, 2011

Arriving in Jerusalem

Our long day to Israel began in Washington, DC with a half day at the USHMM. We listened to a presentation by one of the museum's curators, Susie Snyder, who discussed various forms of resistance that can be found throughout the museum's permanent exhibit. After the excellent presentation, we had free time until we needed to meet the group at 1:15 in L'Enfante's lobby to leave for Dulles International. Douglas and I took advantage of this time to have lunch at one of my favorite museum cafeteria's at the American Indian museum. We shared a delicious flat bread taco, and then went up to the 4th floor to see what the museum had on the Cherokee. Since Douglas was raised on a Cherokee reservation in Western North Carolina, he actually recognized some of the people featured in the exhibit. Unfortunately, we did not have more time to look at the fabulous museum, so we headed to meet the group.

Thankfully the Dulles' check in and security moved extremely quickly, and we made it to our gate with plenty of time. The flight to Frankfurt went by rather quickly as I was able to sleep at least a bit during the eight hours. Luftansa took care of us and fed us quite well, and somehow the eight hours went by without too much boredom! We hustled off the plane in Germany, and made our way from one terminal to another after shlepping our bags for quite some distance. We made our way through tight security as we neared our gate for our final leg to Israel. After each of us received a thorough pat down from German security guards, we were prepared for the flight to Tel Aviv!

This leg was just over three hours long, and thankfully I, as well as many others, we able to sleep a bit on this flight. We arrived in Tel Aviv in the afternoon at around 3pm. Customs took a bit of time as it was a busy place, and we finally managed to head out of Tel Aviv for Jerusalem about 4 in the afternoon. Our drive took us from sea level around Tel Aviv through the rolling hills and mountains in Jerusalem. As we entered this vastly historic and holy city, we were taken aback by the architecture and buildings around us. Words do not really sum up of perception of the city! This was especially true after we sat down for dinner Wednesday evening on the roof of our very swanky and new hotel. The hotel's rooftop restaurant had absolutely marvelous views of Jerusalem, and the weather was simply outstanding! In addition to the fabulous setting, we were served an absolutely scrumptious meal of many courses served family style.

With a cappuccino in some of our systems, we were set to head out and explore downtown Jerusalem. Since our hotel had such a fabulous location, we easily able to get to the bustling parts  or town. Near the pedestrian walk, a small group of us decided to get a drink and soak up the wonderful night. After this lovely time, we headed back for a much needed night's sleep

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