Sunday & Monday

I knew from the moment my sister and I reached the boarding gate for the Israel leg of our trip that we were traveling under heavy security. We had cleared security in San Francisco and had been checked all the way through to Tel Aviv. With one hour between flights at Hartsfield I realized it was going to be tight making the connection to Israel. We never exited the secure zone at Hartsfield after deplaning the first flight but when we got to the international terminal to board the flight to Israel, time had evaporated and we had be subjected to intense scrutiny just to board the Tel Aviv bound jet. Carry on bags were limited and were hand searches. No bottle water or beverages were allowed beyond security. Garbage cans around the gate were overflowing with partially consumed bottles of water.

The 767 was full and the flight was uneventful. After vowing to stay awake for the entire eleven-hour flight I managed to watch at least four mediocre movies and an interesting CNN program about, Tetsuya Kumakawa the Japanese Barishnokov.

We made our way to Jerusalem on a modern highway that could have been a drive up California’s 280. Traffic moved at a slow clip as it was the tail end of a Monday rush hour. I was surprised to see many upscale modern dwellings lining the route. Farmland has given way to a new suburbia not unlike California. Upon entering Jerusalem we passed by a beautiful new bridge designed by Architect Santiago Calatrava. Now Israel, like Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts has a signature Calatrava bridge. Driving through Jerusalem the streets are narrow and congested but drivers tend to follow direction and regard pedestrians.

After arriving at David the Citadel at approximately 7:00 we grabbed a quick bite to eat in the hotel’s executive lounge on the 10th floor. The meal consisted of carrot soup, delicious lox, several fresh salads and mini a challah. After dinner we walked over to the Mamila Pedestrian Mall. The Mall is under renovation and you are able to see the painstaking labor of adding one stone at a time to create a beautiful building facade. All buildings in Jerusalem are required to be built out of Jerusalem stone.