We Have Arrived

        With one of the smoothest landings I can remember the USAIR flight arrived in Israel at Ben Gurion Airport.  The flight was uneventful which in my mind is always a plus.

           As we were walking towards passport control we met up with the other members of the group who were travelling on Delta.  Another plus was that no one lost a suitcase so we were soon on the bus meeting our guide Uri Feinberg. 

          We made our way to our hotel, the Dan Panorama and checked in to our rooms.  After time to clean up and have a short rest we met at 6:30 to go to our opening dinner at the Maganda restaurant.  It is located in the Yemenite Quarter of Tel Aviv and is one of my favorites for an opening somewhat typical Israeli dinner. 

The tables were full of pita, salads and other first course items like cigars and falafel.  There was wine, water and both grapefruit juice and lemonade.  This was more than enough but they then brought out both chicken skewers and kebabs, along with chips. (French fries).  We ended with tea with mint and assorted baklava.

          We were joined at dinner by Danny Saat. 

  Danny, a Brighton High School graduate and good friend of our son Ben, is working for Space IL an Israeli group competing to land Israel on the moon in a contest.  He spoke to the group about the work they are doing hoping to stimulate youth in Israel to study math and science and present another face of Israel to others.

          We returned to the hotel to rest and prepare for our first full day tomorrow.  Despite the weather challenges we have finally begun to experience and learn while we enjoy Israel.  Our guide Uri said that hopefully we will learn but leave with more questions than when we started.