Journey

It was quite amusing at Heathrow as our queue was mostly made up of Catholics (our group of about 90) and Hasadic Jews with their curls and black hats.  When we were in the departure lounge, the Jews all got together and prayed, bobbing back and forwards.  It was inspiring to see people showing their devotion in public.

We had been told that we must be at the airport 4 hours before the flight ie 11:30am.  We were there with most of our fellow travellers, but the officials were nowhere to be seen.  It was somewhat disconcerting to have a number of police with guns ready, watching us.  The police sniffer dogs were quite fun to watch.  Half an hour later we were let through to a luggage scanner.  Being EL AL the security is mega.  Luckily they took our group through together and had about 5 officials following us through asking odd questions

The plane had been late getting in to Heathrow so it became obvious that our take-off would be late, then the pilot had difficulties getting a slot, consequently we were 90mins late taking off.  he made up some of the time but we did not arrive at the hotel until 2am.  Believe it or not, they had food available for us!

This a picture from the door of our room.

You might be surprised that I am writing this do early in the morning.  Well, I woke up and panicked that the alarm on my phone had not gone off, woke Tony who said it was 7:50am.  We were supposed to be at breakfast at 7am!  We both got dressed very quickly.  I went outside to see if anyone was in the dining-room and fiund it in the dark.  Tony had mis-read his watch, it was 5:50am!  So I had time to write this before breakfast.

Looking forward to a day at the Holy Sepulchre and environ.