November 26th - Return

This will be my last log entry for our trip to the Holy Land.

Our day began early - book ended between packing everything the night before and getting up early to make the last minute additions to the bags - with bags out of the room at 6:00 am, followed by breakfast and then loading at 6:30 am.  We were all ready on our way shortly thereafter.

The traffic in Jerusalem at that hour of the morning was light and quickly made our way out of the city.  Etty, our guide, pointed out the Chords Bridge, also called the Bridge of Strings, as we left the city.

The Chords Bridge, or Bridge of Strings in Jerusalem

On our way to Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, we passed the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, that was off in the distance behind a barbed wire fence.  The security barrier was very evident along both sides of the the road for much of our trip.  At one point we passed through a security barrier on the highway itself, and the tour bus was required to briefly stop to answer questions from security personnel.

View of the security fence from the highway.

Security Gates near the town of Maccabim on Highway 443

The fence and the security gates were reminders of the tenuous peace in Israel and on the West Bank.

As we continued to roll on towards the airport we saw the large modern highways in Israel as well as the high speed train line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

One of the highways we passed on our way to the airport.

When we got to the airport, we retrieved our luggage and went through the airline and airport security.  We boarded a Boeing 777 airplane for our trip to Toronto.  It wasn't quite as nice as the much newer Boeing 787 Dreamliner we had arrived in, but still very nice.

We left Tel Aviv at 11:00 am and arrived in Toronto about 3:30 pm local time, 11-1/2 hours later.  There we retrieved our bags and went through customs.  After doing so, we said our goodbyes to some from the group who were staying in Toronto or flying elsewhere.  After a wait of a few more hours, we caught our hour long flight from Ottawa to Toronto arriving in Ottawa about 8:15 p.m.

Overall it was a wonderful trip for us.