Ok, with CNN Inside Africa over, my news about Africa for the week, let's go land in Israel. (actually caught it at the Admirals Lounge at LHR last week, wow, makes ya think, doesn't it? I was walking to my plane to NY one week ago at this time)
____
I started dozing off a little. It is not really sleeping, it is more resting, hard to sleep on a plane and in tight conditions. The plane was messy and we need more legroom. Oh well.
The pilot came on and said we are now in our descent, yeah!, and we should be landing in about 35 minutes, one of the greatest things to the captives in coach, which some dear soul refers to as Why, I may agree with that.
Cabin lights came on. Then, not earlier which would have made sense, they passed out Israeli landing forms, something new for my collection.
Why they don't do this at the beginning of the trip, I shall never know. Too much!
So I grabbed the pen and filled out the info. Something new I have never seen before, the State of Israel wants your dad's name, have no idea why, but I put it, he being the Jewish parent.
The chief purser, sorry, was annoying.
He made long announcements and was kind of boring. Not to be rude, but, yeah.
The crew did the final checks, sadly, picked up the headsets when there was a British sitcom on I had never seen before, and Donny Osmond was the guest of honor. Love it!
Everything goes in the carry on, yes, everything. If it is in the seat pocket, it goes, not that I would ever take those safety leaflets that say DO NOT REMOVE cause that would be naughty. Oh wait, I can be naughty, he he he ha ha ha !
Lo and behold, the moment I have waited (38) years for, there were lights yonder and they were Israel. Wow!
An incredible feeling went through me when I saw Israel/Y'israel for the first time.
No, I didn't cry, much much to my surprise, but I was filled with joy and happiness. I suppose I cried inside, vs. outside.
The stupid wing was in the way and so I had to look beyond the wing to get a view, but I wouldn't trade my seatmate in for anything.
Ironically, as we went into descent, we shook hands and introduced ourselves, and sadly, can't remember his name and I am sorry that we didn't exchange e-mails, cards, etc. Would love to show him around LA when/if he gets out here. He is cool.
We flew over the coast of Israel, Zion, the Holy Land, call as you wish, over Tel Aviv/Jaffa.
I had asked on flyertalk(.com) on the ELAL board about where is the best place to sit.
They said if you do a normal landing, on the left, with a great view of Tel Aviv below, to your right, Jaffa, also a good view. If you come in that way, which most planes did as I saw from below during my stay, it is a quick descent. But they also said you can go another way, fly past the airport, which we did, in this case, I think the right side was best.
How do I explain it?! It looked like Israel. It was 5 something am, February, completely dark, but you could see the Israeli style architecture and feel it as we came in.
The plane kept heading East and I joked, are we going to Jordan?
I know that Israel is not that big.
My friend chose Syria as a guess. LOL That would not be good!
A plane flew right below us on final, cool.
We did a sharp right turn and the wing flaps sounded like a dentist drill, which I even made that comment to my friend. Been a while since I have sat on the wing but you do get good wingflap action, both in view(daytime) and sound.
My favorite wing noise is on the 777. Coming into Singapore on Emirates(from Jakarta), we were right on the wing and he made the coolest approach over Singapore City. The flaps on a 777 are noisy and you hear them, especially if right above. I love this stuff.
As we made our turn and final approach you could see little pockets of Israeli towns, apartments, lights, but it looked Israeli, hard to explain. Some cities look alike, not here!
You could see the lights of Tel Aviv straight ahead of us as we approached.
Insert Hatikvah here, an appropriate time to sing it.
I made the slight comment that the reading light of the guys in front of us who have had their seats back the entire time was annoying, but didn't plan on any action.
My beloved seatmate looked forward and said:
"Gentlemen, this is this man's first trip to Israel and your reading light is interfering with his view." They turned it off. I was shocked. I was also appreciative, as the view was now better.
Touch down and reverse. I applauded. Surprisingly, I was pretty much alone. I think one other joined me briefly.
It actually told me alot that they weren't applauding. Sometimes after a long flight into LA, we applaud. It is that we are home! Many join in.
The Israelis didn't feel that way. My friend kind of gave the hint, they have left Israel to get away from all the violence and the problems, now they are back. Fair point. Sad.
Nevertheless, this is my first 'Aliyah' or going up, and it was special to me.
We turned around, you could see the radar circling around and then the new terminal 3. It is dark with few lights, you would think they would have more lights, show it off, also for security reasons, no sabbotage.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the famous terminal from the plane. We taxiied, you could see a stack of planes, and we turned right into that area.
A few ELAL's, the LY 777 from London, a Swiss A320, AF A320, LH A340, etc. Not too much but a fair amount. They were scattered
all over. We stopped, parked, engines shut down.
Getting up, carry ons, and we filed out. I said thank you to the sweet English girls who took care of us. The one up front was a doll. British Airways has some outstanding crews(makes AA look like McDonalds, sorry)
Out the door and into a weather protected staircase(enclosed with a roof, more rare).
To be safe I held the handrail going down and others dashed past me. I just don't want to fall.
I said shalom to the cute girl at the bottom of the stairs and that this was my first trip to Israel(I know, sounds geeky) and she smiled and said welcome.
You had a security guy down below keeping an eye on things and I have heard that security officers stand at the bottom of the steps of all incoming flights into Israel, probably not a bad idea for other countries as well.
I then saw the famous Arrivals hall which has been in many movies, travel books, and what have you. When I lived in Ohio a guy who came to Israel photographed it on video and then some and I just wouldn't do that.
It is a very security conscious airport and cameras make security people uptight. Remember Frankfurt.
Onto the bus. Stood next to my friend and he said "What, you're not going to get down and kiss the ground?"
Hey, I thought about it, maybe later.
We were taken to the terminal.