Prague Journal

Sunday, April 24, 2005.

This is our last day in Israel. Yaffa and Ronnie planned a hike with Alan and Mira, but
Mira is ill, so there were just five of us this morning. Alan is the chair of the Geology department at Hebrew University, originally from Wales, but has lived in Israel now for nearly 30 years. Mira, his wife, is also a geologist, doing stalactite dating research. We hiked near Sataf, an ancient agricultural site in the Judean hills west of Jerusalem, just west of En Kerem. Ronnie found lots of flowers, including orchids. We found traces of gazelles, but did not see any animals other than birds and insects and a few horses out for a stroll.
We had planned to take the train from Jerusalem to the Tel Aviv airport, but no bus or train is running today because of the Passover holiday. Instead, Ronnie and Yaffa drove us to Omri and Dina’s house in Modiim, half-way to the airport. We drove through the new subdivision and saw Omri and Dina’s new house, which is under construction.
We had plenty of time to get to the airport, but took a taxi at 6pm since everyone else had early evening obligations. We were prepared for long lines, since many people go on vacation this week, but the airport was not crowded. We strolled through the shops, mostly looking for stamps (for my few remaining postcards) and an English-language newspaper and Economist Magazine to take on the plane. We found the weekend edition of the International Herald Tribute with the Haaretz insert, but the newsstands were out of the Economist and no one had stamps, including the post office which was only partially open. We purchased some Israeli coffee and wine with our last remaining shekels.
The flight left on time, shortly after 9pm, and we were served a Kosher-for-Passover dinner at 10pm. Gaining an hour, we landed in Prague around 12:30a.m. We had only carry-on bags, so we were outside the terminal shortly after 1:00 and home by 1:30. Molly and Dave had arrived earlier in the afternoon and were asleep when we arrived at the flat. Mrs. Halova’s son Vojta and two of his friends had met them at the airport and driven them to the flat.

posted by JWinn @ 10:29 PM