Friday, June 25th | Tel Hazor 1993

3:27 AM (CST) 10:27 AM (Rome Time)

We’re in Rome now. The flight got here right on time. We were served breakfast on the plane as well. Coming in for the landing at Rome gave me my first real sight of Europe. It didn’t appear at first to look much different than the US, but I saw quite a few differences, including the pink houses. It is impossible to see any of the city from the airport, from here everything looks like wide open spaces. After arriving at the airport, we rode a bus from the plane to the building. It was different seeing airport guards with guns. One even had a machine gun. We wandered the airport, mostly just to see what it was like. The other group arrived around 3:00 AM (10:00 AM). Now we’re just all waiting for the flight to Tel Aviv.

Michael Whitmire and Matt Stocking on the flight.

Don Harms, also on the flight.

9:34 PM

Now that we’re finally in Israel, I have converted to using local time. The time spent from leaving campus to landing in Tel Aviv was right at 26 hours. The flight from Rome to Tel Aviv was uneventful. No movie was shown, but we did have some sort of lunch, which was pretty much nasty looking. I was able to get a little bit of sleep for the first time in the air. I had dozed off a little on the floor of the Rome Airport.

We landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv at 4:00 PM. It took us about a whole hour to get in and get our luggage, and get outside the airport. Thankfully all of the luggage arrived safely. We were supposed to be picked up and taken to Jerusalem by a bus, but it never showed up. We finally had to take taxis. I rode in a Ford minivan while others rode in 6-door Mercedes.

Sharon and Shawn Wiese outside waiting for our bus at the Tel Aviv airport.

Alain Cataga, outside Ben Gurion airport.

Hey, that's me. Looking as good as possible with my glasses.

Still waiting for our bus outside the airport, Stacey Linsley, Renee Norman, and Sarah Campbell are thrilled.

The trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem gave us a good chance to see what the countryside is like. It is so beautiful. The hills and mountains look wonderful. We were dropped off at our hotel, Ramat Rachel, and had only enough time to get a little cleaned up before we ate dinner.

Michael Whitmire and I are in Room 307, which coincidentally, is also Michael Elliott’s box number at college. We were both impressed by our room. There is a balcony which looks to a valley, and Bethlehem. It is really beautiful at night. Dinner was excellent, it started with an appetizer, and went on to soup, main course, and salad, and desert. After dinner, I came back to the room and discovered the great night-time view. Michael and I decided that bed would be in order. He took a shower, and then I took a bath, which felt so really good after the long trip.

The view from room 307. This is 3 shots stitched together.

This is our view from room 307 a bit later in the evening. Lots of lights to be seen from the other side of the valley. This is also a stitch of 3 shots.

Until next time...