Britain: Day 6 - Our journey to Tel Aviv

We woke to a rainy Monday morning, our last day in London. We hurriedly packed and headed to the Hilton Hotel, about a block away, where the concierge had kindly arranged a cab to take us to Heathrow airport.

So, off we went, through the labyrinthine city streets of London, passing Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace on the way. Naomi had 'control' of the camera and snapped away happily.



We made it with plenty of time to negotiate boarding passes and security. Eventually, we found ourselves , wandering through a large shopping mall within Heathrow Terminal



One, designed to accommodate thousands of travelers like us who have nothing to do but to blow their holiday budget on everything from chocolates to Vertu cell phones costing $30,000 (the 'lower end' models of the ones we saw in Harrods costing twice that much). It makes me think my new Blackberry, on which I'm writing this journal entry, is not such a bad deal after all!.

We dutifully arrived in the little departure area for our British Midland flight to Tel Aviv, there to be joined by an odd collection of travelers. Many of the men were wearing kippas. A few Hasidics wore the full 'Jewish uniform' - a heavy, funeral black suit, long flowing beard, black broad rimmed hat, Tizit dangling from below their jacket. Whenever I see these very orthodox Jews, I wonder what sort of weird religion I've married into. Thankfully, Hilary's family is a bit more sane!











The clock ticked past the departure time, with nothing happening, we wondered what was happening. We could see the plane outside, which loaded our luggage, but then, the vehicle around it drove away, all except one labeled 'pest control'. Eventually, the announcement came that the plane would be delayed for an hour and a half while they were doing some necessary repairs to the brake system. Sounded rather lame, compared to our thoughts that they had to take care of a 'snakes on a plane' problem.

Once we managed to take off, the five hour flight was quite uneventful. I am relieved to find I was felling much better today. The changes in altitude did not give me grief, and, outside of a couple of uncontrollable outbursts, my cold was more or less tolerable on the crowded flight.

We arrived in Tel Aviv about 10:30 PM, to a glittering, modern airport which efficiently processed use through. Not quite so for a fellow traveling couple from South Africa, who had to undergo a full body search and found their luggage to be examined in detail before being wrapped in cellophane.

So, here we are. The kids were given a separate suite one floor below us for the night. Hilary helped to settle them in . Tomorrow is our first day of "The Tour". It is going to be quite a day.