We all made it, but what a trip!

 

At Riverwoods ready to leave!

It’s now about 1:40 am on Tuesday! We finally got to Nazareth about 1 am after the most grueling days of travel that I can remember. Liz and I began our journey  on Sunday morning, riding the C&J bus to Port Authority in NYC. I am grateful that Liz worked in the city earlier in her life and knows enough to get us on the subway, out to Jamaica Center where we picked up the Airtrain to JFK. Unfortunately, the Terminal 1 station is under construction, so we had to get a shuttle bus at Station 8. Counting the car Mel used to trip us off in Portsmouth, that’s four conveyances—so far!  We got to Turkish Airlines by 5, but couldn’t check in or get through security until 8, so we spent some time checking out the limited options for fast food dining. Members of our group began showing up around 7, and we all checked in for our flight at about 8. We learned along the way that our flight would be 30 minute delayed. The weather in Istanbul has been awful these last few days, with snow, freezing rain and wind cancelling many flights, but not ours! We finally got off more than an hour late, at about 1:30am. It was a long flight—about 9.5 hours. I slept very little. The weather coming into Istanbul was terrible—no visibility at all, but the pilot landed our “big bird” beautifully. He even got a round of applause from all the passengers!

The next trick was getting to our connecting flight to Tel Aviv. That plane hadn’t taken off yet, so we raced to get to it. Some of us raced in the wrong direction and ended up on the floor where we didn’t need to be, ended up going through security, but we finally ended up making it anyway. Just barely. We all made the flight, but our checked luggage didn’t.  We got to Tel Aviv, went through the Israeli immigration system and headed for the baggage claim and waited. And waited.  Long story short, none of our baggage made it. So then we each had to fill out claims! 

We got on the road to Nazareth just before midnight. The night view of Nazareth just after the rain was a sight to see.  I’ll leave you with a picture of the Church of the Annunciation. We are staying at a convent run by the Sisters of Nazareth, perhaps right above where Mary and and Joseph lived. 

Church of the Annunciation