Israel - Arrival

After a long day and a half of traveling including a 6 hour layover in Toronto, we arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. It’s very exciting to finally be here!! The kids kept saying “I can’t believe we’re in Israel!” Arriving at the airport is very different than the last time I was here 16 years ago. For one thing, you now go into the airport directly on a concourse. 16 years ago when you arrived, you went down a staircase off the airplane and got onto a bus to the terminal. When you get to the end of the concourse today there is a giant mezuzah - as if to say “Bruchim Ha’ba’im”, “Welcome Home!” Getting our luggage and going through passport control was fairly quick and soon we were on our way. On the taxi ride to Jerusalem we looked out the windows at the desert landscape, all of the road signs in Hebrew, and all the sights. We had slept a few hours on the plane, and were planning to stay up the rest of the day in order to acclimate to the time here but despite our best efforts, all of us slept the rest of the day away. By the time we woke up it was evening, and we went out in search of dinner. We found a nice coffee shop a few blocks down (our apartment is in a great location), and after eating, went back to sleep again.