Tour of Israel and Jordan
Mike and Judy Henderson
November 14-27, 2017
I'm going to leave this map up so that you can see where we are.
11/26/2017 (Sunday) Not much to report for today. We drive from Petra to Amman. The tour is essentially over but we need to get to Amman because that's where the airport is. We were able to start a bit later today, I think we left about 9.
We stopped for a photo op on a hill overlooking the Montreal Crusader Castle (also known as the Shobak Crusader Castle). We did not go to the castle, just took pictures.
Then we continued to Amman, and arrived a bit after noon. We had lunch at a Jordanian style restaurant that had very low seating. Perhaps that was to simulate a Bedouin meal where people would sit on rugs. The food was good but I think most of us were getting tired of the Arab style dinners - they tend to be very similar.
We checked into the InterContinental Jordan in Amman, a very nice hotel. Since we had a big lunch, most of the tour people met in the bar on the 8th floor for snacks and a drink.
But soon people started leaving - they had very early flights, such as a 2:30am departure.
11/27/2017 (Monday) We have a 7am flight but Tauck arranged a car for us departing the hotel at 3:30am, so Judy and I were in bed by 9 and slept until 2am. At 3:30am our driver was there waiting for us. I don't know why this picture came out the way it did - maybe I was moving the camera.
It took about 30 minutes to get to the airport - and that's with no traffic. We checked in, went through security, and were able to use the Royal Jordanian Lounge, which, incidentally, is a very nice lounge. We encountered some other people from the tour who had an earlier flight, about 5:30am.
We eventually boarded the plane, an Airbus A320, for the short flight to Tel Aviv, about 40 minutes. I think Jordan is the only Arab country that has flights to/from Israel.
Here we are leaving Jordan.
And arriving at Tel Aviv a bit before 8am (we departed Amman just after 7am). You can see the Mediterranean Sea at the top of the picture. Tel Aviv is really dense, isn't it?
We have an Air Canada flight out of Tel Aviv just before noon. But coming from Jordan, we have to go through Israeli passport control, claim our bags, then check in with Air Canada and go through Israel security. I've heard stories of two hour waits to clear Israeli passport control so I was concerned about this connection.
But everything was good. Apparently, Tel Aviv airport does not have many arrivals in the morning so we were able to clear passport control quickly.
The Air Canada counter didn't open until 9 so we had to wait.
But eventually it opened, and after we checked in, we went through security with hardly any line. We wound up with a couple of hours to kill. Air Canada gave us a pass to a shared lounge, the Dan Lounge. It turned out to be a dump - worn, dirty chairs and crowded. But we found a couple of seats near a power outlet and charged up our electronics.
Then we loaded up - a Boeing 787-800. Nice lie flat seats but a herringbone arrangement so Judy and I are not able to communicate much during the flight (across an aisle).
Here's a picture of the two of us, taken by a cabin attendant. It's over 11 hours to Toronto, and then we have a layover before our flight to LAX.
We each got a few hours of sleep.
On arrival in Toronto, we discovered that we would clear US Customs and Security in Toronto. There's a whole concourse (F) that's devoted to pre-cleared travelers to the United States. The way they handle things is interesting. When you arrive, you go into a room where there's a large display board on one wall. As baggage is taken off of the plane you arrived in, it is routed to US Border Protection staff where it is examined (via X-ray I suppose). When your baggage has cleared that station, it's taken to the plane for your next flight and your name and initial comes up on the display board.
That's your signal to continue on to the security station where your carry-on is examined. It worked well, although we didn't understand it at first.
By the time we cleared all those stations, they were boarding our flight to LAX and we boarded. This was a Boeing 767 with lie flat seats, in a herringbone configuration. The seats were very similar to the seats we had on the Air New Zealand flight recently.
By now, we had been up for about 23 hours. I was exhausted and went to sleep as soon as the plane took off. They served a meal but I skipped it to sleep. Judy had dinner.
We eventually landed at LAX and the driver was waiting for us.
We did the basic unpacking that evening after we arrived home, but quickly hit the sack and didn't wake until about 7am. From the time we awoke in Amman to the time we went to bed in Villa Park, it was about 30 hours. Still, that's not bad considering that Jordan is just about on the other side of the Earth.
11/28/2017 (Tuesday) Our trips are never finished until we pick up Skipper and Bernie. Here's Skipper when we picked him up. He was definitely excited to see us.
And that ends another adventure. Our next trip is in the spring, to England and Ireland with Tauck. See you then!
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