The pilot told me the Boeing 777 would weigh 622,000 pounds at the take-off roll. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777 I believed him. Flight time was expected to be 11 hours 21 minutes out of Hartsfield-Jackson. You have to love the feeling of so much power at full throttle. The food was surprisingly good, the flight was fairly smooth and sleep was easy. Very un-Delta-like for sure. Maybe it had something to do with flying (and paying for) a first-class ticket! As we approached Israel over the Mediterranean I finally felt a surge of excitement. Touchdown came at about 6:30 pm local time. Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv is a busy place and has probably more machine guns per employee than any other airport except for Baghdad. Clearing customs was a breeze and interesting to see the fingerprint identification machines for those who hold Israeli passports. Maybe something America should do. Or at least do something to attempt to secure our borders.
Israel is intense and diverse. It has over 7 million residents, probably half the number of criminal aliens we have in the US. About 2.5 million live in the greater Tel Aviv area. I like Tel Aviv. No doubt the hardest city I have ever been in to find a parking spot for a car. Unbelievable. Sub-machine gun toting troops are everywhere. As we headed for the beach across the street to catch the sunset the Muslim "call-to-prayer" was sounded from the city of Jaffa to the south a couple of miles. It was the first time I had heard the blaring loudspeakers calling Muslims to pray toward Mecca at sunset. There was a noticeable lack of the smell of salty air on the Mediterranean sea shore, maybe that came from living in San Diego about a dozen years. We walked to the Manta Ray restaurant on the water and enjoyed a wonderful meal before heading back to the David Intercontinental. Being on the 25th floor was nice. Sleep came easy. Tomorrow started my first full day in Israel. I was headed to Jaffa.
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