Arrival in Israel!  After an eleven-hour flight with not nearly enough sleep, I arrived in Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv late this morning.

 
 
A cab ride took me to the hotel, where I quickly met up with the rest of our group.  The scheduled hikes don't begin until tomorrow, so we dropped off our  bags and set off.  The hotel is in Jaffa - an ancient city which is adjacent to the much more modern city of Tel Aviv.  A few blocks away is the Mediterranean Sea!

Rose, Mike, Ron (partly hidden), Penelope, Rita.  Debbie arrived later and Bob is behind the camera.

The beach is beautiful, and boats were everywhere.  Among other things, we saw several mosques and a church dating back many centuries.

 

There were plenty of  street musicians, including this man  playing some unusual pipes:


The felafels at lunch were delicious, as was dinner at the hotel.

Our next important thing will to be getting to bed on time and avoiding serious jet lag in the morning! Tomorrow will bring about twelve miles of hiking around Jaffa and Tel Aviv, with plenty of history included.