We arrived at Ben Gurion airport around 4PM Israel time and after waiting for more than 30 minute at the oversized luggage area for our bike boxes, I decided to check elsewhere and found that they had in fact been offloaded at another oversized luggage area even closer to the regular luggage carousel. Our driver was waiting patiently at the terminal entrance for us. Yosi Altman, a funny, upbeat character, insisted on loading our bike boxes and luggage into his Land Rover himself - "you are on holiday - don't worry about a thing". With his funny political and religious quips and anecdotes, he made our drive to our apartment on Uziya enjoyable. He will also be a good contact for our next year's project of bringing our kids to Israel for Marya's Bat as he knows the better tour guides and companies in Israel and he is willing to help us make contact with them.
All the grocery stores were closed for Shabbat, so we headed out to a favorite restaurant open on Shabbat and an easy 20 minute walk from our apartment. After a satisfying meal, we headed back to unpack and I assembled our bikes for the next day.
We were up early on Saturday morning and for breakfast, Nimi made her gluten-free oatmeal with banana and apple she had brought, and I had some fresh bread I brought back from dinner the night before and a granola bar. Not exactly filling, but we were keen to begin our bike trek to Har baHar, a scenic rest/restaurant stop popular for cyclists and tourists high up in the Jerusalem forest. It's only 25 km from the apartment, but the long, steep climbs make it seem longer. The sky is perfect clear blue but the temperature quickly rose to over 32C.
On our return to the city, we cycled directly to the YMCA ( a beautiful old building) near the King David Hotel for a leisurely, well-deserved lunch on the patio. Their terrace restaurant is a popular stop as almost all the other restaurants are closed on Shabbat.
On our return to the apartment, Nimi immediately collapsed on the sofa.
We will relax until Shabbat is over and we can get our much need groceries.
We should hear from our friends Peter and Susan arriving today and will meet them for dinner.
Tomorrow, Peter and I start work at the clinic.
