Au Revoir Paris Hello Tel Aviv

Since we still had a bit of time left before we had to call a cab to the airport, we stopped by a grocery store on the way back. It was a fancy one! All of the price tags on the shelves were digital.

Also, they had an entire section of flavored mayos???

After some difficulty, we got hold of the cab company and our driver arrived in a very fancy car in only about 3 minutes. We hardly had time to collect our bags and walk out the door! Very nice driver, too. There was even free wi-fi which made the drive go by so fast.

Check-in at the airport was not nearly so pleasant or quick. The line was HUGE and after we'd waited for quite and while and still not moved, we discovered we were in the wrong line. The second line was much quicker. The security line was also very fast, which gave us time to eat while we waited. Turned out we had plenty of time because our plane was late coming from Zurich, the very place we were headed. This meant our already short layover in Zurich was about to be much shorter.

Turns out we didn't really need to buy food at the airport. Even though it was only a one hour flight, they fed us sandwiches. They also provided gate info and an airport map for the five flights with the very same departure time.

Unfortunately, our gate was in a completely different terminal that was a train ride away. But God is good, and we made our flight. Whew!

Our second plane was not the greatest, but the flight was only 3 1/2 hours, very smooth and we got a hot meal before arriving at the Tel Aviv airport at 3am.

It was the first time we had been at an airport in the middle of the night that was so busy. There were people everywhere and everything was open. Turns out 3am is a popular departure and arrival time in Tel Aviv. But since we hadn't slept all night, it also meant it was tough to find a quiet spot to settle in and get some shut-eye before we had to meet our group at 10:30am.

Needless to say, that was easier said than done. Airport chairs are NOT comfy!

But while I was staring at the ceiling, trying to get some rest, I noticed that a large number of balloons had escaped the grasp of excited visitors...

Eventually, we just gave up and Walt and Dena arrived from their flight from London. So we moseyed upstairs to grab a bit of breakfast and try to stay awake until we moved back down to meet up with the rest of the tour group...