Adventure on The New Jerusalem High Speed Train

One great advantage of our age and being retired is the opportunity for spontaneity. There are very few strictly scheduled events to worry about. After a lovely lunch in Center 1 with friends from all over the world, my longtime buddy and I decided to take the lightrail to the center of Jerusalem. Since we had a few minutes before the trolly's arrival, she wanted to ask some questions at the nearby Navon Train Station of the new Jerusalem High Speed Train. The young man at Information informed us that "today," meaning yesterday, we didn't need advance reservations to take the new train to Ben Gurion Airport. All we needed was our trusty Rav-kav.

And so, within seconds, we were on our way. The young friendly help staff assisted us in "purchasing" our free roundtrip tickets. We're still young enough to enjoy an unplanned adventure.

We had read about the Jerusalem High Speed Train, which like when the lightrail was new, is offering free rides. I must admit that I had been nervous about the long escalator ride underground. I'm still traumatized by old wooden escalators in the London Underground at Kings Cross to the Northern Line, which I had taken forty-three years ago. I must tell you that these new Jerusalem escalators are wonderful. I felt very safe and didn't feel any ear pressure when we got deep underground to the tracks.

In keeping with the festive mood of the pre-opening of the Jerusalem High Speed Train, we were given little chocolates. It was clear that many of the passengers, including young families, were on the train as a lark, like us, but there were also quite a few who appeared to be legitimate airplane travelers. They had lots of luggage with them.

We sat in the upper part of the train and looked out of the window, but it was disappointing to discover that a large portion of the route was in tunnels. We could see at times that we were speeding much more quickly than the cars of the parallel road.

The biggest time-waster was when we got back to Jerusalem and couldn't find an up escalator. All there seemed to be were a few much-too-small elevators. They were crowded and slow in coming. I think that only one was actually working. If that's so, then Gd willing it should be easier to get up once they're all fully functioning.

For people who live in or near Jerusalem, the Jerusalem High Speed Train is great. To and from Shiloh it isn't. We're actually as close to the airport as we are to Jerusalem. That's another reason why I enjoyed yesterday's adventure. I may never have another real opportunity to take the train.

eating the free chocolate candy

The actual train ride is just over twenty minutes in each direction, and there's a train every half hour.

In just over 90 minutes we traveled to Ben Gurion Airport, walked around the arrivals area and took the train back to Jerusalem.

"Coming and Going..." My Most Successful 52Frames Photo So Far!

I'm going to be perfectly honest, IMHO, some of my other photos are just as nice, and I don't understand why this one got so many great comments and likes. It's rare for any of my photos to break out of the teens in comments and likes, so I was rather surprised to see this one I took "walking home" in the airport taking off so nicely.

Batya Medad
"Coming and Going..."Greeting from Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport! Yes, I'm home, thank Gd. As you can see, the airport is designed so that passengers coming and going can view each other easily. I love photographing the airport; it is so beautifully designed.
Camera: Canon Canon IXUS 145
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A new photo challenge in your inbox, each week. Join this amazing global community. Start here:http://bit.ly/52f-fbstart — with Batya Spiegelman Medad.

During the week I could take photos for the "" theme, I was in Arizona and then flew home to Shiloh, Israel. And I took lots of pictures with the theme in mind. It was hard to choose. I like these airport photos:

And I also thought it would be nice to shoot the view from the plane, but it looked a bit boring, especially since I was on night flights and had very little opportunity to look through a window.

There were also some amazing photos I took in Scottsdale, Arizona walking to the memory center where my father lives.

When I asked other framers for advice I just included the Arizona shots with the one of the Israeli airport. Advice was mixed. Considering the praises I received, I guess I chose well.

What do you think?

PS until now, my most successful/popular photo was the self-portrait from  2015.

It's not a better photo. The popularity was more because people were interested in how much I've changed in the almost half century since my high school graduation.

Coming and Going, Yes, I'm Back Home

Here's a picture I took while hiking through Ben Gurion International Airport (aka "Natbag") on my way to see my father and sister (and her family) in Arizona and cousins in Miami.

And here are pictures I took while hiking through Ben Gurion International Airport after my trip to Arizona and Miami.

Yes, Baruch Hashem, thank the Good Lord I'm back home safe and sound.

Nobody Believed It, So, Here's The Picture

When I flew out of "natbag," aka Ben Gurion International Airport last week, all of the departure boards said the same thing:

ON TIME

People love to complain about airport delays and flight cancellations, but that Monday morning the planes were leaving on time and the airport was running very efficiently. It certainly wasn't like that at JFK or even at the Phoenix airport.

There are more delays on Jerusalem roads when American officials, like Secretary of State Kerry or their President Obama comes calling nudging, butting into our business.  And then our roads from Jerusalem to Beit El are also closed for long periods of time... ok, but that's another story.

New York! New York! 2007, #1

I took about 232 pictures this summer, during my two and a half week visit to New York. They all fit on my 2 megabyte memory chip in my Cannon 620, 7.1 mega pixel camera. Even more impressive, I never had to change or recharge the four rechargeable AA batteries. And the batteries are so, bli eyin haraa, strong that they're still lighting up the camera, even after copying to the computer and deleting the pictures from the camera. Yes, I do recommend the camera, and I bought it in Jerusalem just before last year's trip. That means that Israelis should buy it locally, better service for sure, and the price was almost the same as in New York.

There were good and bad things about the trip in to New York.

I went El Al on a 4pm flight. It landed late the same day in New York. A cousin picked me up and took me to my parents. After unpacking a bit, I went to sleep and slept all night, sort of. I didn't wake to wake up until a perfectly decent hour. But that's getting ahead of the game.

The Ben Gurion Airport is enormous. Unless someone has medical problems which forbid walking, you should take advantage and walk around a lot before boarding the plane.



They have a cute section for kids to play in.



Yes, it's very, very big!


While waiting to board, which we did almost an hour late, lots of people dovened mincha, prayed the afternoon prayer.



In the air, what a sight! Though it didn't make up for the very crowded seats. There was hardly room to get up or sit down, and all of my pouches strapped to my waist, made me as big as a pregnant woman carrying twins, full-term! At least the food and service were fine.



The sun set. With such gorgeous views, it was worth getting up and peeking through the back windows. You know, it's very healthy to walk around in the plane. Don't sit too long.



I wish it was that easy to find my suitcase.



And I hope to get a full night's sleep tonight!