Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #29, #28, #27, #26, #25, #24,  #23, #22, #21, #20, #19, #18, #17, #16, #15a, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1

In my post about my adventure on the new Jerusalem High Speed Train, I mentioned that my friend and I found that getting back up to street level in Jerusalem was difficult. We couldn't find "up escalators," and there were terrible crowds trying to get on the much too few elevators immediately after the train arrived.

While looking for "up escalators" I noticed the public toilets, so of course I had to try out the ladies loo.

The good news was that there was toilet paper, but the bad news was that it didn't flush. The bowl was full of paper, and I couldn't get it to flush at all. The mechanism was already broken, just a few weeks after the train service and station had opened to the public.

I should have tried the train's WC, but I was too busy trying to take pictures of the countryside as we sped by. There was very little time, since the entire ride was just over twenty 20 minutes.

If you can update the information about the public toilets in the new Jerusalem train station, please comment, thanks.

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.

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #4, First Station

Please check out #3, #2 and #1 of the series. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments, thanks.

Yesterday I had some amazing "tremps," aka rides aka hitchhiking...

I ended up catching a ride in Ofra to Jerusalem. My hearing is awful, so I wasn't quite sure where they were taking me, but they said Derech Hebron, near the Menachem Begin Heritage Center which is close to Matan where I study once a week. That was perfect, since the Begin Center is a short walk from the Liberty Bell Park public toilets, which I've written about in #2 of this series.

But when he stopped to let me (and his wife) off, I saw that we were in front of the "First Station," the newly opened fun place, which had once been the Jerusalem Train Station, when a train ride to Tel Aviv or Haifa was a long picturesque indirect adventure.

And then it hit. There definitely are public toilets in the First Station, and since I saw people entering with exercise mats, (I could see that there was some sort of class about to start) the WC's must be open. And at my age, I've had to develop a good sense of where to find them.

Maybe it's because  this "fun spot" was supposed to appeal to the more secular Jerusalemite, or parents, sometimes fathers with daughters or mothers with sons, or whatever the reason, but this is an "everyone" public toilet. No public peeing for the men. Stalls for all.

It could have been because the morning cleaning and maintenance  hadn't yet been done because it was still a bit early, but there wasn't any toilet paper in my stall. Luckily I found some crumpled up tissue in my pocket. There wasn't a hook for my bag either, so I was forced to put it on the not too clean floor.

But as they say in business, location is everything, and I was happy to find a reasonably clean WC just a few steps from where I entered. It's to the right of the main entrance.

You can see the people exercising if you look closely.

I didn't have the time to search out the other WC options there and have no doubt that during their main opening hours there are many more. If you can add information, then please write a comment, thanks.

I found the other way out, which took me closer to Emek Refa'im and got to class safely on time.

Take The Train! First Time for Me on The Israeli Railways

I don't know how long Israel has had the train I took to the airport a few short weeks ago.  Decades and decades ago, there was a totally different train system.  I took it maybe a couple of times. For sure once my husband and I took it from Jerusalem to as far north as it went, and we went to Nahariya.  But I'm a total stranger to this new rail system.  At least I had been...

When I had been trying to figure out how I'd get to the airport, my husband discovered that one of the families he had tried to invite himself for a Shabbat meal could help in a different way.  The wife was going to the airport the same night, but would be detouring first.  So, instead of getting a ride directly to the airport, they dropped me off at the train Rosh Ha'ayin train station.

I was in phone contact with a daughter of mine who sort of coached me through the challenge of traveling on the train, especially since I had to change trains mid trip.  And of course I asked everyone sitting near me, by just saying outloud:

"Where do I transfer to the airport?"

People are so helpful in Israel.  And they even gave me the correct directions!

Now, I can't say that "I've never been on the trains here."

PS I wouldn't recommend it without help if you have a suitcase and not enough hands and strength to carry everything you need at the same time, but since I only had "carry-ons," I managed fine, B"H.