A fond farewell...

...and a new adventure begins. Having settled in and discovered where the best restaurants are for breakfasts we're now moving on. Israel beckons. It's only three years ago when we were last there, but there was so much more that we had wanted to see but had run out of time. Besides, there are Brian's second cousins - Gil in Jerusalem and his sister Esther in Tel Aviv - and their respective families - whom we were keen to see again.

Despite our protestations Panni had heroically agreed to collect us from the boat and take us to the airport. As mentioned, our hotel was in a really great location - just so long as one didn't need to park a car nearby. However we got there in the end and we were able to bid our farewells to Panni at the airport.

We reached Tel Aviv via Istanbul pretty much on time, but then made a bad choice. Of all the immigration queues we had to choose the one where the immigration officer was running his own personal go-slow campaign and was taking about five times as long per passenger as any of his colleagues in the adjacent booths. Once we emerged, it was great to see my second cousin Gil and his lovely wife Mira, who had been waiting patiently for our arrival. We then headed back to their place in Mevaseret Zion, a pleasant leafy suburb on the outskirts of Jerusalem.Read more