TLV-LHR
23/08/09
Sunday morning came around all too quickly in Tel Aviv, and heralded our departure from the intriguing state of Israel.
Our flight was at 17.05pm which gave us enough time to have a relaxing morning, for me to do my 10 lengths in the pool and to grab a nice brunch at an Israeli eatery. I had gotten quite used to the Shakshouka, essentially two fried eggs cooked with tomatoes, onions and bell peppers, served in a skillet with lashings of bread, labnah and olives. Mmm.
We checked out of the hotel around 1pm and headed to Ben Gurion airport, which takes around 30 minutes. Our taxi driver was a very interesting chap, keen to hear of life in London and, as always, talk about the state of football in our proud Country.
Id read on the internet that security was quite strict at the airport so we thought to leave a little more time though this wasnt really needed. You pass through a security check before getting to the check-in desks. Its a simple affair, your checked baggage is screened and you are asked some simple questions, such as did anyone give you any gifts or presents and has your luggage left your sight since you packed it. The lady screening us did explain that the questioning was for our safety as they had to determine whether any bombs or explosives could have made their way into your luggage. I have to say that the lady processing us was nothing short of polite and courteous. After retrieving our checked bag we headed to the area where the BA check-in operates from. They were not there yet but you could see the British Airways name burnt into the LCD screen so we waited there and availed ourselves of the free WiFi in Ben Gurion airport. Just before 2pm the BA staff arrived. A small queue of Brits had amassed behind us and we were all promptly seen to. Our boarding passes were printed off and an invitation to the Dan lounge written out for us. Id advise not getting to TLV much before 2pm as all youll have to do is wait around.
We headed to passport control to receive our exit stamp which was done very quickly and without issue. Another security check point, hand baggage this time, and we were through without any real issues. I generally beep going through security (my fertile imagination likes to think that I have some metal implant in my body from being abducted by aliens, but in reality its probably my underwire) so I was asked to stand on this strange box, placing my feet where the foot shapes are, and in a few moments my shoes are x-rayed and scanned, assuring the staff that my shoes hide no weapons of mass destruction and relieving me from having to walk barefoot on the floor. Great devices, why dont we have any at Heathrow!
With that we headed to the Dan lounge, situated by gate C1, and settled down for some light refreshments and abuse of their free internet access. The lounge had a number of drinks available and lots of cookies, cakes and sweet things. There was also a small salad bar with various dips.
After an hour or two in the lounge we became restless in waiting for the gate to be called. Richard went to do a little duty free shopping while I nursed a Tuborg and he came back with three bottles of Israeli wine for us to enjoy at home. Bravo. A short while later we had a visit from whom I guess were government or state officials as an old couple entered the lounge accompanied by four or five suit-clad men with wires in their ears. They performed a sweep of the toilets, telling the cleaner to halt her work, then swept around the lounge. The whole time I had no idea who the old looking couple were. He looked almost like Tony Hart, silver haired with a blue shirt and cream slacks on, but older and with a few liver spots. It made me wonder at the efficiency of security personnel; I had no idea who the silvery haired gentleman and his wife were, but the security personnel alerted me to the fact that they were obviously somebody important.
Soon enough our flight was called, about 30 minutes behind schedule. We made our way to gate C7 to see Speedbird waiting for us. Sadly, no priority boarding was in effect and we were stuck behind a Chassidic family that had about 8 children. The little ones looked like Russian dolls with an inch or so between all of them in height. As a personal believer in the Overpopuation theory I can but gasp when I see couples breeding so intensively, but i guess Jebus did tell us to be fruitful and multiply .....
Soon we were boarding the 777 back to Heathrow. We took our seats, 14A&B to find that the family with their 8 children were sat directly next to us, and several of their children were wailing and crying. This wasnt how we wanted to spend the next 4.5-5 hours so Richard asked the Purser if there were any other free seats and she moved us to 11 G&F as that whole row was empty. Brilliant.
The purser came round with the newspapers and we sat and read while waiting for take-off. We were around half an hour late by now, though the Captain commented that we should be away shortly. Menus and amenity kits were distributed by the crew, and todays menu was as follows:
Dinner
Starters
Salmon gravlax with crme fraiche
Panzanella salad with Pecorino
Fresh seasonal salad with vinaigrette
Main
Fillet of beef with pot roasted root vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes
Rock bass fillet with tomato, herb and red onion salsa
Chicken and minted tomato okra stew
Herbed polenta with mushroom bolognaise
Chilled main course salad of baby arugula with grilled vegetables and marinated beans
Dessert
Mixed berry cheesecake
Swiss or goats cheese with grapes, celery and lavosh
A selection of fruit
Wines were the same as on my outbound flight.
We soon took off, with a flight time of just over 4 and a half hours. As soon as they were allowed, the crew came around with hot towels and then took dinner orders. Richard opted for the beef, myself for the chicken, both declining the starters. As much as we joke about the gloop on VS flights, I really do like the soup option and miss it on BA.
The first drinks service then started. I asked the young steward what Gins they had onboard today as I fancied a G&T, he named a few brands and as soon as he said Tanqueray I said that Id love a Tanq and tonic. The young steward set about mixing my drink and mentioned that hed love one himself as that was his tipple. He opened the cart and insisted that I take another miniature for a second helping, handing over another mini Tanq and can of tonic, then presented me with my G&T with a slice of lime no less. Well, you cant get much better than that really, can you? I quaffed the first one and slowly enjoyed the second while finishing off the papers.
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3943.jpg[/img]
Trays then came around for dinner, and I was given my chicken dish, which I really enjoyed. It didnt really look like stew to be honest, not as I know stew but it was very flavoursome and just what I wanted. I washed that down with a glass of the Riesling. Richard was happy with his beef course too.
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3944.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3945.jpg[/img]
We both fancied the berry cheesecake pudding so had that to follow and it was equally delicious, but then I find that its normally quite difficult to make a pudding that isnt tasty!
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3946.jpg[/img]
I should have given up at this stage but I thought I might as well finish up with the cheese, so had that with a glass of the Warres port. You can never have enough port, and the cheese was the perfect end to a very yummy meal.
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3947.jpg[/img]
At some point during the meal Richard nudged me and indicated for me to look over to the other side of the cabin, where we saw a gentleman with a large take-out McDonald bag on his tray as he sat there woofing down what I guess was a Bigmac and fries. You had to laugh, and laugh I did. Especially when I saw his wife lean forward and noticed that she too had a McDonalds bag. And there was me thinking that the catering onboard was very good!
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3948.jpg[/img]
After that little lot hit my stomach I felt quite tired and ready for a little doze. I headed to the washroom before bedding down to find all of the washrooms in use. The mother of the 8 children came over and started banging on the doors of the washrooms, shed apparently lost one of her children and wanted to check that it wasnt in the washroom, much to the surprise of the disgruntled chap who opened the door to one of the washrooms and enquired as to why she was banging on the door. She looked at me, apparently trying (unsuccessfully) to gain support from a fellow female and said to the gentleman that hed obviously never had a five year old. Her children were not too badly behaved on the flight but the child she was looking for did make a habit of running up and down the aisles a few times and generally not sitting where he was told to, typically when the crew were trying to serve food. At one point the child ran up into First and back again and I joked with the crew that they needed a cattle prod.
I got back to my seat, reclined to almost flat and had a good doze. I didnt feel hot in the cabin and I really could have got a good bit of sleep if the flight had been longer. I think I got about an hour or just under an hour when the Captain came on to tell us that we had 40 minutes to landing. 15 minutes later the cabin lights came on in full force and it was time to secure the cabin. We landed shortly afterwards and there was only a short moment of waiting before we were on a stand. No bus yay!
We disembarked the aircraft into a rather quiet T5 and made our way to IRIS. No queue there, and we were both through very quickly. It looks like IRIS has had an update as the length of time taken to do the recognition was literally seconds where before it could take around 20. We headed down to the baggage area and waited about 10 minutes for the bags to come out. What is it with people when on seeing someone stood at the belt with a clear meter between them and the belt they have this need to position themselves right infront of that person? This really irks me as I get it quite a lot and as I am not particularly tall it usually means that I now cant see the bags on the belt either. The family with their 8 children also appeared, with three of the children joining their father who was stood practically on the belt he was that close. Why? Why do people get so possessive over the bag belt and have to get so close? Ill never understand it.
Our bags came off reasonably quickly, it was hard to tell if priority baggage had worked but our bags were tagged as priority. We exited through the green channel, out into the terminal and back to the car park to retrieve our vehicle and head home.
In summary, the return flight was really good. I greatly enjoyed the food onboard, the crew were very good and certainly very helpful in moving us when we didnt want to be sat next to the children as I appreciate not everyone shares our views on the little darlings so it was nice to see that the crew member in question was eager to assist. I really cant think of any negative regarding the flight, other than the lack of priority boarding at the airport. With this flight making me BA Silver again, theres certainly some very hot competition for VS in our household when the time comes to look at our next vacation.
. A fun TR enlivened by the piccies. I really ought to remember to put my camera into flight safe mode before I take off on my next jaunt. The belt thing REALLY gets me too...
