Wheels Up

Very early Monday morning, we got up to leave Jerusalem. It was still dark, and folks in the neighborhood were still asleep. We were flying out of Israel to go to Germany, which was our next stop on our trip, but having to get up at 3am to leave was a little unusual. The 16 tourists crammed into two taxis, along with our luggage and drove to Tel Aviv and the airport. No more being afraid. We got to the airport, but still had fear in the back of our heads. How far did their tentacles reach? The security at the airport was impressive. Sandra gave her wooden camel to me to carry, as she had a lot of other stuff. There was an Arab businessman in front of me in the security line. He said he sold tractors and was on his way to Paris. The security people would not let him board the plane. He protested saying that his business depended on him going to Paris, but they said no. Another man had his dirty underwear inside a vase. The security people went through the underwear to look at the vase. That was kind of gross. Then, they came to me. They opened my vitamins and looked at them. They also looked at the camel. I told them that it was made of wood, but they wanted to make sure there wasn't anything inside the camel, so they broke it in half to determine it was solid. Then, they gave it back to me in two halves. Sandra was very upset. I told her that maybe we could glue it back together, but it would never be the same. With all of the security, they never asked me about my penknife, which was quite strange. We boarded the plane for Frankfurt, and we breathed a sigh of relief with "wheels up". We were free of Sam, Omar and Sam. It may have been something of an international incident. If anyone believes that the Agency doesn't use ordinary people, think again. So, we headed to Frankfurt, West Germany. There was a layover there, and we had lunch at the airport--hamburgers and cokes. At last, food that we knew. The bill was $15 for five hamburgers and five cokes, which was a lot back then, but it was worth it. Talula grew up in the country of South Carolina and raised cows. There was a giant sculpture of a cow in the middle of the airport. It was quite a sight, probably advertising milk, but she felt it was a little like home. From Frankfurt, we boarded a plane to Berlin. The new plane had pilots that could fly into East Germany. Apparently, pilots had to be approved by East Germany to go into their airspace. We arrived at the Berlin airport, and I got the distinct feeling that I had come home. My Durst family was from Germany. I also have a strong interest in the history of World War II. When we were in the elevator at the airport, heading toward our bus, I was humming "Deutschland Uber Alles". I got some stares, but it didn't matter. I was home. By the time we got to our hotel, it was dark. We had been told not to give up our passports no matter what. But, the hotel asked us to give them our passports for us to be checked out. Mr. Vivian told us to do so. What if something happened to us? We had just left Israel, where we had been threatened. Our passports were our security. Now, we didn't have that security. The girls and I took a short walk near the hotel, just to see Berlin at night. The city was alive with lights and traffic. We counted our blessings of being away from Israel, and we were going to have fun again. Hopefully.