Wheels Up

We had been told the night before to expect to leave early in the morning for Tel Aviv. We just didn't know how early. At 3am, we all 16 of us were piled into two cabs and taken to the airport. It was a last minute decision to get us out under darkness, so the boys wouldn't find out. Even at the airport in Tel Aviv, I was worried that their tentacles stretched out to the airport. The security in the airport was amazing, including body searches. Sandra had bought a wooden camel for her pastor back home. They x-rayed it, but couldn't see everything, so they broke it in half. She was pretty mad, but what could you do? We carried the two halves the rest of the trip. They opened up my vitamin bottle and broke the vitamins. But, they never asked about my knife. There was an Arab man in front of me with an urn filled with dirty socks. He was on his way to Paris on business, but they wouldn't let him get on his plane. We were flying to Frankfurt Germany. Due to the paranoia of the last few days, we were constantly looking over our shoulders. It wasn't until the plane was "wheels up" did we feel safe. We all took a deep breath once we got in the air. No more Sam, Omar and Sam. No more spying for the US. We were going to have fun again. We got to the Frankfurt airport, and there was a giant cow sculpture inside. I think it was advertising milk. Talula had come from a dairy farm back home, so it was good to see something she was familiar with. We flew from Frankfurt to Berlin. I was looking forward to seeing some things from World War II, as I have been a student of that era all my life. But, I had an unusual feeling landing in Berlin. I was back home. I had never been there before, but my family was from Germany 300 years before. It was in my blood. I did get strange looks in the elevator at the airport for humming the German national anthem. We got to our very nice hotel, and the girls and I took a stroll around the city center. It was a great break from the last few days in Israel, where we almost caused an international incident.