Israel Diary, Day 1 - Part 2

In Geneva, all the rest of we frummies, possibly totaling over 10 men but nobody was weird enough to try anything, davened shacharit on our own at different times and different places. This was not good for Rashbi who arrived 40 minutes late to the switch-off and demanded to the bewildered Swiss and bored Israelis that he needed to herd us together for a minyan. He succeeded in doing so on the plane, before it took off. The first leg of the trip was on Swiss(air), the second leg was El-Al -- who're used to having the crazy Hat People take over the galley with their mumbling.

For the most part, things were smooth and we landed in Israel with aplomb, saw no real trouble getting to our hotel, the Dan Panorama. Like many things in Israel, the hotel has been renamed from the popular earlier name to an obscure nonsense name (cf. Inbal). The Panorama is the old Moriah hotel whose only distinction before this, in my book, was that it was across the street from the last 161 stop in Jerusalem (back in 1991 when I was in 'Hamivtar). My wife is still bemused by my habit of pointing out both 161 bus stops in Jerusalem and when the buses pass by. Old Psychotic habits die hard.

The hotel is full. Yay. Filled with weird Europeans, true, but its great to see so many people in one hotel. The neighboring hotels look deserted (esp. the King Solomon which is right next door). Alas, my compassion is tempered by my dyed-inna-wool capitalism. Originally, we had arranged to stay in the Solomon but they refused to give us a reduced rate. The Panorama is $10 cheaper than all comparable hotels (and that's significant over 12 days!). Score one for capitalism.