Start of the pilgrimage Jan. 15, 2016 flying from San Francisco to Tel Aviv

Today we leave for Tel Aviv to start our pilgrimage. Our flight on Turkish Airlines leaves at 6:10 pm and we will arrive on Jan. l6 in Tel Aviv at 9:15pm. The flight to Istanbul was over 11 hrs with a 1hr layover to change planes.

Check in went very smooth and we had time to hang out in the airport lounge before we board the plane. When it came time to board we went into the bus. class sections which was very spacious and not that many seats and most seats were full.

I could not believe the amount of legroom we got with our seats plus a foot locker/storage locker for our carryons. The seats were wide and comfortable.

Once we sat down the flight attendant offered us a glass of juice or champagne.

After the plane took off the flight attendants came down the aisles with tea trolleys which had tea lights for our trays as well as snacks. I chose to have a glass of raki with my appetizers.

We were then handed a menu so we could choose our dinner and our breakfast and the onboard chefs came round to take our orders and menus.  There were two on board chefs in our cabin.

After a wonderful dinner the attendants came by to bring tea or coffee with our desserts. I ordered Turkish coffee and it was really quite good.

After all the dishes were picked up the lights were dimmed so passengers could relax and watch a movie or read and then later the attendants came by to fix our bed. Each seat converts to a flat bed long enough to fit me easily and I am 6 " 2" tall.  A soft pad was put over the seat and we were given pillows. The tea lights went above ea. seat providing a soft light or glow in the cabin.

This is one time I really slept ok on a long flight- I flew business and premium economy on other airlines but the seats never went flat to allow for a restful sleep.

A couple of hours before we landed the attendants turned up the cabin lights and then came by with the tea trolleys to start serving coffee and juice. Once that was served they came by with appetizers and then the breakfast.

We arrived as scheduled and had to go through security to get on the plane to Tel Aviv. The one hour was barely enough time to get on the plane.

Flight to Tel Aviv must not have been too memorable as I cannot recall too many details. By this time we were tired and ready to get off the plane.

Our group was collected at the baggage claim and once all bags were in the hands of their owners did we proceed to the tour bus to go to our hotel in Tel Aviv.

Holy Land Pilgrimage Nov 2015

We have been searching to take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the last five years without success.
Either the date was not convenient or the itinerary was too exhausting.
In late October I received an email announcing a pilgrimage led by Metropolitan Nikitas in Jan. 2016.
Even though we had planned a Caribbean cruise late Jan. we quickly signed up for the pilgrimage.
The itinerary was very good, slow paced, and led by Metropolitan Nikitas who is well known to us.

When we went to select our flight from SFO to Jerusalem from the travel agent, we discovered that we on the west coast were limited to only  a few airlines that would arrive in Tel Aviv before midnight.  The group was flying Turkish Air and we had the travel agent explore if we could fly economy plus on the flight. Unfortunately the TA flight from SFO did not have economy plus class so we ended up booking business class. The total travel time was 18 hours - about 11 hours from SFO to IST.
Reading the TA web page Bus. class had flat beds allowing one to sleep during the flight in a normal position.