Arriving in Israel

We flew to Tel Aviv from Washington Dulles on Lufthansa/Austrian Air via Frankfurt and Vienna. When you get frequent flyer tickets a few months before flying you are generally at the mercy of the airlines for schedules and connections. Upon arriving at the check in desk at Dulles we found that they had checked our bags through only as far as Vienna. I figured there was some security reason and the bags would be checked automatically and sent through to our final destination. When I asked if we would need to get our boarding passes in Vienna for our final leg to Tel Aviv the very nice Lufthansa person looked shocked/surprised.

"Vienna is not your final destination?"
"Uhhhhh, no."
"Give me a minute to check this sir (runs from the desk to the back room)."

After an hour of trying to figure this out we finally get our correct boarding passes and our bags are properly checked through. Everyone at Lufthansa was exceptionally nice and helpful throughout this process. I have no issues at all with them, we were just getting a little nervous when we saw that our flight was beginning to board and we were still at the counter (getting to the gates at Dulles can be a 30-60 min ordeal).

We sprint down to where the new security checkpoint is and the line is relatively short (20-30 people ahead of us). We get through that to the xray machines and directly in front of us is the cutest little old couple. The have about 8 bags each and they feel the need to check through each one individually for items they may have missed. Clearly, they took the requests of the airlines seriously and arrived a good 4-6 hours before their flight was scheduled to leave. They were in no rush.
Literally 10 minutes later we finally get through security and have to sprint down the huge corridor to the gates. The new connector at Dulles is very similar to the one at Ohare in Chicago.......endless. We get on the plane just before they close the doors and settle in for the next 15 hours.

Our flights are mostly uneventful and our anticipation builds as we our on our last leg to Tel Aviv. When we land in Frankfurt at 5AM the boys are restless and want to run around. There are people movers all over the terminal (which is mostly desolate at this time of day) so I let them run and play on these against my better judgment (even though my wife's voice is ringing in my ears, "Do you want them to get hurt before they even get there?").










We keep tracking the inflight map to see where we are and as we get closer we begin to see Israel for the first time. We were incredibly excited (deliriously tired from having barely slept) and couldn't wait to land. After landing we get through Customs and Immigration, find our bags (which surprisingly made it all the way through with us) and exit expecting to find Bubbie and Saba there waiting for us. Nope. We wander over to Steimansky's where we agreed to meet. Nope. We park ourselves at some nearby seats and wait for a few minutes until we see them wandering around. hugs and kisses all around and then its off to Jerusalem.