Playing it safe in Jerusalem

Martin and Tamar Brower

Our friends and relatives were apprehensive when we told them that we

were going to Israel on our own. Many of our friends are uneasy about

traveling anywhere abroad since Sept. 11, 2001.

We wanted to visit an uncle in Jerusalem who was going to have his

94th birthday.

Nearly all of our friends who have been to Israel since the

terrorist bombings began have gone with a tour. This provides the

comfort and safety of group travel with an experienced guide.

But we had been to Israel on numerous occasions, and we did not

need to tour -- we just wanted to visit relatives.

Landing in Ben Gurion Airport, we entered a fantastic new

terminal. At the airport, we picked up our rental car, which really

worried our friends at home. Israelis are known for their wild

driving habits. But we had driven in Israel before and knew we had to

be careful and not get flustered by the constant horn honking.

Taking Highway 1 from the airport to Jerusalem was easy, but

knowing where to exit the highway and how to find our hotel proved to

be an adventure.

After much questioning of pedestrians and other motorists, we

found our lovely hotel, the Dan Panorama, with its lavish buffet

breakfast.

It had been a number of years since we had been in Jerusalem, and

the first thing we noticed was a reduced show of security. On our

previous visits, we got used to searches at entrances to almost

everywhere and armed soldiers at the gates to the Old City. This

time, we wandered in and out of public spaces with few searches, and

we especially noticed that there were no visible soldiers at the Old

City.

An interesting side trip during our six days in Israel was our

one-hour drive to Kfar Saba to visit cousins. Kfar Saba was a small

town that has now grown into a sizable city.

The only downside of our trip was that February is the coldest

month in Jerusalem, and it was even supposed to snow -- a rare

occurrence -- but it only hailed. On our return, we stopped in London

for three days, and that was really cold.

Returning to Southern California, we found that we had missed the

big rainstorms, and as usual, it was good to be home.

-- Martin and Tamar Brower are Corona del Mar residents.

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