Israel 2,
July 5, 2026,
Hi Everyone,
I never had so many missed flights and cancellations on 1 trip. In the end I flew from Paris to Vienna and then onward to Tel Aviv, arriving at 5:00 am on Sunday having being in transit for 36 hours door to door. That is a record for me that I hope not to duplicate in future voyages. The stop overs through Rome or Athenes were cancelled along the way as I kept missing connections. I was lucky however, as the flights were not over booked. I easily found 3 seats together on 2 of the flights so I was able to stretch out and sleep.
I picked up a car at the airport but didn’t want to open the phone to use the GPS as that would have been expensive without an Israeli SIM card. I have forgotten my way around Tel Aviv so I wandered around on different street until I found the road along the sea. From there it was an easy hop, skip and a jump to my hotel. I now have an Israeli SIM card with an Israeli phone number but the same email address.
The hotel Maxim staff greeted me warmly on my arrival. This morning I walked around Dizengoff Sq and presented myself to several bookshops. They suggested that I contact the manager on the website to sell my book. Back at the hotel, Saeed, the manager of the hotel, and I worked on making a short advertising note for my Swords of Iron book which will be placed on the Maxim Hotel website.
It was a little cloudy in the morning until the sun broke through the clouds leaving a few wispy ones in its place. It was 30 C with a slight warm breeze. The water was warm and there were 1.5m waves. Much of the beach was black flagged with certain areas open for swimming and surfing. I did some body surfing and then swam out to the breakwater, 250m off shore. I was the only swimmer who ventured that far from shore. I then did my 1st 5k run of the season along the beach. Even though it was rather hot, the breeze and the proximity to the water made the run rather pleasant.
Love,
Brian
gobriantravel 
Well done!!
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