First task was getting to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport. Thanks to Google I was waiting at the correct place at the right time for an empty bus which took me from the village of Migdal to the larger town of Tiberias. Fortunately I had a bus card that I acquired in Jerusalem as cash is no longer accepted on buses to minimise Coronavirus transmission, the first few seats were also taped off to protect the driver.
At Tiberias I added money to my bus card so I had enough to pay for the next leg to Tel Aviv. As I wandered back to where the bus was due to leave in 20 minutes the driver of a group taxi (a minibus picking up several passengers) told me buses to Tel Aviv were cancelled. Although a nearby official seemed to confirm this I had some doubts. He was leaving immediately. As the price he quoted was not excessive, and as he might have been telling the truth, I went with him. He tried hard to pick up other passengers at bus stops en route but without success. As I was the only one in the taxi as he approached Tel Aviv, between long phone calls he offered to take me to the airport for a larger but still reasonable amount. So I ended up at Terminal 1 Ben Gurion airport at 9:30 am, however, all international flights had now been consolidated in Terminal 3. A shuttle bus took me there a short time later.
Last night I had booked an Easyjet flight on my smart phone for this evening to make sure I had a plane, I now changed it to an afternoon flight. Still left me plenty of time to finish reading my book (Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries, an excellent read recommended by my cousin)! Despite pictures on the news of empty planes, mine was three quarters full. Only peculiarity was the person opposite me in a paper coverall complete with hood, face mask, large plastic safety glasses and transparent, plastic gloves. He was either trying to avoid catching the Coronavirus or already had it and did not want to spread it. One reason the flight had a good number of people was that many other flights had been cancelled. A distressed lady grabbed my arm as we left the plane and showed me a Wizz air boarding pass to Budapest. Wizz air had stopped flying from Israel a few days ago and so she had been redirected via Luton where Wizz air was still flying. Luton I discovered is not designed for international transfers or passengers whose English is mainly their relative on the phone. Having established from a helpful man on the baggage desk that no bags would have been checked through direct to Budapest she had to fret a while waiting for her baggage to come through. I then took her through to the Wizz air check in desk to drop off her hold luggage and onto security. My good Samaritan bit must have been noticed in heaven as I somehow managed to catch an earlier train to Cardiff that "The Trainline", thought I would miss. Home just after midnight.
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