Jerusalem: Meeting the Group

After coordinating them for eleven years, I truly believe in the benefits and value of Road Scholar programs. They attract people—no longer just seniors—who are intensely interested in the world around them. They are generally well-educated, often with professional positions as doctors, teachers, engineers. They want to learn and they want quality in their travel.

When I made the decision to go to Israel, my first thought was to find a Road Scholar program to go along with the visit to Betty and Doobie. The first one selected was a hiking adventure, based on the Israel National Trail. That program cancelled due to lack of enrollments a couple of months prior to departure. Although it didn’t seem so at the time, it was a lucky break. The alternate proved to be an an even better bargain, including both Israel and Jordan. It was called “Israel and Jordan: The Journey of a Lifetime,” and the title proved prophetic.

I expected to be impressed by the tour guides, group leaders, instructors and accommodations. I was.

I expected to bond with the group and find much in common with many of them. I did.

We were a group of 22 individuals, a mix of singles and couples, from all parts of the United States, along with a couple from Canada. California, Texas,  Oregon, Illinois, New York, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Maryland were the starting points. We all had varying reasons for doing this trek, but we all wanted to experience and learn.  Some were religious, some especially interested in the archeological and historical significance of this land.

Jill/Gila Rosenfield served as both tour guide and group leader for the Israel portion of our journey, and I have never experienced a better-prepared instructor nor a more caring group leader. She knew every step we would take and the best manner to approach it. Originally from Zimbabwe, she’d emigrated to Israel many years before and had been a licensed tour guide for about eighteen years.

Instructors and group leaders often embody very different functions. The duties of the instructor are obvious from the title. A group leader is responsible for everything else from making sure that everyone arrives safely, gets their housing, makes it to meals, understands the program, makes it on and off the bus safely at each stop—and makes sure that everyone has fun doing it. Gila accomplished all of the functions of both jobs with aplomb. She made us all feel welcome and involved and was a gracious host at all times.

When we appeared at the dining room for our first meal, I knew I was in trouble. The Prima Kings hotel serves a splendid buffet for every breakfast and dinner, and it was impossible not to load the plate with a little of everything, so I did. I was already far off the diet I stuck to at home, but it got even worse in Jerusalem with an array of meats, fish, the ever-present salads—and desserts to die for. Diet be damned. It got to be a joke after a while to see how many desserts could be crammed onto a plate.

At a brief meeting after dinner, we got further acquainted with our companions and had an opportunity to introduce ourselves formally. Gila gave us our instructions for the following day, which involved getting up early enough to dressed, breakfasted and on the bus by 8:15 am. She even set up wakeup calls for us to make sure we didn’t oversleep. A couple us had an advantage that we’d been in Israel a few days and had managed to shake off any jet lag already.

The next morning would begin our exploration of Jerusalem with a side trip to Bethlehem.