9th March 2009

Today has been a very long day and it is not over yet. I am typing this whilst awaiting the flight to Heathrow, which has been delayed at the moment 30 minutes. We are not concerned about the connection to Manchester yet but watch this space!!

This morning we visited the Maghain Aboth shul, which is very close to the city centre. the street that it is on is also full of temples and at least one church. On arrival at the shul which is a beautiful white building, the gates were closed and we were questioned by the security man who asked for I.D. (driving licence was OK) and also which shul we attended in Manchester. Once they had established we were kosher they let us in. What struck us the most was how light and spacious the building was. Not overly ornate the serenity of the building was quite impressive. To one side of the shul is a separate building which houses a memorial room, a cheder, kosher shop, restaurant, offices and the Rabbi's residence. We went into the shop which is not very big but seemed to contain most of the basic foodstuffs. The meat, prepacked, comes from Australia but there was also the familiar Osem brands, etc. Not really intending to buy anything we left with a couple of kippot!
We returned to the hotel as we had to vacate the room by 2 pm, changed into our travelling clothes and decided to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon. Having arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 7 pm, we were surprised when he turned up 30 minutes early. We had hoped that by being early we could get 4 seats together so that we wouldn't be disturbing anyone else, unfortunately it is a full flight and the best they can offer us is 2 and 2 which means that whoever is on the aisle will be disturbed as Rosalyn and I like to get up and wander about on a long flight.
At 10.25 pm we are still waiting for the plane, the gate has now been moved and we hope that is the end of all the changes. I am closing now. Once I have got over my jetlag I will post a final comment about the holiday, including bits I forgot to mention at the time and any thoughts that I hope you will find interesting.