The most comfortable way to get to Tel Aviv on public transportation is to take the bus from Tsfat to Akko, take the train from Akko to Tel Aviv, and take a local bus out to the dental clinic (at the Asuta Hospital in the Atidim area of Tel Aviv). In fact, we're actually cheating just a little, since we drive our car into town in Tsfat and park near the Central Bus Station rather than riding the local bus in.
The train ride between Haifa and Tel Aviv is really very beautiful. Most of the way, the train passes through idyllic farm country, with green fields (thanks to the recent rains) and pleasant fruit orchards and even banana groves. In several places there are soaring eucalyptus trees near the tracks. In Herzliya, there are some lovely large houses (called "villas" here in Israel) not far away.
Here are a few vignettes from the 2 trips this week.
Yesterday as pulled out of Karmiel on our way down, I happened to notice a sign on the back of the Egged bus that was right in front of ours. It read ואהבת לנהגך כמוך. I immediately caught the Torah reference. The line translates to "And thou shalt love thy driver as thyself." I deliberately used the King James English here to give you a little flavor of how this must sound to Israeli ears.
On our return trip yesterday, when we arrived at the train station and saw a northbound train that was going to Binyamina. I said, "Let's get on this train. We can get off at Binyamina and then catch the next northbound train from there." It was only AFTER we were well underway that I remembered that many of the express trains do not STOP at Binyamina. While we were pondering this, I heard some announcement about getting off at Beit Y'hoshua to catch a train to points further north. However, I must have misunderstood the announcement, because, after watching 2 or 3 northbound trains blow through the station, I checked the schedule and it looked like there might be no more trains from there to Akko that day! We went under the tracks (in the pedestrian tunnel) to catch a southbound train back to Tel Aviv, but then we heard at announcement that the next northbound train would go to Binyamina from where we could catch a train further north. This announcement was very clear, so we rushed back through the tunnel to the other side and managed to get on the train in time. Sure enough, when we got to Binyamina and got off that train, the next train arrived almost immediately, and we continued our journey back to Akko. All in all, my mistake probably got us home 30-60 minutes later than we would have if we had just waited for the next express train in Tel Aviv. The one good thing is that I'm getting pretty good at catching train announcements in Hebrew!
Today (Monday) was a rainy day. Just after we got off the train at the University Station in Tel Aviv, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and it began to rain. When we emerged from the tunnel linking the train station, which is in the middle of the Ayalon Freeway, to the east side, we had to put up our umbrellas for the walk to the bus stop, which has a roof. Just as we got there, a motor scooter pulled up and parked, and the rider came in under the roof, as well. A few seconds later, a second motor scooter rider also joined us under the bus stop roof. At this point a fairly friendly argument ensued between one of the other people waiting for a us and one of the scooter guys. I really didn't get much of the topic except to hear some mention about fuel and, I think, fuel prices. I did have to chuckle to myself when I heard the obviously secular rider (no kipah) say כתוב בתורה ("It's written in the Torah ...")!
Today, we had learned well from our experiences yesterday, and so we caught the express train with no problem and had an uneventful ride to Akko, and from there home by bus. Although we arrived back home rather tired, we felt good that we had managed well today. Public transportation is not so bad!
