Visit to Ariel University

I went from Tel Aviv to Ariel, pretty elegantly with the Moovit app.  The bus to Ariel was a local, and I took a few photos on Highway 5.  The bus fare surprised me because it was so low (NIS 11).  My receipt was marked "50%", so I thought I got the senior discount by mistake, but all the fares past the green line are 50%.  Hmm.  Once we got past Petach Tikvah, the traffic thinned, but there was more than I expected.  There is no security check going east, only westbound.  It is very quick and efficient.

The fence

Olive trees along Highway 5

Rivka planned to meet me at the last stop (that's a stop I can definitely find), which is on the edge of the Ariel University campus.  I got to meet Chancellor Yigal Cohen Orgad (a former MK and one of the founders of Ariel University).

Ariel is on top of a mountain, and campus and town housing cascades down the side.  Civil engineering department head Yuri Ribakov took me up to large balcony off the President's reception area that has a wonderful view of the campus.

View to east (most of the houses are not campus)

View of the lower campus

New library under construction

View to west

I didn't get any photos of the upper campus, where engineering is.  The elevation of the city is 600 m.  My colleague, Dr. Rivka Gilat took me to dinner in Tel Aviv, after she taught class and I met with a few professors and saw the CE labs.  I caught a late train back to Beer Sheva, luckily got a cab in Beer Sheva, and went to bed.