Crazy Saturday at the Olympics and travel advice for Israel

Crazy Saturday sees Olympic rings not lighting 

The opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi ended with a spectacular fireworks display and the traditional lightning of the cauldron on Friday as President Vladimir Putin used the occasion to showcase a new Russia to the world.

The ceremony hit a bump, however, when only four of the five Olympic rings materialised in a wintry opening scene.The five were supposed to join together and erupt in fireworks, but one snowflake failed to expand.

But everything worked fine for Vladimir Putin, who was seen enjoying all five rings in a picture taken in his presidential suite.

It turned out that Putin had been watching the Russian national broadcast feed, Rossiya, which cut to a footage of the five rings working perfectly from the opening ceremony's full rehearsal. Many others around the world meanwhile watched the Olympic Broadcast Services feed that showed the failed fifth ring.

Producers confirmed the switch, saying it was important to preserve the imagery of the Olympic symbols.
Konstantin Ernst, executive creative director of the opening ceremony, told reporters at a news conference that he called down to master control to tell them to go the practice footage when he realised what happened.

"The rings were the most simple technological thing. We know all the world shows (the opening ceremony), and I can tell you that taking into account the technical difficulty of the so called high mechanics we are the first who did it. All the rest (except the rings) went well," said Mr Ernst.

And now to Israel....

Road travel in Israel - recent update

Driving is erratic in Israle and there are frequent accidents. Radar speed traps operate on roads within Israel, and fines for speeding are high.

Be vigilant when using Route 443 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In January and February of this year, there have been recent media reports of stones and Molotov cocktails being thrown at cars on this road.

If you intend to drive in the West Bank, check that you are insured before setting out. It may be easier to arrange West Bank insurance at a hire company in East Jerusalem than from the major hire car companies in Israel.

In 2012 there were 263 road deaths in Israel (source: DfT). This equates to 3.3 road deaths per 100,000 of population compared to the UK average of 2.8 road deaths per 100,000 of population in 2012.

Make sure you are not one of them.

Contact RPS at [email protected] for more information on travel to Israel.

Photos: Sam Chruchill and Alistair Acroll

Thanks to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/10625925/Sochi-opening-ceremony-Why-Vladimir-Putin-saw-the-fifth-Olympic-ring.html for the full article