First travels abroad

Summer 2006

We decided to make our first trip to Europe with the kids and take a cruise, so we could see as much as possible in a short period of time. This was a great decision. We chose Princess cruises and absolutely loved it. We flew on Virgin Atlantic from LAX to London/Heathrow... It was about a 9-10 hour flight and Virgin does a great job of making you comfortable and entertaining the kids (who had their own satellite tv and movies at their seat)... We will always fly them if at all possible...
We got to London at around 12noon local time and were feeling OK, although neither my husband nor I can sleep on a plane... major bummer. But, our girls can and they were bright eyed and bushy tailed... We took a cab from the airport to our hotel to find that our room wasn't ready... and we had booked 1 room for 4 people... a big no-no in Europe... I did make the reservations stating it was 2 adults and 2 children. Whatever.
We decided to go have lunch and come back later to see what they came up with...
Lunch was great and the locals are charming -- I don't know what it is, but I am just in love with the English... First of all, Ricky Gervais is one of my all-time favorite people (Extras and the Office are the absolute best)... Coldplay, the Beatles, Hugh Grant, James Blunt, Coupling vs. Friends (Coupling is smarter and usually funnier)... come on... Maybe it's the accent or maybe it is their dry sense of humor, but we love them and their country. Now, you can't really buy anything here or stay for too long b/c the British pound is beating the crap out of the US dollar and everything is pretty pricey... But, I don't care... I still love it...
When we returned to the hotel they had upgraded us to a suite... lovely... So, we went upstairs and crashed... I know --they tell you not to do this, but we could not keep our eyes open -- I don't care how much coffee (or tea) we drank. We fell asleep at about 3:00 pm, woke up for dinner (room service) and went right back to sleep... The girls are awesome travelers and entertained themselves the whole time while mommy and daddy slipped into a minor coma ;-) We did wake up the next day well rested and ready to head down to Southamption where the ship was set to sail. We took the train from London to Southamption -- very fun... and then we hired a driver at the train station to take us to the ship. Our driver's name was Phil and we loved him. We decided to take his number and call him when we returned to take us back to London.

-- Fast forward to the end of the trip and we dock back in Southampton after the cruise is over. We meet Phil at the dock and have a great drive back to London. He was a wealth of information and very entertaining.
We have a lot of time before our flight at 3pm, so we decide to stop at Harrod's before heading to the airport. Phil tells us about a "bomb scare" at Heathrow this morning and the flights will most likely be delayed. We don't think much of it... as you always have delays these days for one reason or another. So, we had lunch and shopped leisurely at Harrod's.
Well, we get to Heathrow and it is absolute chaos. Police with machine guns are very present and we go to check-in. This was the day that they caught a group of people who were planning to bring liquid explosives on a plane and blow it up over the Atlantic (or so we find out later -- noone is telling us much of anything -- maybe to avoid the hysteria that could follow). At the time, we were not aware of how serious this delay would be until we got to the check-in counter and the rep told us that we had to check EVERYTHING... our girls gameboys, my cell phone, books, magazines, crayons... literally everything. I take a deep breath and start packing everything up. The girls are surprisingly OK with all of this. My husband and I are remaining calm, but feel a little uneasy.
So, we are allowed 1 plastic bag with essentials and 1 magazine or 1 book (I tested this when I tried to bring 3 magazines on and they made me throw 2 of them away -- I guess I should have believed them). Now, this is more commonplace today when you fly, but this was the very first day they started this new procedure and people were upset... mostly the adults... the children were fine.
So, we take our place in the 1st of many security lines and see what is lying ahead. Police with machine guns in hand... endless lines for security... people very upset that they have to throw everything away they didn't pack... hours and hours of waiting. Still, the girls are cool about the whole thing...
We waited about 5 hours to board our plane... another 6 hours sitting on the plane when the pilot came on and said we may have to cancel the flight because the US is not allowing any planes to land. A hotel room might not be so bad right now...
30 minutes later we are given the go ahead and we take off... Hold your breath... and off we go... 10 hours later we land at LAX and have to go through another security line where each passengers luggage is hand searched -- Yes, hand searched... 3 hours later... we are heading home after a 24 hour travel day with little sleep... and, the girls are still OK... Mommy and Daddy are just glad to be home after the most uneasy day of travel they have ever experienced...
Will we go back again??? YES!!!

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