Our trip has started out great! We got the 2PM ferry (thanks, Mom!) and arrived at the airport over 4 hours before our flight. I was asking directions at our ticket counter, when the person there mentioned that our flight was running 2 hours late. I immediately pictured us getting stuck in London having missed our trains, but then she offered to put us on an earlier flight! On top of that, she upgraded us to Business Class. :-)
We whisked through security and nearly walked straight onto the plane. But not before we saw our old neighbours from Shawnigan Lake: Graham, Jasmine, and Tim Ross-Smith were also travelling to England and Germany. It was dreamy in Business Class: we had these little areas called "cabins" where the seat would stretch out into a 6-foot bed and you had your own TV, remote, and telephone. We were offered a selection of dinners and beverages, but I had champagne, goat cheese with vegetables, steak, potatoes, green beans, Pera Cotta, and Lindt chocolates.
We had a great selection of dozens of movies. I enjoyed "10,000 BC", "The Bucket List", and part of "Horton Hears a Who" while Megan watched "Flawless", Liss watched "Son of Rambow" and "Over Her Dead Body", and Kate watched "The Other Boleyn Girl".
After a very abbreviated sleep, we woke to cereal, fruit, and croissants. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the impressive Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Can you believe Terminal 5 took 20,000 workers 19 years and 10 billion dollars to build?
Our bags were among the first off and we zipped into London on the Heathrow Express. Finding ourselves hours ahead of schedule, we checked our bags into storage at Paddington Station and wandered around Hyde Park and vicinity (including Albert Hall and Kensington Palace) for a few hours. Lunch was soup and baguettes at a sandwich shop.
Back at Paddington, we hopped the train to Exeter, made a quick train change, and ended up in Torquay , right on schedule. There, we met Kate's Aunt Margot and Jeff's relatives Anne and Justin. We had a short visit with Margot, then Liss, Megan, and Jeff were off to Wood Cottage with Anne and Justin. When we arrived, we were served salad, quiche, and pizza, then retired after our 24 hours of travel.
Today (09Jul2008), the weather is very wet here at Wood Cottage, but we're hoping for some clearing tomorrow.
2 comments:
Your are amazingly fortunate. I can't imagine that could have gone any better for you. Glad you are there safe.
Awesome! MUCH nicer flight than Alaska Airlines LOL!!! Hope all of your trip goes equally as smoothly! Thanks for posting pictures.
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