The begining of our Journey... 8/18-8/19
Our flight left at 10:00PM on Friday, which must have been why I just HAD to leave work at 4:00 :) Having not flown on an international flight since I was about 18 months old I was understandably nervous about the flight. There was also the recent 'terrorist' scare that besides threatening the safety of air travel had changed the carry-on baggage allowances. I was beside myself with the thought that they may want to require me to 'check' the bag containing my wedding dress. An act that could have resulted in my dress being 'lost' and a chance I wasn't willing to take, even if it mean wearing the dress on the flight over.
But - as is usually the case, my worries were unfounded. We got on the plane with all our carry on luggage intact, and without them asking to search my garment bag. The thought of trying to stuff my dress back inside that bag while jostling with the other passengers was another ordeal I didn't want to go through.
The flight from San Francisco to New York went fine. I napped a little but for the most part amused myself with video games, reading, and making up dialog for the lame movie they were showing. (I was 1/2 paying attention to it but didn't have headphones on). Once in New York, our two hour layover went by rather quickly and we were on the last leg of our trip. Again I napped occasionally but didn't REALLY sleep while on the plane. I've been suffering from a problem with my sciatic nerve for the past year so all that SITTING made getting around afterwards a little painful, but overall it was an ok flight. I suppose the worse part of the trip from New York to London was the fact that they showed the same LAME movie as our first flight and this time I actually put the headphones on.
Once in London our pilot informed us that he had been told he needed to enter a holding pattern while waiting for a clear approach to the air port. Landing safely was a priority so I didn't mind the 1/2 hour we spent circling London too much. Once we landed though, the hour we spent waiting for them to have an available terminal was not appreciated by anyone. Other then being tired, cranky and sore though we were ok. All our lugage made it safely and I didn't have to wear my wedding dress on the plane.
Once at the car rental place though - things started going a little 'off'. Knowing how much car rental companies charge for 'insurance' I had carefully cleared one of my credit cards of the amount I needed to charge the rental so that it would be covered by insurance though my 'cardholder benefits'. Well it turns out that the car rental companies like to charge for a 'little' more then your rental agreement is for in case you don't bring the car back with a full tank or something like that. About 100 pounds more ... $200 American once you do the exchange. I didn't have that available on my card! GAH! After some frantic phone calls and a little negotiation I finally just rented the car for one day (so we could at least get to the house) and figured I would work out the money thing later.
Being the planner that I am, I had printed out instructions from mapquest.co.uk from the airport to the house. Unfortunately, as I was to discover, there were a few problems with that. 1 - We were dealing with a new way of driving. Not just having to be on the 'wrong' side of the road, but roundabouts, and a different way of 'signing' roads (if you could find a sign at all). 2 - mapquest was using street names that aren’t on ANY road sign... ANYWHERE. (We went back and checked after we knew which way we were going). Needless to say it wasn't long before we were well and truly LOST and situation my (then) fiancé doesn't handle well.
Two phone calls and a lot of cussing later, we finally made it to the house - 11:30 PM on Saturday... and our vacation was about to begin!!
But - as is usually the case, my worries were unfounded. We got on the plane with all our carry on luggage intact, and without them asking to search my garment bag. The thought of trying to stuff my dress back inside that bag while jostling with the other passengers was another ordeal I didn't want to go through.
The flight from San Francisco to New York went fine. I napped a little but for the most part amused myself with video games, reading, and making up dialog for the lame movie they were showing. (I was 1/2 paying attention to it but didn't have headphones on). Once in New York, our two hour layover went by rather quickly and we were on the last leg of our trip. Again I napped occasionally but didn't REALLY sleep while on the plane. I've been suffering from a problem with my sciatic nerve for the past year so all that SITTING made getting around afterwards a little painful, but overall it was an ok flight. I suppose the worse part of the trip from New York to London was the fact that they showed the same LAME movie as our first flight and this time I actually put the headphones on.
Once in London our pilot informed us that he had been told he needed to enter a holding pattern while waiting for a clear approach to the air port. Landing safely was a priority so I didn't mind the 1/2 hour we spent circling London too much. Once we landed though, the hour we spent waiting for them to have an available terminal was not appreciated by anyone. Other then being tired, cranky and sore though we were ok. All our lugage made it safely and I didn't have to wear my wedding dress on the plane.
Once at the car rental place though - things started going a little 'off'. Knowing how much car rental companies charge for 'insurance' I had carefully cleared one of my credit cards of the amount I needed to charge the rental so that it would be covered by insurance though my 'cardholder benefits'. Well it turns out that the car rental companies like to charge for a 'little' more then your rental agreement is for in case you don't bring the car back with a full tank or something like that. About 100 pounds more ... $200 American once you do the exchange. I didn't have that available on my card! GAH! After some frantic phone calls and a little negotiation I finally just rented the car for one day (so we could at least get to the house) and figured I would work out the money thing later.
Being the planner that I am, I had printed out instructions from mapquest.co.uk from the airport to the house. Unfortunately, as I was to discover, there were a few problems with that. 1 - We were dealing with a new way of driving. Not just having to be on the 'wrong' side of the road, but roundabouts, and a different way of 'signing' roads (if you could find a sign at all). 2 - mapquest was using street names that aren’t on ANY road sign... ANYWHERE. (We went back and checked after we knew which way we were going). Needless to say it wasn't long before we were well and truly LOST and situation my (then) fiancé doesn't handle well.
Two phone calls and a lot of cussing later, we finally made it to the house - 11:30 PM on Saturday... and our vacation was about to begin!!
posted by PartTimeMom at 1:18 PM
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