Our unforgetable adventure in Paris, Lakes, Peaks, London, and Italy w/friends & family
Jun 8th, 2007, 02:17 PM
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Our unforgetable adventure in Paris, Lakes, Peaks, London, and Italy w/friends & family
Just got back yesterday from our crazy, wonderful european adventure. I don't think I'll be able to write a proper trip report until a few days from now, but I did want to make a post so that I am forced to write a trip report(which I never did for our first trip to europe 5 years ago - gasp!)
So much thanks to everyone for all there help especially janisj, moolyn, ira, robs, djkbooks, btilke, maitaitom, and so, so many others - I shudder to think what I would've done without this wonderful forum.
Jetlag is still pretty bad since we had to travel all the way from London-Maui, so hopefully this post will make a least a small amount of sense...I don't even think that sentence made sense!
Anyway...just a few points on what will be coming up on my trip report:
having to almost pay $315 in overweight charges since my bag was overweight by 6 pounds(don't you love JFK workers!)
having at total full-blown panic attack in CDG whereupon I was totally seperated from my sister, being unable to find her, and being told that I wouldn't be able to page her
falling down almost two flights of stairs in our quest for Berhillion ice cream
three girls screaming(which was to happen during most of our driving experience in England) and then almost getting killed from exiting a roundabout the wrong way at Manchester Airport, along with getting the british version of the finger in the Lake District (kind of cool actually, though not at the moment)
finding surf shops in all the areas we went to, even in Ambleside!!
our eternal endeavor of finding the extremely elusive and reclusive Mr. Darcy
running into and taking pictures with the lovely Obi-Wan Kenobi in London(sort of)
covering both florence & rome in only two days - italian lovers turn away now
and the memo I never got on airport shuttle drivers dislike of anyone from Hawaii(more on that later)
Good lord - that post alone is probably longer than people's total trip report - but be warned... this in no way will be a quick trip report, but come on - isn't that the whole purpose of Fodors anyway?
So settle in, and grab your limoncello, wine, beer, orangina - heck, why not sip on each as we go through each region, although I will have to refrain. I mean seriously, those dang french words are hard enough when one is sober!
So much thanks to everyone for all there help especially janisj, moolyn, ira, robs, djkbooks, btilke, maitaitom, and so, so many others - I shudder to think what I would've done without this wonderful forum.
Jetlag is still pretty bad since we had to travel all the way from London-Maui, so hopefully this post will make a least a small amount of sense...I don't even think that sentence made sense!
Anyway...just a few points on what will be coming up on my trip report:
having to almost pay $315 in overweight charges since my bag was overweight by 6 pounds(don't you love JFK workers!)
having at total full-blown panic attack in CDG whereupon I was totally seperated from my sister, being unable to find her, and being told that I wouldn't be able to page her
falling down almost two flights of stairs in our quest for Berhillion ice cream
three girls screaming(which was to happen during most of our driving experience in England) and then almost getting killed from exiting a roundabout the wrong way at Manchester Airport, along with getting the british version of the finger in the Lake District (kind of cool actually, though not at the moment)
finding surf shops in all the areas we went to, even in Ambleside!!
our eternal endeavor of finding the extremely elusive and reclusive Mr. Darcy
running into and taking pictures with the lovely Obi-Wan Kenobi in London(sort of)
covering both florence & rome in only two days - italian lovers turn away now
and the memo I never got on airport shuttle drivers dislike of anyone from Hawaii(more on that later)
Good lord - that post alone is probably longer than people's total trip report - but be warned... this in no way will be a quick trip report, but come on - isn't that the whole purpose of Fodors anyway?
So settle in, and grab your limoncello, wine, beer, orangina - heck, why not sip on each as we go through each region, although I will have to refrain. I mean seriously, those dang french words are hard enough when one is sober!
Jun 8th, 2007, 06:00 PM
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Anna, I have a terrible time with jetlag coming home to California so I can only imagine what it would be like to Maui. (For some reason I have no problem going east, though.) However, this is a tantalizing tease and we must have more . . . please
Jun 8th, 2007, 06:31 PM
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Ok, so I lied I have gotten a bit more energy and I am shamelessly vain when it comes to other people replies, and love hearing more…must be another trait of being a middle child!
Thanks for your replies - nice to know so many want to hear more! LCBoniti - we seem to have an easier time flying east as well, but it’s still a really tough journey.
Before I get into the trip report, I’ll be adding a bit of background on our situation. As I said before, this will not be a short trip report, so you might want to skip the next couple of posts until I start talking about the actual trip. The trip included only 3 people, myself, my older sister(DS) and our friend (DF). We are all from Maui, and our ages range between 27 for myself to 31 for my DS. DS and myself have only been to Europe once, and that was in 2002.
Going to Europe has always been more of an adventure than a vacation, possibly because of the nature of our first trip. Our original trip was to be on September 12, 2001, but with the events of the previous day, we had to cancel that trip. I was brokenhearted about that, but my sister and myself decided to go in May 2002, without another one of our friends who was originally going with us.
We had to plan new accommodations, figure out attractions, transportation, etc. and we had never even been to the Mainland by ourselves, and here we where going all the way to Europe by ourselves! Our friends and family were extremely nervous for us, possibly because I was only 22 at the time, along with the events that happened on Sept. 11. To people in Hawaii, Europe couldn’t be farther away, and it almost seemed to be a totally different world to everything familiar to us here, thus the concern of others about our trip.
We had a wonderful and safe journey, but like so many others on this board, that trip only increased our desire to see Europe again. Many trips were planned, but none came to fruition, much to our disappointment. Then suddenly, we were invited to go on a trip with about 6 other people to New York to visit friends. That soon lead to us realizing that if we are traveling all the way to NY, this would be a perfect opportunity to go to Europe. Soon, planning began and we finalized dates between May 21-June 6th 2007.
Planning a trip has always been such a fun time for me, choosing which country to visit and what we want to see. DS and I desperately wanted to go back to Paris and London, but our friend really wanted to visit Scotland, Lake District, and Italy. We couldn’t go everywhere, especially since we would already be spending 5 days in NY. After much thought, we decided on Paris, London, Lake District and the Peak District….ahhh, but you’ve all noticed that we also went to Rome & Florence - that will have to wait for a later post
As excited as we were, let’s just say that for all of us, we couldn’t have picked a more terrible time to have a trip planned. We have a very, very small family business, and around August we lost a valuable worker, and then in January, another worker took a leave of absence for 2 months, leaving just our family to pick up the load. Stress and health problems seemed to become a constant companion since August, and DS and I had been burnt out for months before our trip. Our friend also had to work overtime for weeks before our trip, along with financial difficulties that came out of nowhere.
Along with work problems, everyone knows how much time needs to be spent on finding accommodations, transportation, etc months in advance, along with the fact that we were all on a budget, which only makes all those things harder. We started looking for accommodations around October for our trip in May, and we had a really difficult time finding places both safe, central, cute, and within our budget.
Magically, with much searching and the recommendations of many on fodors, we found all our accommodations, and could move on to other parts of our trip.
I have gotten a bit more energy and I am shamelessly vain when it comes to other people replies, and love hearing more…must be another trait of being a middle child!Thanks for your replies - nice to know so many want to hear more! LCBoniti - we seem to have an easier time flying east as well, but it’s still a really tough journey.
Before I get into the trip report, I’ll be adding a bit of background on our situation. As I said before, this will not be a short trip report, so you might want to skip the next couple of posts until I start talking about the actual trip. The trip included only 3 people, myself, my older sister(DS) and our friend (DF). We are all from Maui, and our ages range between 27 for myself to 31 for my DS. DS and myself have only been to Europe once, and that was in 2002.
Going to Europe has always been more of an adventure than a vacation, possibly because of the nature of our first trip. Our original trip was to be on September 12, 2001, but with the events of the previous day, we had to cancel that trip. I was brokenhearted about that, but my sister and myself decided to go in May 2002, without another one of our friends who was originally going with us.
We had to plan new accommodations, figure out attractions, transportation, etc. and we had never even been to the Mainland by ourselves, and here we where going all the way to Europe by ourselves! Our friends and family were extremely nervous for us, possibly because I was only 22 at the time, along with the events that happened on Sept. 11. To people in Hawaii, Europe couldn’t be farther away, and it almost seemed to be a totally different world to everything familiar to us here, thus the concern of others about our trip.
We had a wonderful and safe journey, but like so many others on this board, that trip only increased our desire to see Europe again. Many trips were planned, but none came to fruition, much to our disappointment. Then suddenly, we were invited to go on a trip with about 6 other people to New York to visit friends. That soon lead to us realizing that if we are traveling all the way to NY, this would be a perfect opportunity to go to Europe. Soon, planning began and we finalized dates between May 21-June 6th 2007.
Planning a trip has always been such a fun time for me, choosing which country to visit and what we want to see. DS and I desperately wanted to go back to Paris and London, but our friend really wanted to visit Scotland, Lake District, and Italy. We couldn’t go everywhere, especially since we would already be spending 5 days in NY. After much thought, we decided on Paris, London, Lake District and the Peak District….ahhh, but you’ve all noticed that we also went to Rome & Florence - that will have to wait for a later post
As excited as we were, let’s just say that for all of us, we couldn’t have picked a more terrible time to have a trip planned. We have a very, very small family business, and around August we lost a valuable worker, and then in January, another worker took a leave of absence for 2 months, leaving just our family to pick up the load. Stress and health problems seemed to become a constant companion since August, and DS and I had been burnt out for months before our trip. Our friend also had to work overtime for weeks before our trip, along with financial difficulties that came out of nowhere.
Along with work problems, everyone knows how much time needs to be spent on finding accommodations, transportation, etc months in advance, along with the fact that we were all on a budget, which only makes all those things harder. We started looking for accommodations around October for our trip in May, and we had a really difficult time finding places both safe, central, cute, and within our budget.
Magically, with much searching and the recommendations of many on fodors, we found all our accommodations, and could move on to other parts of our trip.
Jun 8th, 2007, 07:04 PM
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Everyone seems so interested since my first post, that I’m a bit worried that this trip report may be a bit of a disappointment! We did have some terrifying, I mean, exciting moments, but for the most part, we had some pretty normal experiences.
While planning our trip, it seemed that loads of posts were being written on fodors about how hard it was to travel with family and friends - not exactly the assurance I was looking for.
I read that some had a wonderful time with f&f, while others seemed to have rather died than want to travel with f&f again! I couldn’t quite understand why you would travel with friends and family, only to separate for a whole day and meet at dinner, but then again, I’ve never been obligated to travel with others.
It seemed like there were rules you needed to follow in order to travel with f&f and not kill each other along the way...although, that would mean we could have an extra seat in coach to stretch out on.
Good organization, open talks about money and places to visit, patience, and I think overlooking minor disputes that may occur on the trip due to fatigue or slight irritations.
Our group had very similar interests, which really helped in the planning process, so we didn’t really have any problems in that area. However, in terms of personality, we did have some differences between us. My DS is extremely organized(loves post-it notes to an extreme degree…think that her first child may actually be named after it), I‘m the worrier(and the fodors addict), and our friend really likes to be spontaneous - quite a difference when it comes to trip planning!
The one good thing was that we where all honest about our shortcomings and everyone talked about what we wanted out of the trip. Some were morning people, while others liked to sleep in. Sleep and food are really high priorities for me, or I start to resemble a wookie…an angry wookie.
We tried to talk about how we would divide costs at restaurants, attractions, transportation, etc. Everyone could add to a list, and then we could decide what we had time for.
Our friend couldn’t have been an easier person to travel with - she pretty much left all the planning up to us, and just added places that she really wanted to visit. She’s very bubbly and positive, which is always good when things start looking bad along the way.
Tiredness is starting to set in again, but I’ll try to post soon about the beginnings of our actual trip - you know, the part that you are all actually interested in
While planning our trip, it seemed that loads of posts were being written on fodors about how hard it was to travel with family and friends - not exactly the assurance I was looking for.
I read that some had a wonderful time with f&f, while others seemed to have rather died than want to travel with f&f again! I couldn’t quite understand why you would travel with friends and family, only to separate for a whole day and meet at dinner, but then again, I’ve never been obligated to travel with others.
It seemed like there were rules you needed to follow in order to travel with f&f and not kill each other along the way...although, that would mean we could have an extra seat in coach to stretch out on.
Good organization, open talks about money and places to visit, patience, and I think overlooking minor disputes that may occur on the trip due to fatigue or slight irritations.
Our group had very similar interests, which really helped in the planning process, so we didn’t really have any problems in that area. However, in terms of personality, we did have some differences between us. My DS is extremely organized(loves post-it notes to an extreme degree…think that her first child may actually be named after it), I‘m the worrier(and the fodors addict), and our friend really likes to be spontaneous - quite a difference when it comes to trip planning!
The one good thing was that we where all honest about our shortcomings and everyone talked about what we wanted out of the trip. Some were morning people, while others liked to sleep in. Sleep and food are really high priorities for me, or I start to resemble a wookie…an angry wookie.
We tried to talk about how we would divide costs at restaurants, attractions, transportation, etc. Everyone could add to a list, and then we could decide what we had time for.
Our friend couldn’t have been an easier person to travel with - she pretty much left all the planning up to us, and just added places that she really wanted to visit. She’s very bubbly and positive, which is always good when things start looking bad along the way.
Tiredness is starting to set in again, but I’ll try to post soon about the beginnings of our actual trip - you know, the part that you are all actually interested in
Jun 8th, 2007, 10:30 PM
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All Roads Lead to Rome
So, went to take a short nap at 5pm, and ended getting up at 7:30pm - oops. Still really tired - how long does it take others to get over jet lag?
As I mentioned earlier, we weren’t initially supposed to go to Italy. We only had a little over 2 weeks in Europe, and we knew we couldn’t fit it in with the other cities. However, we were getting hints all along to way to go there. Around December(started planning trip in October), it suddenly hit us that we were going to Europe and not going to Italy. DS and I now slightly regretted our decision, but what could we do?
Out of nowhere, it seemed like everything on TV focused on going to Italy. We watched Jamie Oliver’s trip down the entire county, caught “Italy Tip to Toe” on the Travel Channel by a lovely Italian man, Francesco, (can’t remember his last name), caught reruns on Food Network of Giada vacationing in Italy, Samantha Brown’s “Passport to Europe”, and “Under the Tuscan Sun”. I’m not joking when I say all, yes all, these shows came in rapid succession over about a one month period.
Slight depression of forgoing Italy soon set in, but suddenly, we got an opening. We traveled by mileage tickets, and I checked about every month what the status of our trip was. So when I made by routine call around the ending of February, I was surprised when our flight home had been completely changed. Instead of a direct flight from London-San Francisco(10 hours) then SFO to Maui (5 hours), we would have to change twice even before we got to SFO - great. However, the UA agent offered me a choice to stay one day longer, and we would have our original flight.
We thought about it and realized it would be wonderful to have another day in London. Then, I’m not sure if this is a stage of trip planning, but DS assures me that we both lost our minds by making the next decision. Something in the back of my mind kept on telling me that with this extra day, we could rearrange things to go to Italy. But there would be sacrifices - we would cut back staying in London from 6 nights to only 4 and Italy would get only 2 nights.
Yes, you could never cover Italy in 2 nights properly, but we looked at it differently. We now had the option of going to a country we hadn’t planned on going to, and it almost revived us with more energy for our trip. DS and I had also been to those two cities in Italy before and realized while we couldn’t see everything, it would be worth it just to go.
Now let me assure you, that yes, we must have lost our minds(mostly since work was driving us crazy) to make that decision. It was already the beginning of March, and our trip was in May. How could we find any decent hotel that would have any openings during the beginning of June? Also, would the apartments we were staying in allow us to change our plans? Not to mention that we still hadn’t finished all our planning for our trip. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in about 3 days time to find housing in both Florence and Rome(rechecking both places on both fodors and trip advisor), but we succeeded and I’ll explain more about Italy when it comes up in our trip.
Coming up: The 5 stages of Packing
So, went to take a short nap at 5pm, and ended getting up at 7:30pm - oops. Still really tired - how long does it take others to get over jet lag?
As I mentioned earlier, we weren’t initially supposed to go to Italy. We only had a little over 2 weeks in Europe, and we knew we couldn’t fit it in with the other cities. However, we were getting hints all along to way to go there. Around December(started planning trip in October), it suddenly hit us that we were going to Europe and not going to Italy. DS and I now slightly regretted our decision, but what could we do?
Out of nowhere, it seemed like everything on TV focused on going to Italy. We watched Jamie Oliver’s trip down the entire county, caught “Italy Tip to Toe” on the Travel Channel by a lovely Italian man, Francesco, (can’t remember his last name), caught reruns on Food Network of Giada vacationing in Italy, Samantha Brown’s “Passport to Europe”, and “Under the Tuscan Sun”. I’m not joking when I say all, yes all, these shows came in rapid succession over about a one month period.
Slight depression of forgoing Italy soon set in, but suddenly, we got an opening. We traveled by mileage tickets, and I checked about every month what the status of our trip was. So when I made by routine call around the ending of February, I was surprised when our flight home had been completely changed. Instead of a direct flight from London-San Francisco(10 hours) then SFO to Maui (5 hours), we would have to change twice even before we got to SFO - great. However, the UA agent offered me a choice to stay one day longer, and we would have our original flight.
We thought about it and realized it would be wonderful to have another day in London. Then, I’m not sure if this is a stage of trip planning, but DS assures me that we both lost our minds by making the next decision. Something in the back of my mind kept on telling me that with this extra day, we could rearrange things to go to Italy. But there would be sacrifices - we would cut back staying in London from 6 nights to only 4 and Italy would get only 2 nights.
Yes, you could never cover Italy in 2 nights properly, but we looked at it differently. We now had the option of going to a country we hadn’t planned on going to, and it almost revived us with more energy for our trip. DS and I had also been to those two cities in Italy before and realized while we couldn’t see everything, it would be worth it just to go.
Now let me assure you, that yes, we must have lost our minds(mostly since work was driving us crazy) to make that decision. It was already the beginning of March, and our trip was in May. How could we find any decent hotel that would have any openings during the beginning of June? Also, would the apartments we were staying in allow us to change our plans? Not to mention that we still hadn’t finished all our planning for our trip. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in about 3 days time to find housing in both Florence and Rome(rechecking both places on both fodors and trip advisor), but we succeeded and I’ll explain more about Italy when it comes up in our trip.
Coming up: The 5 stages of Packing
Jun 8th, 2007, 11:28 PM
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The 5 stages of Packing
Hope I haven’t completely lost everyone along the way, but I promise, this is the last post before getting on with the real trip report. There’s always so many post’s about packing that I thought I would write about our experience.
We got our suitcases months in advance and I got a Samsonite 26’ while DS also got the same, mines in deep eggplant color, and her’s in red. We thought we wouldn’t get black since it would be easier to spot ours, and we hoped with lighter colors, our luggage wouldn’t get forgotten by luggage handlers.
DS did a test run with all her luggage about 1 week before trip, and got into panic attack when she realized it would be much to heavy. I lifted bag and agreed…she needed to find another bag(funny, how we were in complete denial about actually packing less). Went to Ross in hopes of something that would be lighter, and she found a Liz Claiborne bag that only weighed about 7 pounds, while her original bag weighed about 15 pounds.
By Saturday, we were packing for our trip which left on Tuesday, when I finally entered the 5 stages of Packing:
1. Denial: “Oh, I have loads of time to pack, nothing to worry about.”
2. Anger: “ OMG! How many more days do I have?! How does the airlines expect me to take on only 50 pounds of luggage? Do they want me to go around naked on my trip?
3. Bargaining: “Ok, look…I need to forgo some items so I don’t go completely crazy. Everything will be fine.”
4. Depression: “Whole trip will be complete failure. Airline will lose bags. Falling into pit of despair.”
4. Acceptance: “Everything’s Fine! Last sedative worked great and will just throw my entire body on nearest airport worker who tells me my bag got lost.
All of us were quite stressed since we knew our bags might be overweight, but hoped for the best. All of us were only checking in one bag, even though we were allowed two by UA. DS and I packed lightweight collapsible duffle bags in our suitcase so that we could have an extra bag to check-in when we left London which worked out great.
We had problems with packing since the weather was going crazy at the time. New York was freezing, to us anyway, since it was around 48-49 degrees, but we had found out that Paris temps were around 80 degrees!! Since I get really cold easily, I had to pack for both really cold and really hot weather since it seemed like Paris and Italy would be even hotter when we got there.
Next post will be about start of our trip, and the beginning of our trials with luggage.
Hope I haven’t completely lost everyone along the way, but I promise, this is the last post before getting on with the real trip report. There’s always so many post’s about packing that I thought I would write about our experience.
We got our suitcases months in advance and I got a Samsonite 26’ while DS also got the same, mines in deep eggplant color, and her’s in red. We thought we wouldn’t get black since it would be easier to spot ours, and we hoped with lighter colors, our luggage wouldn’t get forgotten by luggage handlers.
DS did a test run with all her luggage about 1 week before trip, and got into panic attack when she realized it would be much to heavy. I lifted bag and agreed…she needed to find another bag(funny, how we were in complete denial about actually packing less). Went to Ross in hopes of something that would be lighter, and she found a Liz Claiborne bag that only weighed about 7 pounds, while her original bag weighed about 15 pounds.
By Saturday, we were packing for our trip which left on Tuesday, when I finally entered the 5 stages of Packing:
1. Denial: “Oh, I have loads of time to pack, nothing to worry about.”
2. Anger: “ OMG! How many more days do I have?! How does the airlines expect me to take on only 50 pounds of luggage? Do they want me to go around naked on my trip?
3. Bargaining: “Ok, look…I need to forgo some items so I don’t go completely crazy. Everything will be fine.”
4. Depression: “Whole trip will be complete failure. Airline will lose bags. Falling into pit of despair.”
4. Acceptance: “Everything’s Fine! Last sedative worked great and will just throw my entire body on nearest airport worker who tells me my bag got lost.
All of us were quite stressed since we knew our bags might be overweight, but hoped for the best. All of us were only checking in one bag, even though we were allowed two by UA. DS and I packed lightweight collapsible duffle bags in our suitcase so that we could have an extra bag to check-in when we left London which worked out great.
We had problems with packing since the weather was going crazy at the time. New York was freezing, to us anyway, since it was around 48-49 degrees, but we had found out that Paris temps were around 80 degrees!! Since I get really cold easily, I had to pack for both really cold and really hot weather since it seemed like Paris and Italy would be even hotter when we got there.
Next post will be about start of our trip, and the beginning of our trials with luggage.
Jun 9th, 2007, 01:24 PM
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I'm completely illiterate when it comes to computers - how do you highlight something in bold?
Sunday, May 20th 2007 (LGA-IAD-LHR-CDG)
We had spent the last 5 days in NY, and I was really jetlagged for about 4 days. We arrived at LGA at around 2pm for our flight which left around 4:45 pm from LGA-IAD(D.C.) We used mileage points all the way from Maui-Europe, but because we had a 5 day stopover in NY, we had a really awful schedule. We had to fly from Maui-SFO-ORD-LGA just to get to NY, and then for our European leg, we needed to travel from LGA-IAD-LHR-CDG.
As mentioned before, we were worried our bags were overweight, but I really tried not to stress about it - funny how one can be so delusional! Along with that, I had to try and convince our ticket agent to interline our bags all the way through to CDG, since our UA tickets only took us to LHR, and we used Air France to get from LHR-CDG. Most everyone on the board said it was impossible, and it would be left up to the agent.
I was so concerned about interlining our bags, that I had completely forgotten about the weight of our bags. He wasn’t rude, but he was very businesslike, and I knew that if our bags were overweight, there would be no way he would ignore it. I next encountered the first of three mini panic attacks, better yet, freak outs.
He called us over and told us there was a problem with our tickets, and they could find no reservations for us. Ok, breathe….breathe - there must be some misunderstanding right? As it turned out there was - he got mixed up and thought our tickets with UA took us all the way to CDG, but after some explanation he understood.
Good, nothing to worry about! He asked us to bring our bags around, and here we come upon panic attack #2, which was probably the worst. Even before weighing our bags, he could tell just from lifting them that DS and my bag were overweight, and brought them over to the dreaded scale, who was to be our dreaded archenemy for the rest of the trip - I swear it could smell fear.
Turns out my bag was 6 pounds overweight, and DS’s was 4 pounds. Ok - that pretty bag, but not terrible, I thought. How much could that possibly cost? That’s when the lovely man from LGA told us, quite matter of factly, “Oh, get ready with your credit card since it will be about $500”. $500!! Does he not realize we are traveling on a budget! While the rants were continuing in my mind, the mantra began again. Breathe in, Breathe out. It won’t be that bad right? He cheerily confirmed that he had been wrong, and it would only be $315 - oh, and which credit card would we be paying with?
Panic set in as DS seemed in some sort of trance and looked quite alarmed as well, and I could already see her reaching for her card. Brain was kept in some sort of slow motion as I knew there had to be another way out of this.
Wait! We packed extra duffle bags with us, and I asked the TA if we could move some things around. He was quite nice about it, and allowed us to do so. We randomly stuffed the duffle bag, just about throwing things in out of sheer terror, hoping that it would help. Turns out it was our travel books, street maps, and driving maps that weighted a ton, and our bags thankfully came under the 50 pounds.
My brain was still trying to function, what with still having a bit of jetlag, and trying not to pass out from the stress of just checking in! We hadn’t even gone anywhere yet! Almost forgot to ask about interlining our bags, and turned out the system allowed it, and we wouldn’t need to pick them up at LHR. We thanked him for his patience with us, and just about collapsed on the seats when we got to the gate.
Mind was already in a frenzy, along with the fact that I was a bit worried about catching our flight from LHR-CDG. What if UA flight leaves late? What is our bags get lost along the way? What if….oh just shut up already! Had to get stupid brain under control….will not stress out, will not stress out, everything fine.
Surprisingly everything was - all of our UA flight all the way from Maui were always on time, although we did notice that the farther east we traveled across the US, the less friendly the crew became. Flights were uneventful all the way to LHR, which was even crazier than we remembered. Took shuttle from Terminal 1 to 2, and line in security was orderly chaos. Tried not to laugh when American people next to us kept on grumbling about how long security took - apparently they hadn’t read the cheery signs which said “Welcome to Heathrow - busiest airport in the galaxy!” or something to that effect.
It was a long wait, but I have always admired that even if Heathrow if extremely busy, all the workers are patient, kind, and considerate with any questions, and with getting the lines to move along quickly. Can’t say enough about them.
Arrived around 10am, and flight to CDG left at 2 pm. Still had that loopy, out of body experience they call jet lag. Love how at Heathrow, and all British airports, your gate number is never given to you, and you need to sit in front of monitors, wait for your gate to be assigned, and rush off to terminal as if you are on Amazing Race. I understand the need for it, but seriously - I’m using all my mental functions to stand upright for longer than 5 minutes.
Stress returned when found out flight had been delayed for one hour - realized that car shuttle would be waiting for us, and Paris apartment owner needed to be called upon arrival , or no one would meet us. But everything will go ok, right?
Sunday, May 20th 2007 (LGA-IAD-LHR-CDG)
We had spent the last 5 days in NY, and I was really jetlagged for about 4 days. We arrived at LGA at around 2pm for our flight which left around 4:45 pm from LGA-IAD(D.C.) We used mileage points all the way from Maui-Europe, but because we had a 5 day stopover in NY, we had a really awful schedule. We had to fly from Maui-SFO-ORD-LGA just to get to NY, and then for our European leg, we needed to travel from LGA-IAD-LHR-CDG.
As mentioned before, we were worried our bags were overweight, but I really tried not to stress about it - funny how one can be so delusional! Along with that, I had to try and convince our ticket agent to interline our bags all the way through to CDG, since our UA tickets only took us to LHR, and we used Air France to get from LHR-CDG. Most everyone on the board said it was impossible, and it would be left up to the agent.
I was so concerned about interlining our bags, that I had completely forgotten about the weight of our bags. He wasn’t rude, but he was very businesslike, and I knew that if our bags were overweight, there would be no way he would ignore it. I next encountered the first of three mini panic attacks, better yet, freak outs.
He called us over and told us there was a problem with our tickets, and they could find no reservations for us. Ok, breathe….breathe - there must be some misunderstanding right? As it turned out there was - he got mixed up and thought our tickets with UA took us all the way to CDG, but after some explanation he understood.
Good, nothing to worry about! He asked us to bring our bags around, and here we come upon panic attack #2, which was probably the worst. Even before weighing our bags, he could tell just from lifting them that DS and my bag were overweight, and brought them over to the dreaded scale, who was to be our dreaded archenemy for the rest of the trip - I swear it could smell fear.
Turns out my bag was 6 pounds overweight, and DS’s was 4 pounds. Ok - that pretty bag, but not terrible, I thought. How much could that possibly cost? That’s when the lovely man from LGA told us, quite matter of factly, “Oh, get ready with your credit card since it will be about $500”. $500!! Does he not realize we are traveling on a budget! While the rants were continuing in my mind, the mantra began again. Breathe in, Breathe out. It won’t be that bad right? He cheerily confirmed that he had been wrong, and it would only be $315 - oh, and which credit card would we be paying with?
Panic set in as DS seemed in some sort of trance and looked quite alarmed as well, and I could already see her reaching for her card. Brain was kept in some sort of slow motion as I knew there had to be another way out of this.
Wait! We packed extra duffle bags with us, and I asked the TA if we could move some things around. He was quite nice about it, and allowed us to do so. We randomly stuffed the duffle bag, just about throwing things in out of sheer terror, hoping that it would help. Turns out it was our travel books, street maps, and driving maps that weighted a ton, and our bags thankfully came under the 50 pounds.
My brain was still trying to function, what with still having a bit of jetlag, and trying not to pass out from the stress of just checking in! We hadn’t even gone anywhere yet! Almost forgot to ask about interlining our bags, and turned out the system allowed it, and we wouldn’t need to pick them up at LHR. We thanked him for his patience with us, and just about collapsed on the seats when we got to the gate.
Mind was already in a frenzy, along with the fact that I was a bit worried about catching our flight from LHR-CDG. What if UA flight leaves late? What is our bags get lost along the way? What if….oh just shut up already! Had to get stupid brain under control….will not stress out, will not stress out, everything fine.
Surprisingly everything was - all of our UA flight all the way from Maui were always on time, although we did notice that the farther east we traveled across the US, the less friendly the crew became. Flights were uneventful all the way to LHR, which was even crazier than we remembered. Took shuttle from Terminal 1 to 2, and line in security was orderly chaos. Tried not to laugh when American people next to us kept on grumbling about how long security took - apparently they hadn’t read the cheery signs which said “Welcome to Heathrow - busiest airport in the galaxy!” or something to that effect.
It was a long wait, but I have always admired that even if Heathrow if extremely busy, all the workers are patient, kind, and considerate with any questions, and with getting the lines to move along quickly. Can’t say enough about them.
Arrived around 10am, and flight to CDG left at 2 pm. Still had that loopy, out of body experience they call jet lag. Love how at Heathrow, and all British airports, your gate number is never given to you, and you need to sit in front of monitors, wait for your gate to be assigned, and rush off to terminal as if you are on Amazing Race. I understand the need for it, but seriously - I’m using all my mental functions to stand upright for longer than 5 minutes.
Stress returned when found out flight had been delayed for one hour - realized that car shuttle would be waiting for us, and Paris apartment owner needed to be called upon arrival , or no one would meet us. But everything will go ok, right?
Jun 9th, 2007, 01:53 PM
#15
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Liquids in Security
Forgot to add this in previous post. Many seemed concerned with liquids, myself included, on this forum.
We all wear contacts, so we have saline solution, along with bringing along those saline nose sprays. All the airports we went to(except Gatwick) didn't even question our Saline solutions, and we always traveled with them.
Forgot to add this in previous post. Many seemed concerned with liquids, myself included, on this forum.
We all wear contacts, so we have saline solution, along with bringing along those saline nose sprays. All the airports we went to(except Gatwick) didn't even question our Saline solutions, and we always traveled with them.
Jun 9th, 2007, 02:43 PM
#19
repeat after me "next time i'll pack light, next time I'll pack light!!"
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To bold or underline or whatever:
<B > to <b>bold</b>, and </B > to "unbold" (Leave out the spaces)
<u > to <u>underline</u>
<B > <u > to <b><u> bold underline</u></b>
<B > <u ><red > to <b><u><font color="red"> bold underline in red</font></u></b>
