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Published: January 25th 2006
Lights of Ireland from 39,000 feet
These are the first lights I saw after we left North America behind ... lights on the western shore of Ireland.Thursday January 19th, 2006
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_Ej.html
Link of flight map from BWI to Prague.
Oh my, what a busy day.
Bill - Paul and Melanie arrived at our house about four-thirty in the afternoon to take us to BWI airport. Our flight was scheduled to lift off at eight-forty five in the evening. We were both exhausted from the frenzied activities of the last two days, much of Nancy’s time had been spent revising our wills that our lawyer had totally messed up., With help (from another lawyer) we were able to file a better copy with the Register of Wills at our county courthouse. We are under no illusions that our latest will is prefect, but we are confident that it is not the total disaster of the one we replaced. This plus having the oil changed in the car, filling the gas tank to the top, washing the car, putting the cloth cover on the car to protect it during the next 6 months, filing materials in our bank lockbox, cleaning house, washing clothes ( I washed the first load at 8 a.m. and the final load wasn’t in the dryer until Melanie and Paul
Graphic of the route we flew to London
With GPS the route taken and the location of the plane is always visible. arrived. Melanie went back to the house after leaving us at the airport to take them out, fold them, put them in a basket and leave them in a closet (well, I hope she did since I didn’t see it happen but she’s very reliable), etc., etc., etc., we were ready to be on our way. We had been so busy that neither of us had time to mentally or emotionally come to terms with that fact that we were leaving home and would not return until July 4th.
“When are you coming home?” People asked.
“Oh, we’re flying home on July 4th,” I would jokingly reply, “and I understand the entire country is planning on having fireworks to welcome us back.”
“Isn’t that nice,” or “Sure they are,” was the most often replies. Why is it that no one took me seriously?
Once at the airport we made our way to the British Air counter. As far as I could tell we were the first to show up for the night flight to London’s Heathrow International Airport.
“Where is everyone?” I asked one of the ticket agents.
“They haven’t shown up yet,” was
Nancy in Heathrow, waiting for the plant to Prague.
We had a strong tail wind and arrived early at Heathrow. Thus, we had a six hour layover rather than five hours. the reply.
Nancy - We did well on the flight. We had carried a snack to eat before we took off since we got to the airport at 5 p.m. and our plane was leaving 3 hours later and we knew supper would be at 9 or 10. My tummy was full of gas (anticipation jitters I think) so I let Bill eat two peanut butter sandwiches and I ate only an apple. That proved to be a good move. I drank a Ginger Ale to help the gas calm down. I didn’t think I would be able to eat on the plane. But by the time supper arrived, my tummy was hungry and calm. I enjoyed a good vegetarian Indian curry. Bill was ready to sleep but I was wound up and wired! I thought the flight was going to be a miserable one but due to British Airways seats (with great neck rests) and plenty of legroom I fell asleep after an hour and had at least 3 and maybe 4 hours of good rest.
Bill - I slept very well on the flight. It seems I have become old enough that I can now sleep well during a flight. For years and years I simply could not go to sleep on a plane. I must say an overnight flight to Europe goes much faster when I am asleep. Phooey on the movies, I like sleep much better than sleeply staring at a movie on the small screen on the back of the seat ahead of me.
Nancy - Heathrow was a horror for us last year. We sat in misery in some half comfortable seats and tried to snooze. This year we either found the right lounge or they had a new lounge area. It had a choice of 4 kinds of seating ranging from bench like with no back to sofa comfortable chairs. I chose to use one row of seats that had no armrests as a bed and got somewhere between one and two hours of good sleep there. Then I bought a very expensive and delicious smoothie. Bananas, Strawberries, oatmeal, yogurt and milk. We shared it to scare away the hunger and after ‘only’ 6 hours in London we got on the plane to Prague. We had arrived almost a half-hour early because of a wonderful tail wind and we left an hour late because of the late arrival of our Prague plane. We had gathered all our suitcases and were starting to leave the baggage area when I said, How in the world do we have so many suitcases when we left our winter clothing here? Then I answered myself with, Oh yes, we are dragging all those library book repair materials with us. Then I realized the one large package of hinge papers hadn’t come off the baggage claim. So Bill headed off to deal with that problem and I headed out to let Katharina know we had arrived. I didn’t want her to see all the rest of the plane passengers come out and us not appear. She was there waiting with a happy smile and made me feel welcome in a wonderful way. Soon Bill came out with a claim ticket that said BA would search, find and deliver our papers to us. They made good on that claim in less than 12 hours. So, we were greatly relieved. Our library director Linas met us when we got back on campus and we got another lovely smiling welcome (and the key so we can go to work in the library Monday. They told us NOT to work on Saturday and Sunday.
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Melanie
non-member comment
Must have been Barbara's "Goodnight Prayer!"
Maybe you are getting older Bill (I guess we all are), but maybe you slept so well because of Barbara's wonderful goodnight prayer. The Meditation group lifted you up for a peaceful and sleep-enhanced flight. Paul delivered your phone report to me, and I delivered it to the church during sharing. Everyone was delighted to hear you made it safe and sound. We are now praying for warmth for you and Russia and other folks your way. And oh yes - your laundry is dry and folded.