20110914 Vienna to London Heathrow to Baltimore, MD, USA

Woke up at 0700, dressed for the day (warm here, cool in London, warm and rainy in Baltimore) and joined the horde in the dining room. Way too many people for the space and staff provided. Total bedlam. We finally found a table way out near the bar. One of us would hold the table while the other would go get food. That worked for a while.

Then an oriental person spilled a whole glass of juice down my right leg. I finished eating in a snit, then we went to the room. I changed and re-packed, then we waited for the luggage pickup that never came. We finally hauled our own luggage to the entry area and found Kalin. He said he’d just (finally) found a porter and sent him to our room. There were four tour buses outside and their passengers inside sorting things out. Just miserable. Remember the Hotel Ananas. 

Kalin said our car had been sent for; we waited until it arrived. TomT and Sandra passed by, so we said our goodbyes to them and took the car to the airport, seeing lots of the same sights we'd seen in past days.

We finished checking in just as a bunch of kids pulled up to the BA counter. We went to a lounge and had a beer while lounging. Then we passed passport control, and went to the gate. We waited until boarding started, then cleared security at the gate and boarded. Currently, we're in seats 14C/D on a BA A320. The group of young teenagers took up the whole rear of the plane and had a lot of fun.

Later:

We left Vienna at 1150 local and arrived at Heathrow at 1300 local – two hours. Good flight. Then we disembarked into a bus for transit to Terminal 3. We walked for hours to a place that advertised terminal transfers. There, we caught another bus for Terminal 5 and walked for hours to the security people.

After that, we went to a snack place for lunch (fish & chips and a pint for me). Now (1505), we're waiting in the south lounge area for a few minutes till they assign our flight a gate.

Photos  

Later:

Over the Atlantic, half-way between Ireland and Newfoundland. We have 2300 miles to Baltimore, to take a little under five hours. It's 2000 in London and 1500 in Baltimore. We took off a little late at about 1700.

I've finished the customs form computation, which isn't easy when you've purchased things using pounds, forints, lei, kuna, and euros. Also have to remember what stuff you've already mailed home, which is a bunch.

In a fit of silliness, I watched the movie “Horton Hears A Who” from the on-board film library. I think I'll try to nap for a bit.

Later still:

I napped, then woke, and read a book. We plowed along over clouds the whole way, finally landing at BWI around 2015. We got through passport control ok, then waited for our baggage to come out – which took forever. Finally they came along and we caught the shuttle to the Four Points Sheraton.

We checked in and went to the restaurant for a bite before bed. Back to the room and to bed, feeling as though we'd been whipped.

Since our daughter has been traveling and is tired herself, we mutually decided to skip seeing each other tonight. We'll see her again in six weeks anyway.

20110915  BWI to Panama City Beach and home

We tried hard, but couldn't sleep past 0500. We got up and flopped around. Checked the temps so we'd know how to dress.

It's 68* here and not going up, but it's 73* in PCB and going up to 90*. Don't know whether to wear shorts or light slacks. Finally wound up wearing light slacks since the radar showed a front with rain moving into the area.

The shuttle to the airport went well and we had a fantastic waitress in the Diner just inside the security checkpoint (where D got caught for a pat-down this time). Great food, and 1955-era jukeboxes – neat place; I hadn't thought about Wooly Bully in a long time.

The flight got off late. They dragged an aircraft into position, but then they had to fuel it which they prefer to do with no passengers on board. Then we taxied forever and finally got going. It was a nice flight but full. Arrived still late, but there was Steve from Sunshine Shuttle to meet us. He remembered taking us to the airport three weeks ago.

So we had a nice ride to the house conversing with Steve. Found the truck with the left front tire flat, but the house was cool and normal.

We're going out to get groceries. 

The trip is over. Glad you came along.