Editor’s Note – Today, we begin a week-long series on Coach Jeff’s Blog about our family’s recent trip to London and Paris. On Day 1 of 4, we’ll focus on the preparation for the trip and the flights across The Big Pond.
At some point during Holly’s mid-winter break trip back to Knoxville, the four of us began seriously discussing the notion that we might be able to manage to make a trip to Europe. The idea was that we could help Holly move some of her things home and do some sightseeing with her as our experienced tour guide.
Once we reached the go/no go decision of “Go”, we started looking for available flights and found the best deal was actually Air Canada – from Nashville to Toronto to London Heathrow (from BNA to YYZ to LHR). Our plan was to fly over, meet Holly in London, spend a few days there, take the train to Paris, spend a few days there, and then make our way home.
Holly decided to spend an additional week sightseeing after our trip but we agreed we could still bring most of her extra clothing home in an empty suitcase. She’d ship the other stuff and then join us back in the U.S. in late May.
We booked the flights and began making other arrangements.
- Hotels – Lisa has a great knack of getting great deals and she did again.
- Currency Exchange – We found it was best not to do that. It’s just cheaper to use your ATM card and pay the fees.
- Notifications – Let cell phone carrier know we’d be out of the country. Same for bank and credit cards.
- House – Made arrangements for my folks to watch the house, get the mail, check on Roger the cat
Soon, we were ready to pack and go.
The flight out of Nashville (BNA) was scheduled for the same day as Paul’s last final exams at MTSU. So after his final final, we headed for the airport. Our first flight – the leg from Nashville to Toronto (YYZ) was delayed - so that meant we faced a quicker than expected turnaround once we got to Canada.
I think if I had to do it over again, I might re-think the Air Canada route. With just two flights in and out of Nashville each day, there just isn’t much margin for error.
Anyway, we hustled through the terminal, criss crossing in and out of throngs of waiting passengers. Just before midnight, we made it to our assigned gate – by the Tim Horton’s stand - and began our six hour, overnight flight to London Heathrow (LHR).
We slept. We ate. We tracked our route on the video screen as we flew across the ocean. Six hours is a long time.
At some point in the wee hours, the flight attendants asked that we lower our window screens as the sunrise would soon be coming. It’s sort of like we raced directly into it!
Before too long, we were making our final approach to London and the captain announced that the folks on the ground at LHR asked him to circle a couple times to buy some time. Finally, he got the A-OK for our final approach. As we descended through the stratosphere, I could hear the rushing wind and see the clouds flying by outside my window.
Then, we broke through the cloud bank and, as we did, I noted that we were flying right over the River Thames. Below us, I saw the London Eye and Big Ben among other noteworthy attractions.
I felt like someone should have come over the PA to pipe in “Rule Brittannia” or “God Save the Queen.” But, then again, we were flying on a Canadian carrier.
Within a moment, we were on the ground at Heathrow and we celebrated as we completed the first leg of our journey. We passed through customs, collected our bags, got a little cash and then hopped a cab to go meet Holly Gary so we could begin our adventure!
JG
Tomorrow – London Calling
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