Returning Home...

Day 28– September 29, 2006 – Back in the USA…

At some point at the Gatwick Hilton, or at dinner I realized our flight home in the morning was at 9am and not at 9:30am. Not a huge issue, but since our room rate included breakfast, and we felt we would want a decent breakfast, it meant we had to get a 5:15am wake up call!

Even though the wake-up call was early I got up and was ready before 6am. I didn’t have the greatest night’s sleep, not because the room or bed were uncomfortable, quite the contrary. The Gatwick Hilton was tops. I just think I was anxious and didn’t want to oversleep and miss our flight. I did get to sleep around 11pm and slept until about 3am and after that sleep came in short spurts.

So, the breakfast at the hotel was great! It was a buffet and had everything imaginable. We loaded up with eggs, sausage, bread, pastry, fruit, cheese, and my very first taste of Greek yogurt…Yummo! I may have to go to Greece now!

We finished breakfast just after 6:30am and headed over to the North terminal. The Hilton is at the South Terminal. That took about 15 minutes, so we were looking good when we got to the check-in desk.

The line to check-in was not too long, maybe 8 people in front of us. We did have to get rid of a package of tums (CL) and some Tylenol and airborne that I forgot were in my carry-on bag. Oh, and only one carry-on bag was allowed.

Once we got our boarding passes we went straight to the line to go through security. It looked worse then it really was. There was one line that went back almost to the front doors of the terminal! But once in the line it was moving and further down it broke into 4 lines. So, maybe it took us 20-25 minutes to get through the security check. And yes, I got pulled to the side and frisked…first time that ever happened and it wouldn’t be the last!

We then walked through the huge duty free area with tons of shops and headed directly for our gate. Being Gatwick (as we learned the night before), it felt like we walked through miles of terminal hallways before getting to our boarding gate.

But we arrived at the gate just before 8am and had to go through a second security check. I got frisked for the second time in less then an hour!

Once we got through the second security check at the gate all the passengers were “corralled” in a waiting area. We finally started boarding the plane shortly before 9am.

To my surprise the plane seemed pretty roomy by coach standards, or maybe it was because the seats on the plane going over on Czech Airline were so narrow! I was on the aisle and the person in front of me never once reclined his seat…bonus for me!

We ended up sitting at the gate for about half an hour, but took off around 9:45am. The flight was uneventful, but it truly felt like the longest flight ever! It was only 8 and a half hour, from London to Atlanta, and my flights from the west coast to Hong Kong and Australia felt shorter than this flight! I can’t figure out why!

I was also surprised at how much food was served on this Delta flight. We had lunch about 2 hours after take off, then 4 hours into the flight they served ice cream and then about 2 hours before landing they served another snack that was a piece of vegetable pizza that tasted pretty good!

We landed at about 1:45pm and had to go through immigration to our passports stamped. Then we went to get our luggage and ended up waiting at baggage claim for 45 minutes. Once we had our bags we went through customs without a hitch and re-checked our bags for the flight to Savannah.

By the time we got to the gate for our Savannah flight it was about 3:30pm. Just enough time for me to grab a Starbucks. And I have to say this…that Starbucks drink that I was so looking forward to tasted like crap! Maybe it was the non-fat milk and I’d been having whole milk in my cappuccinos during the trip, but that drink was very disappointing.

We boarded the Savannah flight without any trouble and it was a quick 30 minute flight. Once we landed in Savannah we got our bags at the luggage claim…YIPEE…No lost luggage for us on the entire trip! And we got the shuttle home.

I finally got to sleep around 11pm Eastern time but my body clock was thinking it was 5am, which meant I had been up almost 24 hours! But I will take the jet lag anytime…What an amazing, incredible vacation!

And now I am ready to plan the next adventure!